Headless vs. Hybrid — Choosing an Enterprise CMS System

Headless vs. Hybrid— this is one of the most critical questions raised when organizations identify a new Web Content Management platform for their organization. The answer to this question is not simple and based on the business needs and other factors like current platform, resource skill, etc. In this post, I am talking about choosing the enterprise CMS system Headless vs. Hybrid based on my understanding; the process will vary based on your needs and current state( Happy to receive feedback ).

Let us quickly see some of CMS architecture patterns.

Traditional(Coupled) CMS architecture:

A Traditional/Coupled CMS knits the front end and the back end layers into a single stack.

• also known as monolithic architecture
• the tight connection between the back end and the front end layers
• Managed through a single platform
• Back end + front end(in the same system)
• WYSIWYG editors and templates — content authors can quickly create the content/pages.
• Example — WordPress Traditional CMS

Typical Headless architecture:

A headless CMS is a back-end-only content management system (CMS) built from the ground up as a content repository that makes content accessible via a RESTful API for display on any device.

• Offers the backend for content storage and management
• API First Development
• UI is separated(Independent of backend) needs to build the experience layer outside CMS.
• Content-as-a-service (CaaS) API — omnichannel content delivery to any platform/device, REST, and GraphQL API endpoints are supported.
• CMS has no predefined front end with standard templates for displaying data
• Backend + API
• Lack of WYSIWYG editors or templates/components for in-context page editing
• Example — Content…