Headless CMS
In short
A headless CMS is a content management system without a presentation layer of its own. It stores and manages content and delivers it through an interface to any output channel – website, app, customer portal or an in-store screen. A development team builds the design separately. In a traditional CMS, editing and presentation are combined in one system.
When the split pays off
A headless CMS shows its strength when the same content appears in several places – product data on the website, in an app and on a dealer portal, for instance – or when the website is built in a way a traditional CMS would constrain.
Content is retrieved through an API. Each channel fetches what it needs and presents it in its own way.
The most common misconception: headless is automatically better
Headless is an architectural decision, not a mark of quality. Editor preview, forms, multilingual handling and the SEO basics have to be built by someone – things a traditional system often ships with.
For a website with a handful of pages that is updated twice a year, a headless CMS is usually more system than benefit.
The Swiss angle
Many headless CMS products are cloud services run by foreign providers. Website copy is rarely sensitive, but editor accounts and form submissions are personal data – so the question of processing location and contract (Art. 9 and 16 FADP) belongs in the selection here too.
Bilingual websites are the norm in Switzerland. A headless CMS should treat language versions as content in their own right, not as copies translated after the fact.
How we handle it
We choose the CMS by how the business runs, not by the trend: if content goes out to several channels, it gets a decoupled architecture; if it is one website, a simple system. Both are built under web apps or website development.
Related terms
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