Headless CMS
Design Processes
A content management system that stores content and serves it through an API, with no built-in front end.
In practice
A headless CMS separates where content is written from where it is shown: editors work in a structured interface, and the content is delivered as data to any front end — a website, an app, a kiosk, a voice assistant. Sanity, Contentful and Strapi are headless. It is what lets a designer own the presentation completely instead of theming someone else's templates.
Questions
What is Headless CMS?
A headless CMS is a content back end with an editing interface and an API, deliberately without a presentation layer, so the front end is built separately.
Why do you use Headless CMS?
Total design freedom on the front end, one source of content for every channel, and editors who cannot break the layout.
How do you use/apply Headless CMS?
Model the content as structured types, give editors a clean Studio, and build the front end to fetch and render that content however the design demands.
When do you use Headless CMS?
When the same content feeds more than one surface, or when the presentation matters enough to be built rather than themed.
Who uses Headless CMS?
Designers and developers building sites, apps and products where content and design need to evolve independently.
