With the growth of the Internet, businesses and individuals worldwide have started investing in developing a website for their brand. For development, they either hire a web development agency or if, they are capable enough, do it themselves. But, what if you lack the technical knowledge to develop a website? The solution is using a CMS.
What is a CMS?
A Content Management System (CMS) is a software to develop a website with a pre-defined design or template. In this way, you can build and manage your website without coding from scratch and can channel all your focus on the content of your website. Some widely used examples of CMS are WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. All these traditional CMSes allow users to create, modify, manage, and publish quality content in a user-friendly interface. But, these CMSes lack the functionality of developing a mobile or television app with the same content as the web app. What’s the alternative? A Headless CMS.
What is a Headless CMS?
A Headless CMS only deals with the content. Once the content gets created and edited, it gets published via an Application Programming Interface (API). In this way, Headless CMS does not have any effect on the front-end, and content is ready to get delivered on any device. Therefore, a Headless CMS is also known as a Back-End Only CMS.
For a CMS, the “head” refers to where the content will end up, i.e., the output, and the “body” is where the content will get stored, i.e., the database. In the case of a Headless CMS, you don’t require a “head” because you get to decide or choose which heads your content gets sent to.
How does a Headless CMS differ from a Traditional CMS?
In the case of Traditional CMS, the process starts with content creation by the writers, editors, and graphic designers. This content gets stored in the database (body). Developers design a template, and the content gets delivered to the audience through web pages (head).
In the case of Headless CMS, once the content gets stored in the database, an API is used to deliver the content through a raw data format (most commonly in JSON) to any application. This process means that your content gets decoupled from the presentation layer (front-end), i.e., your app or website is no longer tied to the CMS any more.
Working of a Headless CMS
The working of a Headless CMS contains two major components:
- Giving writers, editors, graphic designers an interface to manage and update content
- Providing this content to the developers through APIs to build applications
Some Headless CMSes allow users to host the entire solution on their server and database. But, users will have to perform their scaling and operations.
The majority of Headless CMSes get offered as Software as a Service (SaaS), i.e., users will have to log into a web app, and all APIs will get hosted in a cloud-based back end.
Benefits of a Headless CMS
Cost-Efficient for Clients
Clients won’t get restricted to a website. It’s easy to use the same database for mobile apps as well, which saves a lot of time and money for the project. Also, Headless CMSes are already highly secure. Therefore, you don’t have to pay for extra security, as in the case of a Traditional CMS.
Blazing Fast Websites
The user experience should always be the number one priority. If the loading time takes ages, no visitor would be interested in your website. Headless CMSes allow the use of frameworks like Gatsby and Next.js, which help in creating super-fast websites for your business.
Omni-channel: Expand Your Business
In today’s digital landscape, you don’t want to fall behind your competition. A Headless CMS, being Headless, allows the facility for clients to venture into websites, apps, voice assistants, and even augmented reality & IoT, seamlessly.
High-Level of Security
Due to the design of a Headless CMS, a hacker can never access the content publishing platform from the database, which reduces the chances of a DDoS attack massively.
No Compromise in Website Performance
In a Headless CMS, the front-end gets separated from your back-end. Therefore, if you face any issues or errors in the back-end, it won’t result in any downtime to your website. In this way, the performance doesn’t get compromised, and your business isn’t affected at all.
No Collection of Unnecessary Clutter
In the case of a Traditional CMS, developers tend to end up with lots of unnecessary code. On the other hand, a Headless CMS allows you to choose the functionalities you require.
Seamless Integration & Innovation
As the content gets delivered through an API, you can seamlessly deliver the content to any medium your business requires.
Moreover, innovation can get done quickly. In the case of a Traditional CMS, you would have to re-implement the entire CMS, which can get time-consuming. A Headless CMS enables you to make innovative changes by tweaking the front-end.
Increased Flexibility for Development Team
As mentioned above, a Headless CMS doesn’t deal with the front-end. Therefore, developers have the flexibility to use any language for front-end development. You can even move one framework to another, and the CMS will not get affected at all.
In Conclusion, modern businesses demand a more flexible and customizable CMS that delivers your expectations and the best product for your audience. And Headless CMSes provide the desired level of security, scalability, and time-efficiency required from the client’s perspective.
If you plan to develop a website for your business but are not technically sound, look no further than 6DegreesIT . Our professional developers have the experience of using all types of CMSes, be it traditional or headless, and will create the most secure and reliable product for you.
Contact us today!
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