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Headless CMS: Benefits and Trade-offs

Simha Infobiz
March 22, 2024
5 min read

Traditional CMS (WordPress) is "Monolithic". The database, the admin panel, and the frontend template are all glued together. Headless CMS cuts the head (frontend) off.

How it Works

A Headless CMS (like Strapi, Sanity, or Contentful) is just a database with a nice admin API. It delivers content via JSON. You build your frontend with whatever you want—Next.js, a mobile app, or even a smart watch interface—and fetch the text/images via API.

The Benefits

  1. Omnichannel: Write content once, publish it everywhere (Website, iOS App, Android App, Kiosk).
  2. Developer Freedom: Frontend devs can use modern frameworks (React/Vue) instead of wrestling with PHP templates.
  3. Security: Your frontend is just static HTML or a Node server. There's no admin login page exposed to the public internet to be hacked.

The Trade-offs

  1. Complexity: You have to build the frontend yourself. There are no "Themes" to install.
  2. Previewing: In WordPress, you click "Preview" and see the page. In Headless, setting up live previews requires extra development work connecting the CMS webhook to your frontend.

Is it worth it?

If you are building a simple blog, WordPress is fine. If you are building a digital product where content needs to flow across multiple platforms and devices, Headless is the only scalable way forward.

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