Glossary
Headless CMS
A headless CMS is a content management system that stores and manages content but does not build the pages visitors see. A separate front end fetches the content through an API and displays it. This gives more freedom in how a site is built, at the cost of more development work.
In a traditional CMS, one system holds the content and produces the pages. A headless CMS removes the display layer, the "head". Editors still write and organise content in the CMS. The content is then delivered as plain data, usually JSON over a REST or GraphQL API, with no design or layout attached. The front end decides how everything looks.
That front end is often built with a framework such as Astro. The Astro documentation puts the split simply: the CMS handles writing and managing content, and Astro handles its presentation.
Why it matters to a business website
A headless setup is a trade-off.
- In its favour: the same content can be reused across several channels, such as a website and an app, and the front end can be built with whichever framework suits the project.
- Against it: building and changing the site becomes developer work, and editors often lose the visual, what-you-see page editing that a traditional CMS offers. Content also has to follow a defined structure.
For many business websites a traditional CMS is the simpler choice. Headless suits sites where content feeds more than one place, or where the front end has needs a standard theme cannot meet.
Related
Stryx chooses the platform to fit the project. New WordPress sites are built with Bricks Builder, and Stryx also builds with Astro on Cloudflare when that fits. See headless website development, Astro vs WordPress and how we build.