Headless CMS vs. Traditional CMS for Mobile Apps: Choosing the Right Fit

Introduction

Options are everywhere, which is great but sometimes having too many options can be pretty daunting and overwhelming. And this is a true scenario for every industry vertical out there. Well, I no longer be beating around the bush and come straight to the point, do you know what is headless CMS? I am sure you do know what a content management system is.

A content management system or a CMS is basically a software platform that enables businesses irrespective of their size and industry vertical to create and publish attention-grabbing content without even writing one line of code. Now whether it’s a website or a mobile application or any other kind of digital technology, it is possible to deliver content. So now you know CMS tools are basically used for developing and managing content.

A Glimpse of Traditional Content Management System

Earlier some of the best or known examples of a CMS as Wordpress, Joomla, Magento, Strapi, Contentful, Agility CMS, Kentico and so more. As mentioned earlier, since CMS do not require any kind of technical know-how to operate, apart from this, it assists well in enhancing collaboration, and workflow between teams.

Now you must be wondering how early CMSes were supposed to be. Well, as mentioned above WordPress is one of the leading CMS systems, a mere blogging platform turning into the world’s largest website development platform. So basically the role of a traditional CMS was about connecting both the frontend and the backend technology so that templates can work wonders for businesses, especially non-techies. Traditional CMSes such as WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal were wonderful the only issue was they became rigid and weren’t flexible enough. With time passing by, and consumers becoming more demanding for quick personal interactions, traditional CMS had to evolve too. And this is how the concept of headless CMS came into existence.

There are different types of businesses across the globe from mere startups to mid-size businesses to large-scale organizations, each and every one of them has different needs so the end users, this is where the concept of headless CMS comes into play.

Enters Headless CMS

Headless CMSes were initially designed to cater to non-browser systems such as applications for phones or internet devices. Fortunately, this is no longer the case. A headless CMS enables you to develop highly tailored content right in accordance to different individual needs. Now there seems to be no more relevance on the templating systems. Contentful, Core DNA, and Contentstack are some of the best examples of a headless CMS.

Technically speaking, when you use a headless CMS the space where content is present, i.e. the presentation layer is successfully separated from the backend ( a space where content management is easy and possible). Managing content easily as well as deploying it to any digital channel of your choice in one place is quite possible. Now when the content is separated from the backend and frontend, it becomes simpler for the marketers to manage as well as for the developers to conduct changes in a short span of time.

Now let us understand more about headless CMS in a different way. Let’s say you are willing to record a song. Everything from lyrics to melodies, instruments, and voice tracks is pre-decided. A well-recorded song can be made even in the basement or you can seek out for a professional recording studio which is tailored and suitable for every musician, where each part is recorded individually, changes are made easily and you have a great sound engineer to give an oomph. This is what it is about offering great information and presentation.

A headless CMS is more kind of a professional recording studio where your content is more organized and thoughtfully edited. Developers, marketers and designers can easily remix it. Also, headless CMS can successfully assist when it comes to reusing or remixing the content. Also, not to mention the demand for headless CMS increased because the traditional monolithic ones were unable to meet the needs and requirements of today’s consumers.

When to use a Headless CMS?

1. You need to scale up your business too quickly

A headless CMS successfully separates the designing of the frontend UX from implementing backend content management capabilities. Here both backend and frontend teams can work separately. Moreover, to scaling, headless CMSes can surely succeed in managing dependencies.

2. You are willing to offer more personalized and interactive digital experiences

Personalization and interactive digital experiences have become the need of the hour. Fortunately, a headless CMS offers it all and therefore it is a must-have technology for most of eCommerce companies.

The 2019 pandemic has really made it difficult for eCommerce companies to engage with their end users. This resulted in the inception of a wide range of digital transformation plans. Apart from eCommerce companies most fitness-based organizations were asked to create such digital experiences which can successfully surpass all the pre-required physical experiences. Several homebound gym members had started to digitize their exercise activities and came up with the concept of online classes. Also, the inception of fitness trackers and wearables came into being.

With the help of headless CMS, fitness franchises now seem to have directly begun engaging with members by offering personalised fitness plans and providing in-the-moment motivational alerts.

3. You are willing to streamline business procedures

The next benefit to take into consideration of using a headless CMS is all the business procedures can be well-streamlined. And this is extremely important at least to gain a competitive edge. Embedding a headless CMS with a sales-based application can give a quick boost to your sales and marketing approaches.

Apart from these, you can consider headless CMS when you are willing to share content stores in such a way that it can be utilized by multiple systems or if the content is supposed to be shared via mobile apps or IoT devices especially the ones with no browser interfaces, or when real-time information updates are required, and above all, if the developer is willing to give new technology a shot.

When not to consider Headless CMS?

1. It is okay to manage a single content stream

2. When the current templates are more than enough

3. When you don’t have ample IT support staff

A Small Gist of Traditional and Headless CMS

Advantages of a Traditional CMS	Disadvantages of a Traditional CMS
Advantages of a Headless CMS	Disadvantages of a Headless CMS

And now comes the big question, which content management system to pick, a traditional one or a headless CMS? Well, before we find that out here is a small set of differences that one must read.

Headless CMS vs Traditional CMS - Can you Spot the Differences?

1. Architecture

One of the fundamental differences between a headless CMS and a traditional one is the architecture. Yes, a headless CMS comprises of a decoupled architecture where frontend and backend turn out to be two different entities, where one is responsible for developing on an individual basis using a different technology stack and one is responsible for seamless content management. Traditional CMS on the contrary seems to have monolithic architecture where both frontend and backend are tightly integrated.

2. Content

Headless CMS is where content is presented on a wide range of channels and devices such as websites, mobile apps, smartwatches and even IoT devices. Since the content and presentation are separated, the scope of flexibility and adaptability increases to a great extent. Whereas traditional CMS focuses on delivering content for a specific content especially a website.

The presentation layer is well integrated with CMS, which results in amazing flexibility especially when it is about delivering content to a wide range of platforms.

3. Development Speed

Now this is very important factor to take into account especially in today’s times when quick development is what all it needs to gain an edge over competition. When traditional CMS platforms were in vogue, they featured a comprehensive set of tools, and pre-built templates. This definitely makes it way more easier for developers to come up with a unique website or application in no time. Moreover, with traditional CMS it is possible to seek assistance from all the built-in features and functionalities without building anything from the scratch.

On the other hand, headless CMS is where the development process can take some time as here everything is supposed to be created from the scratch using any of your preferred technology stacks. So yes the development might be delayed but you get to be more flexible and productive like never before.

These are just a few basic points that must be taken into consideration before choosing either of the two, i.e. traditional CMS or headless CMS. Now both the systems have their own set of advantages and disadvantages, so you have to make a choice on the basis of your needs, specific requirements.

So choose headless CMS when you are looking for flexibility, scalability, cross-platform delivery and choose a traditional CMS when you are looking for a quick to deploy, user-friendly, limited customization system.

Remember, your choice matters a lot here.

Final Words

Choosing a CMS can be extremely tricky only if you have no idea how to choose. Now there are a set of requirements that must be fulfilled while making a choice such as:

• A CMS has to incorporate core functionalities

• A CMS must be easy to use

• A CMS should be mobile-friendly

• A CMS must possess a great amount of security and access control

• Seamless integration of analytics

• Easy-to-use templates

• High-end scalability

• Search functionality

• User interaction

So which one will you pick a headless CMS or a traditional one, it’s up to you. Of course, there is no sure-shot way that you will pick the right one in the very first go. It’s all about trial and error. Also, it is advisable to conduct proper research to save ample of time and money. And lastly, do not get blinded by those worthless flashy nice-to-haves that are certainly of no use to you.

And we are done here! I hope the following post is worth the read. If so, feel free to share the information among your peers. In case, if you have any doubts or queries, feel free to let us know in the comment section below.