Glossary

Headless CMS

A headless CMS is a content management system without a built-in frontend ("head"). Content is stored and edited in the CMS, but delivered via API (REST or GraphQL), while the presentation layer is fully controlled by the developer.

Headless vs Traditional CMS

Traditional (WordPress, Drupal) — the CMS renders HTML. Frontend and backend are tightly coupled
Headless — the CMS only manages content and exposes an API. The frontend can be anything: React, Vue, mobile, digital signage

Benefits

One content source → multiple channels (web, mobile, IoT)
Freedom to choose frontend technologies
Better performance — static frontend + CDN

Popular Headless CMS options

SaaS: Contentful, Sanity, Strapi (self-hosted), Directus (self-hosted), Prismic. Git-based: Netlify CMS, Tina CMS — content in a Git repository.