10 Headless CMS Platforms You Need to Know in 2023

These days, it’s no longer enough to have simple web pages with your company’s content— you need dynamic, user-friendly sites that keep your clients engaged and coming back for more. For many companies, particularly those in the B2B field, content management systems (CMS) play an important role in helping to achieve this goal.

Headless CMS has become the buzzword of the year and it’s predicted that the adoption will grow substantially by 2023, with more than 80% of Fortune 500 companies using headless CMS to power their website, applications or marketing automation efforts. So what exactly are headless CMS platforms? How do they work? And how can they help you achieve your goals? We find answer of these questions in this detailed blog. Let’s start!

What is a Headless CMS?

Headless CMS means that content and data are separated from the user interface. What this means is that instead of displaying a website to the end-user, data is passed back and forth between a headless CMS and an application running on a server. The application can be anything from an e-commerce site, an online blog, or a simple contact form.

In other words, the headless CMS becomes the engine powering your website.  It’s not about managing content for the web anymore; it’s about managing all of your data—your customer records, project records, financial records. With no one looking at the page, it doesn’t matter how fast it loads as long as it loads quickly enough for what you need to do next.

A good headless CMS should have these features:

• A clean API so developers can build what they need without worrying about figuring out database queries and code structure.
• Advanced search options for filtering content by date range, tags, etc.
• The ability to reuse templates and snippets across multiple projects–makes updating products much easier.
• Security is also a major concern with any type of platform where customer information or sensitive data could potentially be compromised.
• Scalable service providers offer the flexibility to choose whether your account resides on their servers or yours.

There are many benefits to using a headless CMS when building websites. If you’re starting a new business and don’t know which way to go when deciding if you want a dynamic website builder vs. building everything yourself, consider using a more experienced company who knows what they’re doing with technology like WordPress plugins and other integrations into popular platforms such as Google Drive & Dropbox

How Does Headless CMS Work?

A headless CMS is a backend system that handles content management, search engine optimization, and user interface design. It lives behind the scenes so that users don’t need to worry about it. This type of CMS is ideal for developers and designers who want a system that can be customized without worrying about the user-facing side of things.

What Are the Business Benefits of Headless CMS?

Here are some business benefits of Headless CMS:

• No need for website builders and content management specialists.
• Reduced IT costs.
• Lowers the total cost of ownership.
• Standardizes the front end user experience across a company’s products and services, regardless if they are produced by one or many vendors.
• Eliminates legacy software licensing fees. -Lower development time with faster code release cycles.
• Increases developer productivity.
• Releases staff from maintaining content updates and versions on different platforms.
• Organizations can produce the same types of content across channels like websites, mobile applications, wearables, social media networks etc., while maintaining a single version of truth.
• Higher customer engagement rates because users can access the latest information via different devices at any time or location.

1) Graph CMS          

Graph CMS is an example of a content-focused platform. It is both easy for beginners and provides advanced features for more experienced developers. The simple interface allows users to publish posts, pages, documents, and other content without the need for special training or knowledge. In this way, it can act as a headless CMS without requiring you to create one from scratch.

Here are top features of Graph CMS:

• Graph CMS offers some great collaboration tools that allow teams to work on projects together. With these tools, members of the team can easily update data and collaborate on tasks without any difficulty.
• Users have access to different permissions levels so they can tailor their account according to what they want their role to be within the project. Moreover, this platform has plenty of integrations with other services such as MailChimp, Zapier, etc., which means you can use it with your existing workflow and processes.
• One thing to note about Graph CMS is that it does not support the publishing of blog posts (and there’s no built-in commenting system either).
• Nevertheless, since most people already know how to post blog posts elsewhere, this shouldn’t be much of a problem.
• If you want true blog management capabilities, then you might want to look at another option such as WordPress.
• Most bloggers start off using WordPress and later switch over when they realize the limitations it poses, then this may not be the right fit for you.

2) Dot CMS

Dot CMS is a fully headless content management system (CMS) that features a single-page application, built on the Meteor framework. It has a REST API and server-side rendering for improved performance. All pages can be created using HTML/CSS and JS/JQuery without requiring any knowledge of PHP or Node.js. The UI is responsive with real-time updates that can be seen as changes are made.

Here are some top features of Dot CMS:

• Single-Page Application
• Real Time Updates
• Built on ReactJS and Meteor
• Uses Markdown as its default syntax
• Requires no coding experience from users
• Mobile Friendly Interface
• Email integration allows you to create an email template and send emails from within the app, complete with template variables such as form data from fields or the user’s name
• Users can publish posts via Slack
• Supports integrations for Google Maps, Twitter Cards, YouTube Cards, Youtube Videos & Vimeo Videos
• Unlimited Colors & Font

3) Strapi

Strapi is a headless content management system (CMS) with a free and open-source license. Built on Node.js and MongoDB, it can be customized via front-end modules and plugins. The API is the main interface to manipulate data, manage users, build workflows, create pages, etc. It’s built for developers by developers.

Here are some top features of Strapi:

• Developing apps or APIs without coding
• No database migrations needed
• Supports nodejs, bower, npm & yarn package manager for development
• Integrated Google Analytics module for analytics tracking
• Templates editor that allows editing of all web assets at once – HTML/CSS/JS files + templates/partials/sections from which these files were generated from + assets used as part of your project such as fonts, images and more)

4) Story Blok

Story Blok is an open-source, headless CMS that is rapidly rising in popularity. It offers content creators the ability to write and publish dynamic content with ease. For example, you can use it as a single platform for your blog and ecommerce store, or use it as a multisite to manage multiple websites. One of its best features is how easy it is for developers to customize their pages and layouts.

Here are sp,e top features of Story Blok:

• Integrates with Google Analytics
• Unlimited tags
• Allows global blocks
• Supports many languages
• Theme builder
• Extensive documentation
• Built by developers
• User-friendly interface
• Numerous integrations
• Easy installation

This list is by no means exhaustive but gives a good idea of what this project has to offer in terms of managing content online without the need for custom code.

5) Contentstack

According to a recent study by Gartner, Contentstack was ranked as the number one headless CMS for enterprise content management. There are many benefits of using a headless platform, but one of the most significant is that you don’t have to deal with a steep learning curve. As an example, on both Drupal and WordPress you need coding skills.

With Contentstack headless content management there is no need for any coding because everything is drag and drop. The advantages of this platform are endless, but we’ll just mention a few more here: ease of use, scalability and developer friendliness. It’s easier than ever before to set up your website and get it running on its own domain name with this platform – no coding necessary!

Here are some top features of Contentstack:

• Contentstack’s pricing is competitive with other headless content management platforms. It offers two levels of service, Standard and Premium.
• The premium service includes several extra features which may or may not be included with a standard level plan.
• It all depends on your needs as a user, so you can decide which one works best for you.
• If you’re having trouble deciding, they offer a 30-day free trial period where you can see firsthand how the system functions.
• Headless CMS websites like Contentstack often integrate with popular plugins such as Yoast SEO for search engine optimization and Google Analytics for tracking stats about traffic to the site.

6) Bold

Bold uses a React-powered browser-based editor that’s optimized for developers, designers, and content editors. The platform is built on top of the open-source codebase of Drupal, which means it inherits all the great features from this popular CMS. It also has a framework called TinyMCE, which is based on jQuery library, built into its editor. It also provides an API so that users can create custom modules and plugins.

Here are some top features of Bold:

• It offers 4 pricing tiers depending on how many website pages you need to build;
• Content editing tools include advanced WYSIWYG interface with floating formatting buttons, table generator, media support with YouTube video and images uploader;
• Mobile friendly design ensures user experience is never broken when switching between desktop and mobile versions of your website;
• Excellent security control – your data belongs only to you;
• Bold also has one more thing in common with WordPress – thousands of themes available for download.

7) Magnolia

Magnolia is one of the most popular headless content management systems (CMS) for good reason. It’s both simple and powerful, and is designed for small and medium-sized businesses with up to 100 users. Like many other headless CMS, it allows you to build out your own backend from scratch or use their templates. With either approach, the result is a fast loading website that requires less server resources.

Here are some top features of Magnolia:

• A simple interface
• One click updates on everything from plugins to themes
• Automatically synchronizes changes between pages and posts, including text edits, image uploads, menu items, price lists, widgets or any custom post type
• A built-in free image hosting service for your team
• Integrates with WooCommerce for eCommerce functionality
• Offers a responsive design option
• Social media integration
• Plugin marketplace
• Open source
• Multiple languages

8) Butter CMS

Butter CMS is a highly scalable and easy-to-use content management system for creating and maintaining websites, with a focus on simplicity. The platform aims to be the best choice for small businesses and start-ups, as well as designers, freelancers and developers working with client sites.

It’s written entirely in PHP using the Symfony framework, which makes it possible to run it on any web server that supports PHP 7+, including cloud hosting platforms like Amazon Web Services or Heroku.

It’s built around a REST API backend that provides granular control over site creation without having to write any code – no web design experience required!

The frontend is designed specifically for non-technical people who need an intuitive interface: editing content becomes as simple as clicking an element and adding new text or images.

Here are some top features of Butter CMS:

• Can run anywhere
• Runs 100% in the browser
• Responsive UI
• Uses JSON data structure
• Browser compatibility
• IE9+ / Safari 5.1+ / Chrome 6+
• Useful for both B2B and B2C companies , Small business owners, Freelancers/designers, Developers with clients

9) Mura

Mura is an open-source content management system that is headless.  It can be used as a backend for any frontend, including Drupal and WordPress. Mura was built with a focus on developer productivity and extensibility, supporting JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, NodeJS and other languages. Its integration with JAMstack technologies make it popular among those looking for the latest web design trends.

Here are some top features of Mura:

• Mura offers an API (Application Programming Interface) so developers can build third party plugins.
• Mura has REST API support for interacting with its core API endpoints, and provides out of the box plugin support for working with APIs such as Facebook Graph API, MailChimp API, Salesforce API, Mailgun API and many more.
• The REST API supports advanced authentication models such as OAuth2.
• Mura has multiple databases options available – PostgreSQL (default), MySQL or Microsoft SQL Server – each offering unique benefits based on use case.
• For example, if your website’s data needs to stay up when there is no internet connection, you’ll need something like PostgresSQL.
• If you’re storing large amounts of data then MS SQL Server would be a better choice.
• Mura integrates with Amazon S3 storage via an add-on called Mura Storage which allows Mura users to store media files directly on Amazon S3 buckets and serve them seamlessly from the same place where they publish their website contents.

10) Cockpit

Cockpit is a great option for businesses who want their website content and data to be managed by one team. The platform enables you to use any programming language or backend stack, such as Python, PHP, NodeJS, or Ruby on Rails. And it comes with an API so that your developers can create custom integrations.

Cockpit integrates well with most major CMSs like WordPress and Drupal. It also has out-of-the-box support for eCommerce stores and online booking systems like Magento, PrestaShop, OpenCart or WooCommerce. It’s perfect for small-to-medium sized businesses who don’t have the resources of large enterprises. The best part? They offer a 14 day free trial!

Here are some top features of Cockpit:

• Out-of-the box integration with popular CMSs
• A comprehensive set of APIs for developers
• Compatible with many database technologies
• Scalable solutions for medium to large teams
• Supports many languages and frameworks
• Free 14 day trial period
• Lightweight user interface framework for web application development  There are hundreds of configuration options available, which means you can get started quickly without much technical knowledge.
• Seamless scalability: With open source technology powering everything, they plan to make Cockpit scalable from 10 users all the way up to millions.
• As it grows, they’ll continue adding new features so that it always stays fresh and intuitive.
• You can also integrate some platforms into Cockpit itself (like Pardot or Salesforce) – this gives you instant access to all your valuable information at a single click of a button.

Conclusion

We hope this blog post helped answer some questions about what headless CMSes are, how they work and what some of their advantages are! Headless CMS platforms are a great way to separate your content from the design and development process. They also provide an easy integration with third-party tools such as Google Analytics, Mailchimp, and Zapier. In short, headless is the future of web development. It’s not too soon to start considering it for your next project!

The CMS development company you choose is going to be the most important decision you make when it comes to your website. Your CMS platform can determine your success and relevance online. So, it’s essential that you take time and do thorough research before making this choice. If a company offers a headless CMS, they are more likely to be one of the best options available because they are built with an understanding of what today’s content creators need from their software.