If you've recently been through a re-platforming exercise, or are considering one in 2025, it's almost guaranteed that at least one of the options you'll be evaluating is being marketed as a "Headless" CMS.
In this post we'll help cut through the hype, explaining in non-technical terms what that actually means and why the industry is so keen to move towards this type of architecture.
Don't lose your head
Let's begin with a couple of definitions. When we think about a content-managed website we can think of it as two main parts: the front-end (or "head") is the part that your visitors see in their browser. You're looking at the front-end for the Appius blog right now. The front-end is responsible for presenting your content to visitors, providing interactive functionality and gathering data & analytics.
The back-end provides all the content and services that the front-end needs to do its job, and typically comes with its own browser-based interface for business users. I'm using the Appius blog back-end right now to author this post.
With that in mind, a "Headless CMS" is simply a system that provides the back-end only. It doesn't come with its own fixed front-end, but is designed to play nicely with any front-end you might care to use. This is in contrast with the traditional CMS, which bundles both parts together into a single package. If a headless CMS also comes with its own interchangeable front-end, that's often referred to as "Hybrid Headless".
Head in the clouds
At the same time as the shift towards headless architectures, the industry is making a big push towards Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). This means that instead of owning and being responsible for the software that powers your CMS (either by yourself, or more commonly via an experienced partner like Appius), you rent the software directly from the vendor and access it via a web browser.
The advantages and disadvantages of this approach are beyond the scope of this article. Suffice it to say these concepts are separate. If you want to, you can run a traditional CMS via SaaS, or run a headless CMS on-premise.
Phew, that's one less thing to think about, for now at least!
On the shoulders of giants
On the face of it headless can sound like a bad deal. How can removing half the product be better? Is this just vendors being lazy and providing only half a solution? If you've been trying to consolidate systems and simplify your digital estate, why would you opt for two systems when you could have everything in one?
To understand motivations behind this shift, let's examine it through the lens of another industry that has, very successfully, undergone a similar transformation.
At the beginning of the 20th century The Ford Motor Company revolutionised manufacturing in the automotive industry with the adoption of the assembly line. As Henry Ford famously said during a heated sales meeting:
"Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants, so long as it is black."
This reflects one of the fundamental compromises of mass manufacturing. It wasn't long before customers voices were heard and Ford began to offer a choice of colours, but the paint job is still just a surface-level customisation. It's the equivalent of taking a website template and applying your logo and colour scheme. Arguably, Ford's standardisation went too far.
Much later, in the 1970's, manufacturers began to embrace the concept of modularity. What do the Audi TT and the Škoda Slavia have in common? Well, probably more than Volkswagen, owner of the MQB platform, would care to admit. Standardisation allows vehicles on the MQB platform to share a huge array of components, from the axles and the engine mounts up to the infotainment and air conditioning units, even steering wheels. Despite this, each brand and model continues to have its own design language and driving experience.
As you can imagine, this is no mere fad or accident. Under the hood the Volkswagen Group is simultaneously reducing development costs, improving quality, simplifying maintenance and releasing a greater variety of products faster and cheaper than ever before. All of this by simply redrawing the lines on standardisation.
Where is this heading?
My sense is that we are in a similar time for Digital, specifically for CMS and experience platforms. The lines on standardisation are being redrawn, with vendors and forward-thinking organisations realising that by bundling the front-end and the back-end into a single system, many of these potential benefits are being left on the table.
The CMS becomes just the platform, with all the back-end capabilities we need, while providing standard, stable interfaces. This allows the design and development team (yours or ours) to create unique experiences like websites, portals, mobile apps and voice assistants not by altering the platform itself, but by building on top of it. Swapping and upgrading components becomes much easier, within practical limits of course.
If this sounds familiar, it should do! Modular, API-driven design is what good solutions architects like those at Appius have been doing for a long time, only now it has a snappy label, wider recognition and greater investment. Is it better / cheaper / right for you? Well, that's a bigger question...
I hope this overview has given you a slightly different view of headless, a curiosity to learn more and just enough knowledge to navigate the hype.
Are you wondering about headless or currently going through an evaluation process?
Each of our supported platforms has their own take, from Sitefinity's hybrid headless approach and Optimizely's emerging GraphQL offering to Umbraco Heartcore and Sitecore's headless CMS platform.
If you'd like to understand more or get help on your solution, just get in touch.
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