Headless CMS vs. Traditional CMS

Having a mobile-friendly website or an optimized landing page is no longer sufficient. The world is shifting towards embracing composability, where consumers are spoiled for choice when consuming content on multiple platforms simultaneously.

As we gear towards preparing content for the omnichannel world, we need to understand how CMS’s role in delivering digital experiences has fundamentally changed. Traditional CMSs can no longer keep up with digital experience demands; headless CMSs are on the rise instead. In this chapter, we will discuss how headless CMSs compare to traditional CMSs and why we believe they are a better solution.

What is a traditional CMS?

A traditional CMS is a content management system where the backend content repository is tightly coupled to the frontend presentation layer. It's also commonly known as a monolithic CMS.

Since the dot-com bubble, the content management universe has been dominated by massive .NET, Java, Perl, and PHP-based systems. Traditional CMSs like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal have democratized the creation of simpler websites, making them accessible to non-tech users.

However, these traditional CMSs focus on a web-first platform. Adapting them for modern digital content channels such as mobile, IoT, or ARM is difficult or requires significant effort. Even small technical changes lead to long implementation times.

How traditional CMSs work

Born in the mid-90s, traditional CMSs are primarily built for non-technical users to manage websites. They have graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that allow content creators to create content and publish it to styled "templates," choosing from endless themes and plugins.

The content created is stored within a database and displayed to the end-user or reader based on this pre-defined template.

Everything is packaged together, and the architecture of the CMS causes heavy codependency between the frontend and backend. For example, when downloading WordPress, what you're getting out of the box and building upon is:

• A pre-defined theme (like Twenty Nineteen by WordPress) with HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
• An optional further customization of that theme with a page builder like Elementor or WPBakery.
• A pre-defined MySQL database with a pre-defined schema, changes to which require manually modifying the database itself.
• PHP that powers the usability of your site and links your theme to the database, constantly pulling entries (posts, media, etc.) from the database into your frontend, where the theme defines the placement.
• Further enrichments and customization via plugins.

To visualize this content, Wordpress's PHP application pulls the raw data for a blog post from the MySQL database and pushes it to the theme. The theme then converts the content into HTML and styles it based on the specified CSS so the visitor can consume it.

Therefore, managing, creating, publishing, and designing your content is entirely within WordPress itself. Content is stored in the database and pulled whenever the site needs to be rendered for a new visitor.

This tight coupling can lead to usability and security issues. For example, if a developer wants to make a change to the frontend, they may need to update the backend code as well to accommodate the change. Additionally, traditional CMSs are more susceptible to distributed denial of service attacks as there is a greater surface area to attack than with a headless CMS.

The traditional CMS didn’t provide an ideal way to use our developer resources, because we want them to focus on the technical improvement of the website.

Limitations of traditional CMS

Due to the rigid architecture, traditional CMSs force teams to depend highly on the vendor's preferred frameworks, databases, and technologies. They do so while only being able to render on one front, i.e., a single website or mobile app.

In the long term, once overheads like training, maintenance, and security updates are accounted for, the ROI of traditional CMS begins to come into question, and teams are left with unmanageable content silos across several CMS and services.

Here are the main limitations of traditional CMSs.

Limited flexibility

Traditional CMSs are often built on a rigid architecture, making adapting to changing business needs and emerging technologies challenging.

Security concerns

The tightly integrated nature of monolithic CMSs poses security risks, as a single vulnerability can compromise the entire system. In April 2013 alone, there were 90,000 attempts per day to hack WordPress sites via brute force attacks.

Slower time-to-market

Monolithic CMSs' rigid architecture and complex development processes can lead to longer development cycles, resulting in slower time to market for new content and features.

Scalability issues

As businesses grow and their content requirements expand, monolithic CMSs may struggle to handle the increasing workload efficiently.

SEO challenges

Monolithic CMSs can be less SEO-friendly due to their restricted customization options, impacting search engine rankings and visibility.

High maintenance costs

Monolithic CMSs may require extensive resources and ongoing maintenance to keep the system up-to-date and secure. The costs associated with maintaining and upgrading the platform can strain an organization’s budget and divert resources from other critical business initiatives.

What is a headless CMS

A headless CMS is a content repository that makes content accessible via an API to any platform. The term “headless” comes from the concept of detaching the “Head”, i.e., the frontend(website, app, etc.), from the “body”,i.e., the backend(content repository, database, etc.). Instead of delivering compiled HTML, a headless CMS only delivers the content using an API. An API-driven approach offers many advantages over traditional CMS paradigms.

As a backend CMS, a headless CMS houses all the content teams need to produce for all digital entities as structured content, including text, images, videos, files, and other content assets in the backend.

Developers can query this content via API while working with modern and preferred technologies and distribute them to any digital front from a single source. In the long run, the ROI of this approach leads to a more scalable architecture and removes content silos.

How headless CMSs work

A headless CMS completely defies the logic of a traditional CMS. By fragmenting the flow and decoupling the frontend from the backend, it focuses on content creation and storage, with little to no restriction on how content gets rendered on the frontend.

In this scenario, a typical setup might look something like this:

• You create content based on self-defined schemas in a headless CMS like Hygraph.
• You connect your API endpoint from Hygraph to your website through a data-fetching library like Axios or even the native Fetch methods supported across server and browser environments.
• You query your content to your website, app, or another platform with GraphQL, in the case of Hygraph.
• You render the returned data in a way that makes sense for your application.

Therefore, when creating content in a headless CMS like Hygraph, you're simply focusing on the content itself and not the layout or design. This is then delivered anywhere through the API, so a developer and a content creator can define how and where the content shows - regardless of the platform, design, style, or format.

Advantages of headless CMS over traditional CMS

The API-driven approach offers many advantages over traditional CMS paradigms:

Frontend freedom

By removing the presentation layer, or the head, from the CMS, there are theoretically no restrictions on how or where content can be delivered.

Worry-free content creation

Marketing and editorial teams can create content within the editor interface of a headless CMS, similar to how they would with traditional CMSs like WordPress or Joomla. Meanwhile, the engineering team can define how and where this content is delivered by creating a frontend on the channel where content will be rendered.

Choose your own framework

Engineering teams are also free of traditional CMS templating and framework restrictions. With a headless CMS, they can take advantage of framework agnosticism and create frontend experiences using React, Angular, Vue, Next.js, or any modern technology they see fit.

Flexible content

A headless CMS offers greater flexibility than a traditional CMS, where "content" is restricted to a landing page or a blog post. There are virtually no limitations on what can be considered content, including anything from blog posts and landing pages to banners, alerts, flight inventory, and news feeds.

Deliver to any platform

Similarly, there are no restrictions on platforms where this content can be delivered, extending from websites and mobile apps to smart tablets and watches or even IoT-connected kitchen appliances like dishwashers and fridges.

Differences between headless CMS and traditional CMS

Here is a side-by-side comparison table of headless CMS vs. traditional CMS, covering everything from framework compatibility to content modeling ability.

See headless CMS vs. traditional CMS side-by-side comparison in full resolution

How do you choose between headless CMS and traditional CMS?

Even though we believe headless CMS is the future of content, not everyone has the resources or the capacity to implement a headless CMS, or perhaps your team is too comfortable with the traditional CMS in place to switch to a headless one. Consider these four questions when choosing between a headless CMS and a traditional CMS.

Do you need to update your content often?

It depends on what type of business you have, but if you produce a lot of content and need to update your website frequently, a headless CMS is better since content is stored like data and can be reused. Otherwise, you can manage your digital presence with a traditional CMS.

Do you have enough development resources?

Choosing a headless CMS often requires dedicated developers who know how to work with APIs and build custom frontends. If your team has the technical expertise and bandwidth, headless might be a solid choice. But if you're short on skilled developers or working with limited resources, a traditional CMS with its built-in templates and ease of use could be more practical.

Do you want to connect your content easily?

Headless CMS excels at flexibility, making it easier to push content to multiple channels, from websites to mobile apps. If you’re looking to create seamless experiences across various platforms, going headless makes sense. On the other hand, if most of your content lives in one place, like a single website, a traditional CMS could do the job just fine.

Do you want to scale your project?

Scalability is a big factor. With a headless CMS, it's easier to grow your project by adding new digital experiences without restructuring your entire content system. If your future plans involve expansion or reaching new audiences across different platforms, headless is more future-proof. But if your content needs remain stable and simple, a traditional CMS might be sufficient for now.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which one is better, headless CMS or traditional CMS?

The answer depends on your content requirements and available resources. If you have demanding content that requires frequent updates or complex content model, want to present your content easily on different platforms, plan to scale your project in the future, and have enough development resources in place, then headless CMS is a better choice. If not, traditional CMSs come with templates, which make website creation easy.

Is traditional cms faster than headless CMS?

Traditional CMS makes it easy for non-technical users to create a website. In contrast, headless CMS requires you to develop your own frontend, which takes longer to launch a website. Nevertheless, if you frequently update your content, traditional CMS's tightly coupled architecture will be more difficult to scale and slower to work with.

Is traditional CMS mostly coupled or headless?

Most traditional CMS platforms are coupled, meaning they tightly connect the backend (where content is created and managed) with the frontend (where content is displayed). This setup often restricts flexibility because both parts are directly linked. In contrast, a headless CMS separates the back and front ends, delivering content via API, so it’s easier to display content on different devices and platforms.