Headless CMS Vs Traditional CMS: Find out the best fit for your business!

To run your online business, a perfect CMS is a vital necessity. Though content management systems are dime a dozen and you have numerous options available. Yet a mindful decision can aid the quality of your business and may reduce the chances of glitches an online store faces.

Lately, we are hearing about types of content management systems, and among all headless CMS is a sought-after technology. The traditional CMS is catering the businesses for quite a long now but headless CMS is winning users’ hearts and creating a buzz.

The traditional CMS has gathered the trust for a good many years whereas headless CMS is a gen-next technology and fascinating users with its peculiar qualities. Albeit, every business need is different; you may need a traditional content management system for your business. Or maybe the complex structure of your business requires a headless content management system.

We shall compare them to decide which CMS is the perfect suit for your business.

Headless CMS vs Traditional CMS

Let’s start knowing about these two types of content management systems and then decide on the right CMS for your business.

Headless CMS

Headless CMS manages the back end of a system and the back ends are not directly connected with the front ends. Back-end has the entire data of a system, it is a place where the content is created and stored and the front-end is the design or interface of the system. The application programming interface (API) connects both sides (back-end & front-end) and makes them work together, as and when needed.

So, this is a headless CMS approach. It is flexible and allows a user to manage heavy content with distinct front ends. Content creators can create and store the content in reusable modules and the design and development team uses the CMS to apply the content modules on different platforms such as website pages, chatbots, smartwatch apps, mobile application development, and other digital assets.

Features of headless CMS

• Application programming interface (API)

  API is a critical feature of headless CMS. The APIs help delivers and publishes content to different channels, a business uses. APIs create communication paths among distinct platforms so that they can work together by using a similar back-end. In short, the APIs make the whole process of using content on different platforms and delivering an experience to customers easier and more personalized as well.

• Easy integration

  Headless CMS permits you to integrate with myriad channels easily; thanks to its loosely connected structure. APIs play an important role in integrations. Integrating with new CRM, PIM software, ERP, analytics tools, marketing automation tools, etc. becomes a breeze with a headless CMS. It assists enterprise-level businesses to create a faster, personalized, and cohesive content-driven experience for users.

• Developer resources

  Headless CMS not only provides an experience to the user but it has many developer-friendly tools as well. The tools such as web frameworks, SDKs, APIs, DevOps Services, etc. allow developers to work efficiently with ease.

With myriad content management tools, headless CMS has many benefits that turn business owners' heads toward it. Now let’s look at traditional CMS.

Traditional CMS

A traditional CMS is not lesser in content creation and management. It also allows you to create, store and publish content efficiently on your desired platform. But you cannot use the back-end and front-end separately. Once the content is published, it’s difficult to reuse or reformat it. Also, traditional CMS doesn’t store content in modules. Adding new functionalities to a traditional CMS is difficult because it needs a whole process to add a plugin or extension for a particular functionality; no API support.

Features of traditional CMS

• Single monolithic platform

  A traditional CMS is a platform that feeds content to a single website or channel. It provides an exceptional solution for your business and handles the content perfectly, but you cannot combine multiple channels into a single hub for the sake of business growth.

• Templates and plugins

  Traditional CMS is meant to deliver content effectively and efficiently. Thus, you don’t require to put effort to publish content. Apparently, a CMS provides readymade templates to display content. These templates are trustworthy and myriad businesses use them to manage their website content. Yet the templates can increase your work sometimes, if you need any changes in content or wish to enhance the functionalities, it would be required customization.

  Plugins help in such situations. They increase functionalities; depending on the platform and business complexity.

• Easy-to-use

  A traditional CMS is easy-to-use for everyone. Many platforms allow users to create the solutions without coding needs as well. A traditional CMS also has content management tools such as text formatting, version tracking, digital asset management, etc. that aid you to build a robust solution.

You should choose a headless CMS if,

• Your business is not limited to one channel

  If you are using more than one channel to market and sell your products and your team is recreating content for each platform. Then to vanish the rework of your team, increase the efficiency of their work, and eliminate the severe blunders and minor errors, choose headless CMS development to reshape the customer experience. It will save you time as well.

  Omnichannel marketing needs integration capabilities and the modular structure of a CMS (which is in-built in a headless CMS). Thus, if your business requires omnichannel presence, go for headless CMS.

• You want robust security for your enterprise/ business

  Organizations that collect customers' data and use the information to provide personalized solutions, must have a sturdy security system. A headless CMS provides less risk of data theft since the front-end and back-end are disconnected. Whereas a traditional CMS is easy to hack.

• Your business model is customer-based

  If you want a content management system that can provide you with an interactive environment with your customers, then what are you waiting for? Headless CMS helps you provide a personalized, real-time, and smart digital experience for all your customers.

You may opt for traditional CMS if,

• Your need is a simple easy to use website

  If your business doesn’t require personalization and a simple website with complete usability will do for you, then you should select a traditional CMS for your business. With traditional CMS, you will get in-built content management features that will manage and publish content extraordinarily.

• Your business needs are low-profile

  If you are dealing with a limited audience base and your content and data requirement is not huge; they can be managed with a traditional CMS.

• You are not planning to go omnichannel

  Many small businesses don’t need an omnichannel content-driven experience. If omnichannel design digital experience is not a part of your business goals, you have not planned to go for further integrations, then choose a traditional CMS. It will provide you with the exact solution you wish for.

Wrapping up

If agility, flexibility, and innovation are your vision for your business, headless CMS is made for you. But if the simple and seamless yet powerful and effective solution your business needs, picking a traditional CMS is the correct choice.

Traditional CMS is sufficient for a static website with a decent digital experience whereas, large-scale content creation, reusability, optimization, and personalization need a different and innovative platform with gen-next tools to scale your business.

Pay attention to these and many more such aspects and choose the right content management system for your business.

As an experienced CMS development company, our team has the expertise to provide solutions for most CMS platforms. We have a proven track record of offering CMS development and working on platforms like Headless Drupal, WordPress, Adobe Experience Manager, Joomla, Netlify, Sitecore, Squarespace, Symphony, Strapi, Umbraco, and many more. Get in touch with us at [email protected] or submit the following request free quote form to know more.