Headless architecture: Seven things to know

“Headless” is an important concept in the context of content management systems (CMSes) but with so many technical terms floating around these solutions, this one might have flown under the radar.

If that’s the case, don't panic: this post will help you understand headless architecture so you can hold your own in any future content management conversations with your development team.

First, we’ll define the term headless architecture and explore its relationship to content management, then we’ll go a bit deeper, examining some of its key characteristics and benefits.

Let's get started.

Headless architecture defined

Headless architecture involves a decoupled approach to the development of software applications.

In this approach, the front end, or head, of the application is optional (you choose whether to use it), or absent (you build it yourself). The head is the part of the application that governs content presentation and dictates what the end user can see and interact with. Here, the head is not attached to the application’s back end, which is the server-side of the application that dictates structure, defines logic, and stores data.

By decoupling the head, the content displayed on the front end is untangled from its underlying code in the back end. That means that all digital content assets (i.e., text, images, video, and anything else housed in the back end) are code agnostic and no longer restricted to a single device, layout, or channel. Communication between the front end and back end is handled by application programming interfaces (APIs). The reduced potential for code complication also makes headless CMSes more accessible for nontechnical users. 

So, if you make the decision to use headless architecture, you can develop a web app and then ship the same business logic and functions to another channel — say, a mobile app — where users can experience it on the go without any need for extra software development gymnastics on your part. 

The precursor to headless architecture

If the definition of headless architecture evokes a sense of déjà vu, it might be because you're familiar with related frameworks, such as best-of-breed architecture; microservice architecture; and microservice-based, API-first, cloud-native, headless (MACH) architecture.

All these describe a decoupled architecture that (like headless architecture) prefers the use of tech stacks over prepackaged suites of tools and services. In fact, those prepackaged suites represent an alternative to headlessness known as monolithic architecture. 

In a monolithic environment, application front ends and back ends are tightly coupled. That coupling makes monolithic architecture particularly useful for all-in-one website building solutions that contain everything a developer needs to launch a site — which typically includes a CMS with a user interface, website design tools, search engine optimization tools, ecommerce tools, and so on. Those tools and features are all packaged together and interlinked to help developers get their sites up and running as quickly as possible. 

Monolithic advantages and disadvantages

Monolithic architecture offers out-of-the-box functionality, with all features delivered by a single vendor — which is also a convenient source of technical support. This is an ideal set up if you’re a brand with a small digital footprint or limited content needs, but if you’re a growing business with a busy content schedule, monolithic technology can hold you back. 

The issue with monolithic architecture is that it can be difficult to upload or adjust content because you’re limited by the underlying code and formatting. This not only slows down content creation workflows but anchors the content to its environment, meaning you won’t be able to easily display it on different front ends or across new channels. Instead, you’ll need to copy and paste content between different CMSes — a process that is both tedious and error-prone. 

Ultimately, headless architecture opens up a landscape of content possibilities, and means that you have complete control over the digital experiences that you create for your audiences.   

Seven key features of headless architecture

Now that you know what headless architecture is, and why it’s so useful for modern content management, let’s drill down into its defining features.

1. It uses APIs to connect the front and back ends 

While front and back ends aren't tightly coupled in headless platforms, they still need to speak to one another. That's where the application programming interfaces that we mentioned earlier come in.APIs are software intermediaries that enable communication between applications. In the scope of headless architecture, developers configure specific APIs (often REST APIs) to pass raw data, or content, from backend business logic services to the frontend presentation layers. 

2. It enables omnichannel presence 

With the internet of things (IoT) expanding rapidly across web apps, mobile apps, wearable technology, voice assistants, AR/VR, and whatever comes next, the digital dominance of desktop apps is over. And with it, the general preference for the coupled architecture of legacy solutions.

In this new era, a key advantage of headless architecture is that it enables brands to easily build and manage multichannel digital experiences — an approach often referred to as omnichannel marketing.

Traditional CMSes, such as Drupal or WordPress, struggle to accommodate multiple channels because they were built for a single use case: namely, supporting tightly coupled websites. The digital assets held in those CMSes, including text, CSS, HTML, or JavaScript, typically serve single touchpoints such as blogs, landing pages, or homepages. It's difficult to make this content available across multiple devices and channels, at least, without adding complexity to the content workflow.

You could introduce a new CMS for each new digital channel that you integrate with your brand, but that would also mean more tools to manage, more administrative overhead for developers and content creators, and greater financial commitment.

It's much easier, and more cost-efficient, to lean into the flexibility of headless architecture, where content can be created once, and then used across any front end and any digital channel. Many online retailers choose headless commerce platforms for that very reason, leveraging omnichannel potential to spin up new product pages, launch campaigns, and drive expansion quickly and efficiently.  

3. It easily integrates with other tools

The next key reason that companies opt for headless architecture is its potential for integration with other tools.

The option to introduce open-source, third-party, and custom-built technologies, or even entire suites of tools to headless platforms, makes it possible to create an ecosystem of microservices tailored to the needs of a brand’s present and future projects. 

You can think of each microservice in your tech stack as a building block that can be added, removed, or reconfigured to build out any digital experience or desired feature. The scalability of headless architecture also supports future-proofing, because development teams can integrate best-in-class tools today with the flexibility to augment the tech stack in the future.

In contrast to the headless approach, using a monolithic platform means working within the restrictions set by a vendor. This would require you to wait until the platform was upgraded with new tools, or find a potentially unauthorized workaround for an absent functionality, which could end up creating unnecessary tech debt. 

4. It accommodates diverse languages and frameworks

Headless architectures allow development teams to diversify both the programming languages and frameworks. 

That’s a big difference from monolithic systems, and the traditional CMS, where the software vendor decides on the languages and frameworks that developers must use. These legacy platforms typically offer a breadth of capabilities as a way to address as many content needs as possible — but that comes at the expense of functionality and flexibility.

In headless platforms, both programming language and framework of choice can be tailored to a given project, its ecosystem, and developer skill sets. Frontend developers might mix and match their use of popular frontend frameworks, such as React or Vue.js, while backend developers might reach for backend frameworks like JavaScript, Express.js, or Nest.js.

Language and framework flexibility not only makes content production more efficient in headless environments, but removes friction from content workflows, which makes team members’ lives easier and, ultimately, supports employee retention. 

5. It accelerates productivity through agile workflows

Headless architectures reduce time to market in more ways than one. In addition to supporting a diversity of frameworks and languages, the headless approach supports agile workflows — rather than the traditional waterfall workflows of monolithic platforms that require certain tasks to be completed before others can be started.

How is that agility achieved? Each microservice within a headless architecture is typically managed by small, dedicated teams who can work autonomously. These teams have the freedom to iterate on their service, and deploy new functionality as it is needed, without worrying about the interdependencies common to tightly coupled monolithic approaches.

In traditional monolithic systems, the stages of a given project are usually completed independently, in isolation from each other, by technical and nontechnical teams. That doesn’t need to be the case in a headless platform: since content and code are decoupled, it’s easier for technical and non-technical teams to collaborate. Creatives can generate and edit content via a simple user interface while developers tweak code, without either workstream stalling or becoming reliant on the other.

Agile development, publishing, and optimization processes also enable brands to implement end-user feedback more efficiently — delivering better customer experiences, faster. 

6. It supports structured content

Headless architecture is more than just a catalyst for developers, it also makes life easier for editors, marketers, and anyone else who creates, updates, manages, or supports content work. One of the key ways it does that is by facilitating structured content. 

Instead of having content tied to a specific layout within a CMS, structured content breaks content down into its structural elements: header, body text, image, and so on. Those elements can then be assembled, like building blocks, into chunks of larger content, such as hero banner, author bio, blog post, and product review. Those larger content chunks can be deployed anywhere within the digital framework, and can be easily edited and reused on other channels, or in support of new content experiences, because there's no risk of incompatibility with the host environment.

Structured content eliminates the need for excessive copying and pasting between environments during migration, and reduces the risk of human error associated with that kind of manual task. It’s also more accessible to web-crawlers, and lends itself to personalization and translation, all of which can improve SEO and help smooth the path into target markets. 

To leverage this kind of flexibility, you’ll need a platform, like Contentful, that enables you to work with structured content. If you want to test the waters, you can sign up for a free Contentful account and start building in minutes.  

7. It supports composable commerce

We’ve seen how headless architectures serve the web development needs of brands across the industrial landscape, but they can be especially impactful in ecommerce contexts — so much so that migration to headless commerce architecture has become much more common in the past decade — along with the use of composable commerce platforms.

The benefit of composable commerce is the flexibility to create a completely customized tech stack from modular microservices, all focused specifically on selling products and services online. Key components that you’d need to build out your composable commerce platform include a CMS, a shopping cart, a checkout and payment processing service, and an order tracker — but you’d obviously be free to customize your stack further, according to your needs. 

Contentful has helped brands around the world, including Kraft-Heinz, On, Vodafone, KFC, and Audible, migrate their ecommerce platforms to composable commerce models, transforming customers’ digital content experiences and boosting bottom lines.

Migrating to headless architecture: The next step

The features explored above provide a good overview of headless architecture, but there's obviously much more to explore. 

If you’re thinking about migrating to headless architecture, it’s going to be worth digging a little deeper into your options. For more targeted information on the relationship between headless architecture, headless commerce, and modern content management platforms, check out our white paper, or get the rundown directly from Contentful Solution Engineer Harry Jeyarajah.

From headless to composable with Contentful 

However entertaining your current watercooler chats are, if you’re a modern, growing brand, with a busy digital content schedule, you’ll need the flexibility that a headless approach provides. 

But there’s no need to stop there. To really future-proof your brand, keep your customers engaged, and ensure your digital experiences stay agile and innovative, it makes sense to embrace composability. 

Contentful will help you leave your traditional CMS behind, and refresh your marketing operations with customizable freedom for every part of your tech stack. Explore a vast partner landscape of extensible apps and plugins, shape content experiences down to the smallest detail, iterate and innovate with structured content across any digital channel — and prepare your website, or your online store, for whatever the future holds.

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