According to a survey conducted by Forrester, 70% of North American businesses and organizations either use or plan to use a content management system. But they also expect their CMS to be efficient and flexible. Unfortunately, traditional CMSs rarely offer companies the flexibility to deliver content in different and newer formats. So, what is the answer? Web developers must go headless.
In this blo,g we will discover why web development companies are moving towards headless CMS to cater to client content needs.
What are Headless CMS Solutions?
A headless CMS separates the backend and the frontend. The term headless refers to the separation of the head or the front end from the backend. Hence, a headless CMS is primarily a backend content management system. It uses RESTFUL APIs to transmit information in a backend system to various frontend frameworks or platforms.
Here, the main focus of web developers lies in organizing and managing content. Further, they gain the flexibility to create compelling user interfaces using contemporary frontend frameworks like Angular, React and Vue.js.
The headless CMS facilitates frontend flexibility by:
- Taking an API-First approach
- Facilitating a decoupled architecture
- Offering support for modern web development frameworks
This flexibility increases its utility across different industries like ecommerce, healthcare, education, media, printing, etc.
Headless CMS vs Traditional CMS: A Short Note
Traditional CMS platforms include the highly popular WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. In these systems, both the back end and the front end function as a single unit. Content management occurs in the backend, while the frontend is the presentation layer. Effectively, any content posted on a WordPress website is stored and presented simultaneously.
While this would be enough with static or simple websites, it was not conducive to facilitating growth or flexibility. This proved to be concerning for websites that needed frequent updates or for websites that needed to share content across multiple mediums.
Separating content management from its presentation layer gives a headless CMS the required flexibility to share the stored content across multiple mediums and platforms. Let us compare the two on four major parameters.
Purpose
Traditional CMS emerged as pre-built design templates, helping marketers reduce development costs by managing websites independently. While this proved ideal for status pages, it led to duplication of work when posting content across different platforms.
Headless CMS scores over traditional CMS because it reduces work duplication in omnichannel publishing. It also eliminates the need for having multiple backends. Content teams can store all content in a central repository and share it across different channels.
Architecture
Traditional CMS have a monolithic architecture while headless CMSes have a decoupled architecture.
Ease of use
Traditional CMS platforms have a simpler learning curve, while a headless CMS requires a more profound technical knowledge.
Development flexibility
Predefined templates of the traditional CMS platforms offer limited customization abilities, while headless CMS platforms offer greater development flexibility by decoupling the backend and the frontend.
Benefits of Headless CMS
Knowledge of the fundamental differences between the traditional and headless CMS will make it easy to understand why headless CMS is said to be the future of web development. Given today’s business requirements and client tendencies, headless CMS is counted as one of the best practices of web development because of the following benefits:
More Flexibility to Create
The freedom to choose a front-end framework of their choice is one of the biggest advantages of leveraging the headless CMS. Separating the back and front end allows developers to select the right front-end framework and craft compelling user experiences. So, developers are free from the limitations presented by traditional CMS platforms and can create dynamic and adaptable websites, regardless of their choice of front-end frameworks.
Better Content Distribution
Delivering content via RESTFUL APIs increases speed and efficiency. Load times become fast, leading to a more seamless UX. Here, information is dynamically retrieved from the backend. As a result, content is quickly delivered to users, improving their satisfaction and enhancing website SEO. Further, the headless CMS is compatible with both server-side and client-side rendering. This increases the content delivery speed.
Omnichannel Distribution of Content
Now, users view content from many different platforms like websites, mobile apps, IoT devices, social media platforms, smartwatches, and voice assistants. Using a headless CMS makes it easy to distribute content across multiple platforms. It also guarantees consistent and uniform content presentation, irrespective of the platform used. This flexibility and ease of content distribution increases its utility in web development.
Scalable and Flexible
Content management requirements will increase with business growth. With their integrated backend and frontend functionalities, conventional CMS platforms offer very limited scalability. But, decoupling the content management from its presentation amplifies the offered scalability. Consequently, a headless CMS platform opens up new venues for scalability in web development without disrupting website performance or user experience.
Improved Data Security
The division of the backend and the frontend offers an additional security layer. This strengthens website cybersecurity and prevents hackers from accessing sensitive data. Further, it offers bespoke web development companies in USA the flexibility of adding additional security protocols to monitor and plug security vulnerabilities proactively.
Stay Ahead of Trends
Being headless allows CMS platforms to be compatible with emergent technologies like voice interfaces, AI, machine learning, etc. Building future-proof CMS solutions allows companies to stay ahead of trends and integrate new frontend frameworks without impacting the backend.
Conclusion
Headless CMS is more than just a trend. It is already redefining the future of web development by providing scalability, high-performance quality, and flexibility. As its adoption increases, it will soon become the preferred web development solution for most companies and businesses. Needless to say, the future of headless web development is only just starting to gain traction.
