Feature
There is no separating the growth of the Web from the need for headless CMS and composable CMS architectures.
The smartphone allowed us to consume content on the go, and the Internet of Things (IoT) is making the world of devices around ever more useful (and observant), and ever more in need of current, coordinated, centralized and correct content.
This growth of devices and the certainty that the spectrum of devices types will continue to expand has put pressure on the systems that are used to create, manage and deliver content and experiences to these devices.
This pressure has create the need for new types of digital content and experience management systems (DXPs), which has, in part, brought us the headless CMS.
Table of Contents
- What is a Headless CMS?
- How Headless CMS Power the Internet
- Headless CMS vs. Traditional Content Management
- Are Headless Content Management Systems a New Thing?
- Disadvantages of a Headless CMS
- Are Headless CMS Good for Content Teams?
- Headless Content Management System FAQ
- Top Headless CMS Platforms in 2024
- The Big List of Headless CMS Platforms
- Choosing a Headless CMS? Look Beyond the Software
What is a Headless CMS?
A headless CMS is a type of decoupled content management system or content services platform where the front-end, also called the presentation layer, is separated from the back-end via APIs. Content authoring, storage and management take place in the back-end. Front end "heads" access content, metadata and the like via APIs, typically REST APIs and GraphQL APIs.
In a traditional, monolithic CMS, both the content and its presentation are managed together. Whereas with a headless CMS content is stored in a back-end system and delivered via APIs to any front-end or device.
To meet the headless CMS definition, the platform must allow developers to customize the presentation layer and use any front-end platform or app they want to display content and deliver end-user experiences.
This naturally means that headless CMS can deliver their content beyond what we historically consider "websites", feeding any number of channels and device types, from kiosks to smartwatches, digital signage and even virtual reality headsets.
While headless CMS is not something new, per say (more on this below), the demands on content services platforms continue to evolve. Digital product owners and web property operators therefore continue to look beyond the traditional platforms and into the horizon of system capabilities.
How Headless CMS Power the Internet
When we speak about the Internet today it's a bit more useful to talk about "The Internet of Things", which refers to a massive proliferation of smart, internet-connected devices. IoT examples include smart appliances, like the Nest thermostat, digital assistants, like Amazon Alexa or Google Home and wearables, like Fitbit.
IoT in business is also prevalent, with bot-based inventory management, traffic-analyzing sensors, smart weight-reading shelves and much more.
In 2021, there were more than 11 billion IoT devices in use globally, according to Statista. By 2030, experts predict that number will reach more than 29 billion.
Neil Patel, founder of KISSmetrics and former Forbes contributor, wrote that the internet is on a path to becoming “ever-present.” Meaning, for those living in developed cities, the internet will constantly play a role in society and home life via a multitude of devices, screens, speakers and touchpoints.
Brands that want to reach consumers through the broadest spectrum of devices will need to find new ways to deliver content. Enter: the headless content management system.
Headless CMS vs. Traditional Content Management
A traditional content management systems allows brands to create and share content on their websites or apps. The traditional CMS manages everything, including the creation, reading, updating and deleting (CRUD) of content, as well as templating, widgets and how that content is displayed.
Traditional CMSs typically have a unified architecture — meaning the back end (where content is created and stored) is tightly connected to the front end (or the presentation layer, where the content is displayed).
Are Headless Content Management Systems a New Thing?
Well, yes and no, but let's say yes-ish.
From the very beginning of content management history there have been content management systems that were designed to be decoupled and there have been many such systems that had APIs for accessing the content. So, enterprise architects have always had headless CMS options. In that sense, there is nothing new here.
Some of these systems also offered a kind of "baking" approach, where content would be pre-rendered on the server and could be hosted or consumed closer to the network edge or inside other apps in various formats. This was the precursor to the server side rendering that is again popular today.
So don't be fooled by the ambitious headless CMS and headless DXP marketers out there — these vendors have not invented a new world. No, they have iterated and modernized concepts that have been built into products and implemented in enterprise digital experience platforms for over 25 years.
The notable difference today is the origin story of being a native headless, natively composable content services platform. That is a relatively new pattern in the CMS and DXP landscape.
Disadvantages of a Headless CMS
They say the grass is always greener on the other side, and yet when you get there, it's not always so.
The world does have real needs for headless CMS. And it's also true that a headless architecture presents new challenges, including the fact that you are now or soon to be the proud owner of a lot more custom software, in the form of the end user-facing "head" or "heads" of your system.
A good primer on what to think through as you approach a headless CMS project is our backgrounder on planning for a headless CMS project.
Key elements that may present new challenges or disadvantages include:
- Rethinking staff roles (hint: they are changing)
- Ensuring you have the technical bench to take on the project
- Cataloging and decomposing your existing end user functionality (you're remaking all of this, and then some)
- Planning a realistic project timeline (hint: add a lot of buffer if you're converting to headless)
- New, potentially longer, timelines for microsite launches
- Higher costs for development and maintenance
- A bigger, more formalized QA function
- Recalibration of your devops stack and team (more build paths happening more often)
- An increase in your security and risk surface area
- Accessibility (hint: you now own it)
- Understanding what sorts of authoring, collaboration or preview capabilities you might be losing (see below)
Are Headless CMS Good for Content Teams?
Headless made the IT geeks happy — they get to use their tools and frameworks of choice to build the end user experiences and managers get to hire team members with general software development skills versus those with relatively obscure platform knowledge.
But what is the impact on content teams when one moves to a headless CMS platform?
The answer is of course that this varies by platform. But if you're shopping for a new system, this question should be top of your list. Some platforms have invested early here, and others have taken as many as seven years before they built out a modern authoring experience.
These days the playing field is leveling, but it is certainly not yet level.
Headless CMS buyers are advised to bring their content team leaders to the table when exploring a new platform. Look for UX friendliness, collaboration features like inline commenting, ease of versioning, auto-save, native generative AI functionality for metadata, tagging and other time saving shortcuts.
Generally we recommend that buyers take the time to look closely at current work streams and ensure that your content workflows are not going to hit some unexpected new brick wall with your shiny new headless CMS platform.
Headless Content Management System FAQ
Q. How does a headless CMS differ from a traditional CMS?
A traditional CMS integrates content storage and presentation within a single system, limiting flexibility. In contrast, a headless CMS decouples the backend (content repository) from the frontend (presentation layer), allowing developers to use any technology for the frontend and deliver content across multiple platforms via APIs.
Q. Why do organizations ultimately choose to go with a headless CMS?
The main driving factors include a need for omnichannel content distribution from a single back office platform, a complex IT environment where the CMS is just one of many sources of data and information and a demand for developer flexibility when it comes to implementing the presentation tier.
Q. Is there a real difference between a headless CMS and a decoupled CMS?
Yes, while both separate the backend from the frontend, a decoupled content management system typically includes a built-in presentation layer, whereas a headless CMS does not. This provides more flexibility but also typically requires additional development resources to create and maintain the full presentation tier.
Q. What types of organizations benefit most from using a headless CMS?
Organizations prioritizing a multi-platform digital presence, such as those delivering content and experiences to a blend of IoT devices, mobile apps or multiple websites, benefit most. Enterprises utilizing numerous sources for content, data and workflows that need to be unified at the UI level also find headless CMS to be a good fit.
Q. What types of organizations or projects are not a good fit for a headless content management system?
Generally smaller organizations, smaller digital projects and short lived digital projects are not an ideal fit for a headless CMS architecture. If this describes your organization or your project, you may want to look for more turnkey systems that include off the shelf templates to get you quickly close to your objectives.
Q. Are there any drawbacks to using a headless CMS?
One potential drawback is the complexity that comes with fully owning the presentation tier software. This requires additional technical expertise, new operational staff, new kinds of headless CMS project planning, and increases dependency on developers, as compared to traditional CMSs. Additionally, depending on the platform, content editors may face new authoring and collaboration challenges — possibly due to authoring tool immaturity, a lack of a built-in presentation layer and varying levels of collaboration functionality.
Q. How does a headless CMS support omnichannel content delivery?
By decoupling the content repository from the presentation layer, a headless CMS allows content to be delivered via APIs to any device or channel, including websites, mobile apps, IoT devices and more. This architecture helps ensure a consistent content experience across all presentation points.
Top Headless CMS Platforms in 2024
Many brands claim to offer a headless CMS product. Few, however, offer the flexibility and head-on plus head-optional capabilities that brand managers need.
To help startups, small businesses and enterprises adopt a headless content management system, we’ve compiled a list of notable headless CMS solutions that are worth considering for your next project.
The Big List of Headless CMS Platforms
The following headless CMS platforms list provides examples of today's notable free and commercial headless CMS platforms. For a more comprehensive look at today's headless CMS options, see CMSWire's Digital Experience Platforms Guide.
1. Acquia DXP & Drupal CMS
The Acquia DXP — Digital Experience Platform — is a broad set of digital experience offerings designed to manage and optimize customer experiences across multiple digital channels.
The digital experience platform integrates various components, including content management, customer data management, personalization and analytics, enabling businesses to deliver consistent and personalized digital experiences. The Acquia DXP pathway offers several options for headless CMS deployment, including a set of Drupal Starter Kits that support headless deployment architectures.
Those who prefer to focus on the open source Drupal CMS platform can leverage a number of community contributed and maintained Drupal modules, such as JSON:API, to build out a headless open source Drupal architecture.
Pricing: Acquia's products carry enterprise pricing (demo available upon request); Drupal is open source and thus free.
2. Adobe Experience Manager
Adobe provides a range of cloud-based, enterprise-grade digital experience products under the Adobe Experience Manager moniker. Of note here is the company's Adobe Experience Manager Sites offering.
Webinar
Sep
25
CMS Briefing: A Live Look at What’s Next in AI-Driven Platforms
Learn how leading organizations are using AI‑driven tools to publish faster, personalize smarter and stay secure.
Register
Webinar
Sep
25
Call Spoofing Trends Financial Institutions Can't Afford to Ignore
Don't let robocalls sabotage your customer relationships. Learn how to secure your voice channel.
Register
Webinar
On demand
Ready or Not: How Data-First Organizations Are Unlocking Agentforce Potential
Learn how to cut through the noise, activate Agentforce and build a Salesforce AI strategy that actually delivers.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
CX Reality Check: What Your Customers Are Really Thinking
Register now and get the insights you need to not just meet rising expectations, but exceed them.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
Content Leaders Collective: What a Good CCMS Actually Looks Like
Discover how content leaders transform clunky systems into growth engines — and why your competitors are ahead.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
From Hype to High-Impact CX Strategies That Actually Scale
Turn buzzworthy AI and outsourcing trends into measurable CX wins with fresh 2025 data.
Watch Now
AEM Sites includes several options for creating headless CMS architectures, including both REST and GraphQL APIs that front end developers can use to access content from the AEM content services back office.
Pricing: Enterprise pricing (demo available upon request).
3. Agility CMS
Agility CMS claims to be the fastest and most flexible headless CMS on the market. This multi-tenant SaaS platform is easy for developers to customize, and it offers an accessible user interface for marketers as well. It has built-in components for content management, ticketing, landing page design and ecommerce.
This content management system is designed to makes it straightforward to quickly deploy new sites and experiences.
Pricing: Free trials and various subscription plans available.
4. Bloomreach
Bloomreach is an ecommerce-focused company offering three digital platforms: Bloomreach Experience Cloud (brX), Bloomreach Search & Merchandising (brSM) and Bloomreach Experience Manager (brXM).
Bloomreach’s commerce-focused platforms run on top of a headless commerce solution. They allow marketers to optimize and personalize commerce and content experiences with a broad set of headless APIs that enable developer agility.
Pricing: Enterprise pricing (demo available upon request).
5. Brightspot CMS
Unlike many of the other platforms here, Brightspot has an origin story tied to the digital media and publishing space. Brightspot's initial clients included Scripps, Healthgrades and the L.A. Times.
Brightspot offers a hybrid digital experience platform that integrates transitional and headless CMS capabilities. It allows users to create, manage and deliver content across various platforms, teams and devices. It also offers customizable workflows, advanced content editing and real-time collaboration functionality to increase productivity and content quality. The platform's various REST and GraphQL APIs provide integration with existing systems and third-part applications, and support a headless deployment architecture.
Pricing: Enterprise pricing (demo available upon request).
6. Cockpit
Cockpit is a free, open-source and self-hosted headless CMS that describes itself as a “content provider” and “not a website builder.” It's a back-end-only solution that stores and distributes content. There are no built-in editing features to manage content presentation — making it one of the pure headless CMS options.
The platform uses APIs and JSON to deliver and present content, and it's both language and database agnostic.
Pricing: Free to download.
7. Contentful
Contentful offers an API-driven, content-as-a-service headless CMS. The platform's RESTful APIs give developers complete control of content, digital assets and translations. Caching techniques and CDN integrations enable the high performance delivery of API payloads in the sub-100ms range.
This headless CMS offers the ability to display JSON snippets, a rich-text editor and content modeling features. It can also integrate with static site generators for greater website flexibility.
Pricing: Free, premium and enterprise plans available.
8. CoreMedia Content Cloud
CoreMedia started offering its marketing solutions in 1996 and it jumped on the headless CMS trend with CoreMedia Content Cloud.
This digital experience platform enables marketers, merchandisers and development teams to collaboratively create, preview and optimize digital brand experiences. It offers integrations with a number of enterprise commerce platforms, from Commerce Tools to Spryker.
Pricing: Enterprise pricing (demo available upon request).
9. Core dna
Core dna is a headless CMS featuring over 80 individual applications supporting digital experience management, ecommerce, portals and intranets. This software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform supports personalization, multisite management, localization, integrations, framework agnosticism and detailed inventory management.
Marketers may appreciate the tool's WYSIWYG editor, which supports rich text and media management. Core dna allows content creators to manage multiple aspects of their online presence in one interface.
Pricing: Premium and enterprise plans available.
10. Cosmic
Cosmic is a cloud-hosted headless CMS platform offering both RESTful and GraphQL APIs. It features content modeling, localization, webhooks and media management and a WYSIWYG editor where users can embed code from third-party services, including GitHub and Typeform.
The CMS has ready-made integrations with Slack, AWS, Stripe, HubSpot and Algolia.
Pricing: Free self-hosted community edition. Premium plans also available.
11. Craft CMS
Craft CMS is a “content-first” headless CMS that lets users create experiences around their content. It can be used for sites, portals, articles, blogs and ecommerce scenarios.
Craft CMS features custom fields, drag-and-drop structured content and layout, multisite management, localization, asset management, live content previews and a built-in image editor. Each user can also have their own customizable dashboard, tailored to the tasks they perform most often.
Pricing: Free, premium and enterprise plans available.
12. Crownpeak
Founded in January 2001, Crownpeak was an early pioneer in offering digital content management through a SaaS solution. Crownpeak’s digital experience platform is cloud-native and built for brands seeking scalability and security. It's a hybrid headless CMS that supports content and ecommerce use cases. The system is designed with national privacy and data protection laws in mind.
Along with omnichannel content delivery and multisite management, Crownpeak offers personalization tools, A/B testing, SEO features and live site tag and performance monitoring. Over the course of several mergers and acquisitions the company offers a range of content services and content governance.
Pricing: Enterprise pricing (demo available upon request).
13. DatoCMS
DatoCMS is a headless content-as-a-service (CaaS) platform. It offers multilingual support. It also enables brands to organize digital assets in folders, locate media files quickly using AI-powered tagging or sophisticated search capabilities and publish them wherever they need, including websites and mobile apps.
Pricing: Single and multi-project pricing options, free trial available.
14. Directus
Directus is an open-source headless CMS and API. Built using Vue.js., Directus manages custom-schema SQL databases directly.
The system allows developers to create custom databases tailored to the needs of each project, without having to worry about learning proprietary frameworks. Directus calls itself an Open Data Platform where developers can focus on the project rather than the underlying technology.
When the database is ready, Directus’ API or SDKs can be connected. The end result is a customizable interface that businesses can use to manage the content repository for their websites and mobile apps.
Pricing: Free, premium and enterprise plans available.
15. DotCMS
DotCMS is a Java-based platform that features multilingual and multi-tenant capabilities. It also features a WYSIWYG editor, alongside drag-and-drop features that enable marketers to engage in content modeling, workflow building and page layout modification.
This content management system can be hosted on-premise or in the cloud. The platform includes an analytics dashboard, personalization and custom endpoint building. It also supports integration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Docker, Salesforce and other third-party developer and martech tools.
Pricing: Free self-hosted editions and tiered business subscriptions.
16. Hygraph
Hygraph is an API-first CMS launched in 2017. It's based on the GraphQL data query language, which some developers consider to be the successor to REST.
GraphCMS allows developers to create a hosted GraphQL back end for their applications, which can define the relations, structures and permissions of the application data.
The system also comes with a number of tools to create and manage content, including text editors, content repository management, workflows, user roles and multilingual support.
Pricing: Free, premium and enterprise plans available.
17. Ibexa
Ibexa (formerly eZ Systems) is an open-source CMS and commercial digital experience platform built on the Symfony full-stack framework.
Ibexa provides a content repository, multichannel and multi-device content delivery, multilingual and multisite content management and granular user permissions. Ibexa continues to embrace a hybrid architecture model and is able to function as either a monolithic content management system or a headless CMS, via it's evolving set of APIs.
Pricing: Open-source version available, inquire for enterprise pricing.
18. Kontent.ai
Kontent.ai is a SaaS headless CMS that enables developers to integrate existing technologies and build sites using the languages, tools and frameworks of their choice. It comes with several SDKs, secured access to its API and SLA-guaranteed uptime.
Content creation is made easy, thanks to the WYSIWYG editor and its built-in features that enable collaboration, workflow management, structured content, personalization and localization. The company has more recently invested in their Author Assist functionality, claiming to increase content authoring velocity via the integration of native Generative AI capabilities.
Pricing: Free trial available, along with premium and enterprise plans.
19. Magnolia
Magnolia CMS is recognized by both Gartner and Forrester as a platform of interest. It's an open-source headless CMS that allows users to deliver structured content to multiple platforms and devices. The core of the Magnolia DXP is a content engine that allows customers to consolidate content and data from multiple repositories and reuse it across their websites and other channels.
Ready-made integration frameworks for commerce, DAM, translations, analytics and marketing automation in combination with a IUX (integrated user experience) concept allows marketers to view all content regardless of source in a single UI. This means that there is a unified editorial workflow across the DXP and all connected tools, which makes it easy for editors to work with content or data regardless of source. Products from a connected PIM or e-commerce system, forms from marketing automation tools, insights from analytics tools — are all available in one UI inside Magnolia.
This low-code platform empowers citizen developers and IT teams alike, thanks to its built-in CI/CD, hot deployment and slim YAML configuration files.
Pricing: Enterprise pricing (demo available upon request).
20. Netlify CMS
Netlify CMS is an open-source, extensible content management system built on React. The platform features an editor-friendly interface and intuitive workflows for content authors.
It offers the speed and reliability of static sites combined with the easy workflow of a CMS. Content is stored in Git alongside code for getting content-driven apps to market faster.
Pricing: Free and open source.
21. Optimizely
Optimizely was originally founded in 1994 (as Episerver) in Stockholm, Sweden. Episerver was sold to Insight Venture Partners for $1.16 billion in 2018. Following the acquisition of experience optimization platform ,Optimizely, in 2020 by Episerver, the company rebranded itself as Optimizely.
Optimizely enables editors to drag-and-drop digital content to quickly create new digital experiences that are automatically responsive.
Optimizely’s digital experience platform was relaunched as Optimizely One in late 2023, with a number of distinct “product modules” covering different but sometimes overlapping capabilities. Optimizely One is positioned as an “operating system” for marketers.
Multiple REST APIs covering offerings across the Optimizely suite of functionality, combined with support for extension components offer flexible customization and integration possibilities. Optimizely’s extensible and flexible architecture enables brands to manage their content in a coupled, decoupled or headless approach. Optimizely's GraphQL-powered API and REST-based APIs support true headless content delivery.
Pricing: Enterprise pricing (demo available upon request).
22. Prismic
Prismic is a SaaS-based headless CMS that comes with a visual editor, custom type builds, multi-language support and full revision history. It also offers a powerful API for fetching and managing content.
As well as native integrations with ecommerce platforms, such as Shopify and Magento, Prismic comes with a scheduling and project management tool to enable collaboration and workflow management.
Prismic offers SDKs that allow developers to work in their preferred framework or language, increasing productivity and giving developers more control.
Pricing: Free, premium and enterprise plans available.
23. Sanity
Sanity is an open-source headless CMS and unified content platform based on JavaScript and React.js. Like most headless CMSs with built-in content editors, it offers a WYSIWIG rich text editor, which allows marketers to embed editable data in running text and defer markup to render time.
Another interesting feature that takes Sanity beyond the traditional CMS is the Sweet Query API, which enables developers to cache multiple queries on a single request. It also offers many useful features for marketers, including tools for real-time collaboration, live previewing and content versioning.
Pricing: Free, premium and enterprise plans available.
24. Sitecore
Sitecore, founded in 2001, is a familiar name to anyone in the digital experience platform space. In 2024 the company offers a broad suite of digital experience functionality across a growing range of SKUs, including the Sitecore Experience Platform, Content Hub, XM Cloud and Experience Commerce.
These products increasingly work together to help brands separate content from presentation and deliver optimized experiences across multiple channels.
Sitecore’s solutions also offer in-context content editors and cross-channel preview capabilities, as well as enterprise-class search, asset management and content targeting to boost personalization efforts.
New Sitecore clients looking for a headless CMS solution will likely be directed towards Sitecore's XM Cloud offering. Legacy Sitecore clients have several options on their path to headless Sitecore depending on their licensing situation and project size appetites.
Pricing: Tailored pricing and demo available upon request.
25. Solodev
Solodev is a content and digital customer experience (DCX) management platform designed to help marketers create new digital experiences.
Powered by Amazon Web Services, Solodev provides enterprise-grade security, scalability and redundancy. The platform can be used for content management, optimizing digital channels and processing customer data.
Pricing: Enterprise plans (tiered) available.
26. Strapi
Strapi is a next-gen headless CMS open-source solution built on Node.js. It enables developers to build and manage multiple APIs for distributing content. Unlike many other platforms, Strapi takes a developer-first approach, offering a lightweight, highly customizable system for managing content that can be delivered anywhere.
The front-end agnostic platform features an extensible and customizable admin panel, plugins, digital asset management and several security layers, including CSFR, CORS and P3P.
Pricing: Free to download and self-host, or paid SaaS plans.
27. Zesty.io
Zesty.io is a hybrid, headless CMS with an emphasis on empowering content and experience authors with visual authoring tools. The Zesty.io DXP suite comes with a proprietary technology called WebEngine to create, edit and manage content.
For marketers, Zesty.io provides visual, drag and drop authoring, template and page building, workflow management, automated SEO, advanced SEO tools and the ability to launch microsites and landing pages without IT involvement. For developers, Zesty.io serves up content-aware templating, custom endpoint building, built-in staging environments and customizable content models that ship headless JSON APIs.
Pricing: Various enterprise plans available.
Choosing a Headless CMS? Look Beyond the Software
With headless CMS explained and a list of useful headless content management systems to choose from, brands can begin to carve a path towards composable and headless digital experience stacks. The process is undoubtedly a complex journey that involves deep review of both technology and business priorities, and some new operational thinking.
CMSWire's Digital Experience Platforms Market Guide offers a much more in-depth look at today's leading DXPs, and goes beyond technical capabilities to explore the ecosystem around each vendor, and how well each vendor's offerings "play with others" in your IT stack. Readers are encouraged to approach new digital experience platform procurements with a measured process, inputs from a balanced team of stakeholders and significant hands-on exposure prior to any commitment.
Editor's Note: This article is regularly updated to reflect changes in the content management system and DXP ecosystem.
