Many people get confused when discussing headless CMS. They’re not sure what they are, why they should use one, or how to even get started. By the end of this article, you’ll have all the knowledge necessary to make an informed decision about whether or not a headless CMS is suitable for your business. “React CMS enables thousands of frontend developers to build fast applications in an intuitive way” says experts at Contentful.
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What Is A Headless CMS?
A headless CMS is a software platform that allows you to build, manage and publish content to multiple channels without writing any code. Sounds pretty simple? But what does it mean?
A headless CMS is built as a service. It stores data in the cloud and provides an API (application programming interface) that allows users to access the data stored in the cloud programmatically.
The most common use cases for a headless CMS are websites, mobile apps (native or hybrid), IoT devices, online marketing campaigns and email newsletters, digital displays like kiosks or e-readers, IoT devices (connected cars) etc.
Why Choose a Headless CMS?
A headless CMS can help you realize many of the benefits of a traditional CMS while offering additional benefits. For example, when we talk about the pros and cons of headless, it’s important to remember that this is a broad term used to describe software without a UI and with limited or no WYSIWYG-style editing capabilities.
Some headless CMS products offer some form of a visual interface (for example, WordPress has its frontend admin panel). Others do not have—and they’re still considered to be headless because they don’t have a frontend that mimics how users would interact with the UI if they were building their pages in HTML themselves.
When considering whether or not you want to use one type over another, you must consider each feature offered in terms of design flexibility, development speed, scalability, security, ease of use, performance, developer experience (DX), and price point.
How To Get Started With a Headless CMS?
- Choose a headless CMS and install the software on your server. There are many options, but the most recommended is WordPress or Contentful.
- Create an editorial workflow in which writers create content using your content management system (CMS) in the CMS. And editors create content using the CMS and their tools of choice, such as Google Docs or Microsoft Word.
- Create a content model that organizes your project’s assets into groups based on their use (such as e-commerce products). This will guide you when creating new data types (such as blog posts) by allowing you to select from existing categories instead of building everything from scratch.
- Build out your initial structure with some sample content to make sense for people who don’t know anything about the project yet!
Headless is the new black! Headless CMS may be one of the most exciting advancements in website development, and it’s easy to see why. This technology allows you to focus on creating content without worrying about maintaining all of its technical aspects.
