The Benefits of Headless CMS versus Traditional CMS

The Benefits of Headless CMS

Before we get started with the Benefits of Headless CMS, let’s have a quick recap on website creation. From its beginning, building a web page required a significant amount of knowledge, primarily the ability to code in the language of the web: HTML (and later CSS and Javascript). In 2003 that all changed. WordPress – the leading traditional content management system – was launched. WordPress was easy to use and had various ready-made templates that helped express brands better. “Hosted WordPress” solutions even ensured that even non-technical users were able to manage their own content online.

However, the internet keeps on evolving,
and traditional CMS is struggling to keep up.

The primary factors of the struggles are:

The traditional CMS coupled (linked) the presentation and content very tightly. Hence, it is difficult to drastically change the behaviour or even the look and feel of the site without rewriting code on CMS. Additional widgets and collections of articles became a tedious task. Traditional CMSes tried to address this problem through plugins. However, as the plugins installed increased, the amount of management workload also grew. Furthermore, combinations of plugins would often conflict with each other, which requires additional work from the IT team.

The number of device formats is increasing rapidly. As the home pages are still the primary entry point to content, today’s readers consume content in new ways: Facebook Instant Articles, Google AMP, Mobile Apps, 3rd Party Syndication and dozens of other channels.

Tech teams have started to specialise. The average publisher website receives traffic on a scale that was unthinkable in 2003. Scaling up required additional skills to manage security, data loading, and caching. Moreover, publishers also have to keep on improving the required skills to build a stunning visual front end.

Enter the Benefits of Headless CMS

The structure of Bold Headless CMS

Headless CMS decouples content and presentation. In Headless CMS, the CMS only manages content, and outputs content via APIs, allowing users to build multiple consumer channels. This model is known as content as a service which solves various problems mentioned earlier.

No more plugins. Plugins are typically intended for front end concerns. Since the front-end is separated from CMS, the implementations can be done directly in front end app.

Omnichannel solution. All channels communicate with the same set of APIs. Hence, all channels receive all the benefits. An additional channel is as easy as building a simple adapter, and a good CMS will provide multiple adapters.

Code Once, Consume everywhere. As different channels use a particular API for getting recommendations. Updating the logic behind that API means that all channels will get the new algorithm, without any code change.

Relatively more secure. As the environment is not on the same domain, it is less vulnerable to attacks. Further, the lack of plugins and presentation logic on the backend means that security vector is lesser than conventional CMS.

More control over scaling and caching. One of the most significant benefits of headless CMS is to get to control the spend over infrastructure budget wherever it gives the most value. Dividing what was earlier a massive page load into multiple smaller API calls allows defining Caching and Scalability requirements individually.

Better Page Load Performance. By exposing APIs to javascript client, it is possible to dynamically load parts of the page that are not absolutely required until scrolled and can result in improved page load time.

Having a standard set of APIs opens the opportunity to outsource CMS, and results in reduced IT costs and saved valued time.

The Bold CMS provides all these benefits. We will manage your entire publishing stack, from infra and maintenance to SEO recommendations.