A headless CMS is a content management system that stores and delivers content through an API without prescribing how that content is displayed. Unlike traditional CMS platforms (WordPress, Drupal) that bundle content management with a rendering layer, a headless CMS provides only the backend. Your frontend consumes content via REST or GraphQL endpoints and renders it however you choose.
How It Works
Content editors use the CMS's web interface to create and manage structured content. Instead of designing pages visually, they populate content models: a "Blog Post" model might have fields for title, body (rich text), author (reference), and featured image (asset). The CMS stores this structured data and exposes it through an API.
Your frontend application (built with Next.js, Astro, Nuxt, or any framework) fetches content at build time or runtime and renders it using your own components and design system. The same content API can feed a website, mobile app, digital signage, or email templates simultaneously.
Popular options include Contentful, Sanity, Strapi (self-hosted), Payload CMS, and Hygraph. Each offers different content modeling approaches, pricing structures, and developer experiences.
Why It Matters
Traditional CMS platforms lock you into their templating systems, hosting requirements, and plugin ecosystems. Migrating away means rewriting everything. A headless CMS decouples content from presentation, letting you upgrade your frontend framework without touching content, or replatform your CMS without rebuilding the UI.
For teams, this separation means content editors and developers work independently. Editors do not need developer help to publish, and developers do not need to work within CMS constraints to build features.
In Practice
A media company using Sanity CMS lets journalists write articles in a familiar editor with real-time collaboration. The same content populates their Next.js website, their React Native mobile app, and their Apple News feed, all from one content source. Schema changes in Sanity propagate to all platforms automatically.
Pro Tips
Design content models for reuse, not for specific pages. A "Hero Section" model is more flexible than a "Homepage Hero" because it can appear anywhere. Use preview modes to let editors see unpublished content in context. Implement webhook-triggered rebuilds so published content goes live within minutes.