What Is A Headless CMS? Best Headless CMS In 2023

The amount of content in the online world is growing at lightning speed, and the technology needed to manage it properly is also evolving to meet the demand for more efficient ways to manage it. Where once traditional CMS architectures were sufficient to handle most websites and their content, the heavier and more substantial websites of the 2020s seem to require something more. This demand for a more efficient CMS alternative led to the creation of a technology we now know as headless CMS.

But what is headless CMS? How does a CMS’s architecture differ from a traditional one? What are its uses and advantages and disadvantages? More importantly, should you be using one to manage your website?

In this context, I will answer these questions, and then I will also present the top 5 best headless CMS alternatives in 2023.

What is a headless CMS?

The main reason behind creating a headless content management system is that traditional CMS options present some difficulties in content reuse. In a typical CMS, all types of content management tools are part of a single package, meaning the presentation layer and the management layer are also connected. So if you reuse a specific type of content, it will prove difficult. Why? Because that content is not just content but also linked to your CMS code.

A headless content management system solves this problem by changing its basic architecture. It separates the content repository from the presentation layer where the content is shown to the user. So what makes these different levels of difference? Because your content repository back-end and your presentation layer are separated, you can now design and develop your content on the back-end and then deploy it to any number of front-ends you choose.

Needless to say, a large company or enterprise with multiple website outlets that need to push its content across all of them would greatly benefit from a headless CMS. A website operated by Headless Content Management System is known as “Headless Website”.

Headless CMS architecture and API

An API or application programming interface is a program that facilitates the interconnection of two computers or applications to exchange information and data.

A headless content management system uses APIs to push content from the back end to all the different front ends that the admin wants. This method can work without an API, but by facilitating data exchange on the part of the API, this process is improved and made much smoother.

So in other words, a headless CMS acts like a simple storage unit for your content. Then you use an API to present your content from the back end to the front end.

Here, the API is the defining technology that allows you to make efficient presentations across all platforms. What’s more impressive is that while a traditional CMS can only be used to manage data and content on websites, API technology allows your CMS to present its content as part of the application.

Pros and Cons of Headless CMS

Now that we have a better understanding of the inner workings of a headless content management system as well as its architecture and connectivity to APIs, let’s quickly go over its main pros and cons to familiarize ourselves with its applicability in real life. I will start with the pros!

Headless CMS Pros

Cloud-Based

The recent trend towards integration of cloud technologies has taken over the online world and revolutionized the way we store files. This is much more advanced than previous methods of storing data on legacy hardware. A headless CMS uses the cloud to manage your data and syncs with all the platforms you use.

Scalable

This is one of the obvious advantages of headless CMS technology. As your online operations expand and your number of front-ends increases, using traditional CMS options simply isn’t feasible. A headless CMS, however, will easily support multiple front-ends and is much more scalable in the long run.

Fast Deployment

One of the major advantages of headless CMS is that it includes and allows the use of many more coding languages. As such, you can create many shortcuts using your preferred method and get your front end faster during the deployment phase. The fact that content can be recycled across different presentation layers also helps with rapid deployment.

Security

Not only does cloud technology bring multi-layered security by itself, but keeping the back-end and front-end completely separate limits any potential breach to that specific level and prevents damage to your entire operation. Content synced and distributed by an API in a read-only format adds much more security than a traditional CMS.

Headless CMS Cons

Complex

With scalability and advanced integration also come many additional responsibilities and additional complexities that can make managing a headless CMS operation difficult and confusing enough for more experienced users. So remember that you will likely face a steep learning curve when using a headless CMS.

Infant Technology

Headless content management systems are a recent development in the CMS world and as such, there are still many things that can be changed or improved. As such, some aspects of it are either underdeveloped or not properly documented on the web. This can make it impractical or inaccessible for a beginner.

More primitive content tools

While a headless CMS creates the efficiency, speed, and synchronization needed to move content across your front end, it also blocks its content management tools.  As I said, this technology is still young, and it suffers from more primitive content creation and management tools than traditional CMS alternatives with decades of development effort behind them.

Resource Intensive

Integration of cloud, synchronization, and APIs as a key technology translates directly into a headless CMS as your CMS becomes more resource intensive. But it’s not unreasonable that you’re scaling your operation, so it’s only natural, yet, to keep this in mind when considering a headless CMS.

Do you need a headless CMS?

It basically comes down to your personal needs and qualities. Many small website content management operations are performed just fine using a traditional CMS such as WordPress or Drupal.

But if you plan to run more than three front-ends, you should consider using a headless Content Management System to improve efficiency and security. A headless CMS is also a must if your website is related to e-commerce as it will improve security and help you collect and use customer-specific information.

If you plan to push your content across different web platforms like websites, applications, and software, a headless CMS is also crucial because it will allow you to use a single CMS with APIs to efficiently push your data across all your outlets.

Best Headless CMS In 2023

Now if you’ve read all about headless CMS technology and think it’s time you go and get one for yourself, here I present what I think will be the best headless CMS options in 2023.

The list is balanced with free and open-source headless CMS options as well as paid programs.

WordPress VIP: Big Money, Great Features

WordPress, the undisputed king of traditional CMS, has also successfully climbed to the top of the headless CMS competition to become the leading alternative with its WordPress VIP service, which is essentially an advanced headless WordPress.

Now though WordPress itself is a free and open source WordPress VIP is not an open-source headless CMS. You have to break the bank to get this headless WordPress. The annual subscription fee for WP VIP stands at $25000.

But for this hefty price, you get the best analytics, e-commerce analytics and insights, Gutenberg content creation, and your central, private room. WP VIP costs a lot and has a steep learning curve, but if you want to run a large operation of headless website instances and apps, its fast speed, reliable customer support, responsive CMS features, and uptime rate make it more than worth it. Best headless CMS for the money.

Content: Free and varied

Contentful stands as the polar opposite of WordPress VIP as far as headless CMS alternatives go. It’s a free and open-source headless Content Management System that is the first step for new users into the world of headless CMS technology. If you are just starting out on your journey to starting a headless website, Contentful is a great place to start because it costs nothing. Contentful uses a suite of advanced storage and protocols to speed up your conversion and loading times right off the bat.

These repositories are available to users on GitHub, and they allow you to use various APIs, including SCIM, REST, content management, GraphQL, preview, and delivery. You may also use the following programming languages as part of your content experience: PHP, Ruby, C#, Python, and .NET.

Strapi: For Self-Hoster

If for some reason Contentful doesn’t satisfy you as an open-source headless CMS, Strappy is here to save the day. Strappy is an advanced headless CMS designed for developers. It uses JavaScript as part of its protocol & is freely available at GitHub. It’s free, but it also has three paid plans.

It also supports REST, Entity Service, Query, and GraphQL APIs Strappy has a wide coverage of programming languages that enable coders and developers of all faiths to easily access and use it. Following programming languages are supported in Strapi: Vue.js, Angular, React, Next.js, Eleventy & Svelte, SendGrid, Algolia, Redis, Sentry, and Mailgun.

Adobe Experience Cloud

Adobe is a large and reliable enough enterprise that its software paradigms are always among the best in the fields they represent. Headless CMS is no exception here. Adobe Experience Cloud, abbreviated as AEC, is an AI-based headless CMS powered by Adobe’s native cloud. It uses REST, Apache Sling 11, Java, and the Jackrabbit API.Much like Content, AEC is also compatible with Amazon’s AWS which enables a lot of Amazon compatibility for your website and content. AEC also includes an advanced and comprehensive library suite designed to maximize your skills in creating and managing powerful applications, add-ons, plug-ins, and content. AEC is best suited for websites using real-time B2C and B2B operations.

Unfortunately, AEC is not an open-source headless Content Management System, and as an enterprise program, it requires a subscription to one of their paid plans, although a free demo is available.

Hypergraph

Formerly known as GraphCMS, HyGraph is another free open-source headless Content Management System that specifically focuses on the integration of APIs to facilitate smooth content pushing and data exchange. A hypergraph is freely available for you to download along with its base code on GitHub. It is hosted locally as part of their GraphQL Cloud which allows full access to a wide host of APIs and content, query, mutation and asset APIs and related services such as SDK, Gatsby, Algolia, Vercell, Netlify, Fantastic, Google Cloud Platform, Amazon. Web Services (AWS) and Cloudinary. You can see that the number of supported APIs and integrated services is especially high with Hypergraph. This makes it great for websites with a lot of custom tasks, content types, and role permissions. On top of all this, it also has a schema builder.

As mentioned, it’s free, but as you scale up, you’ll likely need to subscribe to their Professional or Scale packages that cost $399 and $899 per month.