Headless CMS explained in 5 minutes

A headless CMS offers complete content freedom by removing the presentation layer entirely. Instead, a headless CMS delivers content as data outputs, usually via JSON. The system is back-end only, meaning it has an editorial interface, but no end-user view. (Note, this relates to where the content is consumed on the front end; content creators using a headless CMS like Brightspot do have the ability to preview the layout and user experience before publishing to a live site.)

The absence of a presentation layer opens up to complete front-end freedom—there’s no specific delivery environment or language needed to distribute content. Finally, starting with a headless CMS system makes migration to another platform much easier.

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Headless CMS explainer

A decoupled CMS offers more flexibility than a traditional CMS—a coupled CMS, in other words—as to how your content is delivered, but there is a clear separation between the content and presentation layers. In other words, developers can make changes to the back end that will not directly impact the front end.

A quality implementation will allow developers to make changes to the back end content in parallel to the front-end distribution. The result makes it easier to update and maintain, and faster to launch. A decoupled CMS also enables easier deployment than the traditional style, and requires less reliance on the development team to launch new experiences.

While the back end and front end are separated in this system, the front end is usually locked in to a specific content delivery programming language (for example, React). This allows the back end and front end to connect and function as one entity.

A traditional CMS manages your entire content library and web application end to end, and usually dictates the technology used throughout—from the creation and storage of content, to the presentation of that content on your web properties.

While this type of CMS offers a full-stack solution from content management to output, it offers little technical flexibility. As the data and presentation layers are tightly bound, there’s often less freedom to distribute content elsewhere. If you’re considering a traditional CMS, it’s important to note that any future migrations to a new system would require a complete site rebuild.

Decoupled and headless architectures have paved the way for the hybrid model. With a hybrid CMS architecture, organizations and publishers have the ability to mix presentation or front-end choices. The hybrid approach offers an environment that allows users to deliver different experiences to a browser window or a device, where both decoupled and headless CMS architectures can be combined.

Headless CMS is a modern architecture that allows technical teams to be digitally nimble and adapt to the evolving demands of new technology, devices and content formats. An open-ended front end can also clear your business runway when new opportunities or goals arise that require a shift in your distribution strategy.

In a headless model, your team chooses how to format content and where content can be displayed. Developers enjoy more flexibility in the way they code content and can focus more on building experiences rather than managing output inefficiencies.

With a back end that edits and stores content and only an API to deliver, your content can appear on any number of channels such as:

• Wearable devices
• Ember
• OTT
• Mobile apps
• Web properties
• React
• eCommerce platforms

Flexibility

Ability to mix and match front-end content offerings, meaning the best user experience can be delivered across every device, channel and touchpoint.

Resiliency

Supports organizations in future-proofing their businesses by making it easy to continually evolve alongside technology, no matter what new device or platform emerges.

Agility

Separation of the presentation layer from the platform lets teams move faster, while separation of content and presentation helps authors and developers work independently, accelerating time to market.

By opening the possibilities for your content display, you allow your business flexibility and control that a traditional or decoupled CMS may not.

For example, an e-commerce company may need to manage multiple websites and display inventory across multiple platforms. Rather than coding that content on each individual site or platform, one back-end source stores the content and sends it via API to the intended platforms, packaged for the site or platform’s specifications.

One change at the source—your headless content management system—is then reflected across all sites and platforms, rather than having to visit each site or platform to update content or product information. If you’re building a new site or display output, your content can be modified to meet that new site or platform’s needs rather than built from the ground-up each time.

The answer to that depends on a variety of factors, but in many cases, yes, a headless CMS can help cut costs. If you’re starting from scratch, you may need to invest more up front to make sure you have both the back-end and front-end developers you need, depending on the size and number of sites, along with a technical manager. That said, the up-front cost for a new app is about the same, and a headless CMS can save on long-term maintenance costs because you don’t have to worry about changing the back end every time you add a channel. So, if you expect that you’ll continue to expand your support for different audiences, headless is more cost effective in the long term.

It’s a common concern: If my CMS isn’t rendering the content for final display, will I still be able to review how it looks before publishing? The short answer for Brightspot is yes. The not-as-short answer is that some additional development may be required, depending on your front-end system (e.g. React, Angular) and the channel in question.

Apart from happy developers? A headless CMS doesn’t intrinsically deliver editors to publishing Nirvana in and of itself (although we do think Brightspot CMS’ publisherinformed UI has got you covered on that front), the benefits accrue by removing front-end obstacles to getting content published and delivered wherever your audiences are through API-connected endpoints. With the content management framework separated from the content delivery side, editors and publishers can focus on what they do best: storytelling and audience engagement. Other benefits include protection from unhelpful outages and changes downstream on the front end, plus the ability to manage editorial content types, workflows, templates, and more all from within the CMS ecosystem without being reliant on development support or front-end changes.

Brightspot offers automatically generated APIs based on your data models. So with Brightspot's headless CMS solution, there's no need to worry about boilerplate and domain knowledge necessary for building an endpoint from scratch. We offer a relatively hands-off solution, which builds generally useful APIs with some simple configuration, but also an advanced solution where developers can customize their APIs to a significantly granular level, all via data modeling.

This includes a self-describing type system for headless CMS, which enables developers to easily discover what data types and fields are accessible from Brightspot’s Content Delivery API. Developers can then use whatever front-end programming languages and frameworks they want to create a front-end that talks to the headless APIs.

The end result? Write your code once and it can be consumed by infinite mediums.

While a headless CMS approach may still feel new for some teams, many of the most innovative companies globally rely on this open-ended approach to future-proof their business. A headless CMS balances the need for control with the possibility for exploration into the unknowns of our technical future.

At Brightspot, we prioritize front-end freedom of choice. We designed Brightspot CMS with all three CMS architectures in mind to cater to the needs of any content creator. The results: more flexibility, less strain on your development team, and more valuable content experiences for your brand.