In the publishing and digital media space, traditional CMSs such as Wordpress or Drupal provide a lot of functionality out of the box. These CMSs allow a business to easily build a content repository, along with the presentational aspects that are necessary to display and interact with that content.

Traditional CMS platforms are a fantastic way to get started in the publishing and digital media space. However, they may hamper the evolution of a digital media brand. Embracing a headless CMS or decoupled architecture is a good step towards removing the ceiling on the possibilities for content creation and distribution.

So what’s a headless CMS and how is it different? Why should a business choose this route, and what exactly are the benefits? Continue on to our guide that answers these questions and more, including visualizations for how it works.

## Intro
In the publishing and digital media space, traditional CMSs such as Wordpress or Drupal provide a lot of functionality out of the box. These CMSs allow a business to easily build a content repository, along with the presentational aspects that are necessary to display and interact with that content.

Traditional CMSs house all of the logic to create, edit, store, and display content. Support for features such as pages, templates, themes, custom data types, and more can make traditional CMS platforms very appealing when getting content distribution off the ground. Additionally, plugin and extension marketplaces can add rich new features with little to no development effort.

![Traditional CMS](https://cdn.levvel.io/site_assets/4qro6a4LKgJpnXnd3A3BSH/ebabde6eb0188ee1b0ce06b5a2bc0752b099748a.png)

## What is a Headless CMS?
So what’s a headless CMS and how is it different? A headless CMS is one where the CMS only deals with content *creation*, leaving the *presentation* of that content to other components in the system. The CMS only exposes its data through an API, effectively decoupling presentational aspects from content creation.

![Headless CMS](https://cdn.levvel.io/site_assets/4qro6a4LKgJpnXnd3A3BSH/9a87424fdee4982311e8dedf934fc9b20517be90.png)

Transitioning from a traditional CMS architecture to a headless one requires some effort. However, there can be several benefits:

## Five Benefits
### Distribution to More Channels
Allows easily adding new systems to handle distribution to different channels. These can be traditional web channels for desktop or mobile, or even more exotic platforms such as social destinations (Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram), apps, wearables, voice assistants, OTT, etc.

### Quicker and Easier Development
By decoupling distribution channels from one another, it allows them to evolve independently. This means development teams can focus on delivering a vision without the distractions and synchronizations needed in a centralized app.

### Platform Resilience and Longevity
Because each distribution channel is isolated from the CMS, they become simpler, needing to handle fewer edge cases. This also allows newer developers to jump into a distribution channel component easily and make less mistakes as data dependencies are more apparent. 
This makes the overall architecture easier to evolve and maintain.

### Better Performance
With each distribution channel being highly focused and specialized, it allows more fine-tuning, potentially leveraging channel-specific APIs and frameworks. In addition, because components are explicitly separated from one another, it makes measuring API calls for performance bottlenecks easier.

### Opportunities for Integration with Different Data Sources
In a headless CMS setup, it becomes fairly simple to integrate the CMS content API with other APIs, combining them to provide a richer data set. For example, geodata, weather data, or even other third-party services could be combined with content to provide a more compelling experience.

Traditional CMS platforms are a fantastic way to get started in the publishing and digital media space. However, they may hamper the evolution of a digital media brand. Embracing a headless CMS or decoupled architecture is a good step towards removing the ceiling on the possibilities for content creation and distribution.

## About Levvel
Levvel helps clients transform their business with strategic consulting and technical execution services. We work with your IT organization, product groups, and innovation teams to design and deliver on your technical priorities.

Content creation and publishing can be tricky. Our Digital Media team helps your brand shine and take the guesswork out of building and managing a digital publishing platform tailored to your needs. We empower media companies, publishers, and content providers to build digital brands. We enable incredible digital experiences and build tools and infrastructure to power them. For more information, contact us at hello@levvel.io.

Considering a Headless CMS: Five Benefits of a Decoupled Architecture

A step towards removing the ceiling on the possibilities for content creation and distribution.

Considering a Headless CMS: Five Benefits of a Decoupled Architecture

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