Imagine you’re running a successful online retail store, and you’ve decided to expand your presence. You want a system that’s flexible, scalable, and capable of delivering a seamless experience across various devices. This is where a headless CMS comes into play. Unlike traditional CMS platforms that bundle the back-end and front-end together, a headless CMS decouples the two, offering more control and flexibility over content delivery.
In this article, we’ll provide a comprehensive cost comparison of the top headless CMS solutions, helping you make an informed decision for your business needs.
What is the difference between a traditional CMS and a headless CMS?
A traditional CMS has the front-end and the back-end connected to a system. It means that the back-end, where the content is created and managed and the front-end where content is displayed to users are connected. In this setup, the CMS handles everything from storing content to displaying it on a webpage. Some examples include WordPress and Joomla.
Whereas, a headless CMS separates the back-end from the front-end. It manages content creation and storage but delivers it through APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) for display on any device or platform. Some examples include Contentful, Strapi, and Kentico Kontent.
Some of the other key differences between the two are:
Architecture
A traditional CMS has a monolithic architecture, while a headless CMS has a decoupled architecture.
Flexibility
A headless CMS allows content to be delivered to any platform be it web, mobile, or IoT, providing greater flexibility.
Scalability
A headless CMS scales more easily since it can handle growing content and traffic independently from the front-end.
Why choose a headless CMS?
Future-proofing
A headless CMS can adapt to new technologies and platforms without needing to complete a back-end revamp. This is due to the decoupling capability of the content management system.
As new devices, platforms, and technologies appear, the content stored in a headless CMS can be easily delivered through APIs to any front-end, be it a website, mobile app, other device, or even AR/VR applications.
This means that organisations can be relieved of lagging behind and meet user expectations without the need for extensive redevelopment, ensuring longevity and relevance in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Headless CMSs are known for delivering faster load times and improved user experiences. This performance boost is due to the separation of the back-end and front-end layers, allowing each function independent.
In a traditional CMS, the back-end operations can often slow down the front-end, leading to slower load times. However, with a headless CMS, the front-end can be built using lightweight, modern frameworks that bring content via APIs, resulting in quicker page loads and smoother interactions.
This decoupling also means that content can be cached more effectively and served through a CDN (Content Delivery Network), that enhances performance and user satisfaction.
Customisation
A headless CMS provides greater control over how content is presented, allowing for unique and engaging user interfaces.
Since the CMS only handles the back-end operations and delivers content via APIs, developers have complete freedom to design and build the front-end using any technology stack they prefer.
This flexibility helps to build highly customised user experiences that are not restricted by the limitations of traditional CMS templates and themes. Whether it’s implementing advanced animations, interactive elements, or unique layouts, a headless CMS pushes the boundaries of design and functionality.
Key features to consider in a headless CMS
When selecting a headless CMS for your organisation, understanding the critical features to look for is essential for making an informed decision. Unlike traditional CMS platforms, headless CMS solutions offer distinct advantages by decoupling the back-end content repository from the front-end presentation layer.
Content modeling
Content modeling is the ability to define and structure content types and their relationships. This feature allows for customised content management that fits the unique needs of your website or application.
It ensures that content can be reused and repurposed across different platforms and devices, providing a consistent user experience and reducing redundancy.
API capabilities (REST, GraphQL)
API capabilities refer to the methods by which content is delivered from the CMS to the front-end. REST and GraphQL APIs provide flexible and efficient ways to fetch and manipulate data.
REST is widely used for its simplicity, making it easy to integrate with various systems. On the other hand, GraphQL offers more flexibility by allowing clients to request specific data, reducing over-fetching and improving performance.
Flexibility and scalability
Flexibility and scalability are necessary for a headless CMS to grow and adapt to increasing demands. A headless CMS should easily scale with your business needs, handling more content, users, and traffic without significant performance degradation.
Flexibility ensures the CMS can support various front-ends and integrate with new technologies as needed, providing a future-proof solution for your content management.
Security features
Security features are measures in place to protect content and data. These features help maintain the integrity and confidentiality of your data, protecting it from unauthorised access and breaches.
Robust security features like authentication, encryption, and role-based access control are essential to safeguard sensitive information and ensure compliance with data protection regulations.
Considering these features ensures that your headless CMS is not only capable of meeting your current needs but also future-proofs your digital presence, enhances performance, allows for high customisation, and ensures the security of your data.
Overview of top headless CMS solutions
Choosing a headless CMS can be a daunting task but it is absolutely important to compare the leading solutions to find the best fit for your needs. Here, we provide an overview of five top headless CMS solutions based on their features, flexibility, scalability, and user feedback.
The CMS solutions being compared are Contentful, Strapi, Kentico Kontent, Sanity, and GraphCMS. These platforms have been selected for their robust feature sets, flexibility, scalability, and strong user reviews.
Contentful
It has an intuitive interface, making it accessible to both developers and content managers.
It offers comprehensive RESTful and GraphQL APIs, allowing seamless integration with various platforms and services.
It also supports a wide range of integrations, enhancing its versatility for different project needs making it suitable for businesses of all sizes, with features that support both small projects and large enterprises.
Strapi is an open-source headless CMS that is highly customisable and flexible, allowing developers to tailor the CMS to their specific requirements.
It is a self-hosted solution, providing control over hosting and data, which can be crucial for businesses with specific compliance needs.
The CMS offers a variety of plugins to extend functionality and adapt to various use cases.
Strapi supports multiple databases, including SQL and NoSQL options, enhancing adaptability.
Kentico Kontent
Kentico Kontent highlights modular content management and collaboration, making it ideal for large teams and complex workflows.
It is designed to handle large-scale projects, making it suitable for enterprise-level applications.
The CMS provides extensive documentation and support, ensuring smooth implementation and maintenance.
It includes features like multilingual support, content personalisation, and workflow management.
Sanity
It is known for its real-time collaboration features and flexible content modeling.
Sanity integrates well with various platforms through its robust API offerings.
Sanity allows multiple users to work on content simultaneously, improving efficiency and teamwork.
The CMS provides a unique, adaptable editor interface that enhances the content creation experience.
GraphCMS
GraphCMS specialises in providing a seamless GraphQL API, offering precise and efficient data fetching.
It is optimised for high-performance applications, ensuring fast load times and efficient data handling.
The CMS is capable of handling content-heavy applications, making it suitable for large and complex projects.
It is designed with developers in mind, offering extensive documentation and support for complex integrations.
Cost comparison of top headless CMS solutions
Selecting the right headless CMS can significantly impact your project's success. This section provides a detailed cost comparison of the top five headless CMS solutions.
Contentful
It is ideal for marketing websites, ecommerce platforms, and mobile apps. Companies like Spotify and Urban Outfitters use Contentful to manage and deliver their digital content.
The Community edition offers essential features, including GraphQL API access, multiple users, content types, and records, all at no cost.
Basic plan
Starts at $300/month, offering more users, higher limits, and access to additional apps like Launch and Compose.
Premium plan
Custom pricing with advanced orchestration features, more roles, locales, and dedicated support.
Contentful is easy to use, has strong community support, and is scalable. It might be expensive for large teams and has an initial learning curve for advanced features.
Strapi
It is suitable for startups, custom applications, and businesses needing extensive customisation. Many startups and tech companies use Strapi to build flexible and scalable applications.
Free plan
It is open-source and free to use, providing a fully functional version with unlimited content types.
Cloud solutions
The managed hosting starts at $29/month and goes up to $499/month, with features like backups and monitoring.
Enterprise solutions
The custom pricing offers additional support, security features, and Support SLAs.
Strapi is highly customisable, cost-effective, and has an active open-source community. However, it requires technical expertise and has fewer out-of-the-box features compared to competitors.
Kentico Kontent
This platform is ideal for large enterprises, content-heavy websites, and complex digital ecosystems. Organisations like Oxford University and Vogue use Kentico Kontent to manage their digital content.
Free plan
The developer plan offers basic features suitable for small projects such as access to two users and has SDKs for popular frameworks.
Standard plan
It starts at $1,299/month, providing advanced content management features and higher limits with a paid web spotlight add-on worth $499 per month.
Premium plan
This is for the major projects that require custom pricing with tailored support and services for large-scale projects priced at $2499 per month.
Enterprise solutions
The custom plans are for large enterprises needing extensive support and scalability with features such as access to 50+ users, unlimited collections, and 5+ environments.
It has strong collaboration features and offers scalable features with, excellent support. It might be on the costlier side with a steeper learning curve for beginners.
Sanity
Sanity is suitable for collaborative projects, custom applications, and businesses requiring flexible content management. Companies like Nike and National Geographic use Sanity for their content needs.
Free plan
Includes basic features with a generous limit on documents and API calls such as it offers 20 user seats with unlimited content types and locales
Standard plan
It is known as the growth plan, which starts at $15/month per seat, offering more users and higher limits.
Enterprise Solutions
Custom solutions for companies with large-scale projects that have custom user seats and other features.
It offers real-time collaboration, flexible content modeling, and strong API integration. It can become expensive as usage scales, and initial setup complexity.
GraphCMS
It is ideal for content-heavy applications and large-scale projects. Companies like Unilever and Telenor use GraphCMS to manage and deliver their digital content.
Free plan
The community plan is of no cost, and basic features with limited usage such as completely hosted and GraphQL native Headless CMS are suitable for small projects.
Starter plan
It is a self-service plan that starts at $299/month for professionals, offering more features like complete access to the GraphQL management API and SDK.
Professional plan
As you scale, you pay $899 per month per project with features such as content versioning and improved workflows.
Enterprise solutions
Custom solutions for large organisations with extensive content needs.
It is great for efficient data fetching with GraphQL, offers high performance, and is scalable. It might be complex for beginners, and you’ll be paying a higher cost for advanced plans.
These comprehensive comparisons of the top headless CMS solutions provide a detailed look at their pricing, features, pros, cons, and use cases, helping you make an informed decision based on your specific needs.
Detailed features comparison
Here’s a detailed comparison focusing on API support, user interface, integration capabilities, and customisation/extensibility.
API support
API support is crucial for a headless CMS as it helps the content to be delivered to various front-end applications via APIs.
Contentful
It provides extensive RESTful and GraphQL APIs, making it flexible for diverse content delivery needs.
Strapi
It offers both RESTful and GraphQL APIs, allowing developers to choose based on
their project requirements.
Sanity
It supports both REST and GraphQL APIs, known for its robust and flexible documentation.
Hygraph
It focuses on GraphQL API, ensuring efficient and precise data fetching.
Kentico Kontent
It provides RESTful APIs and SDKs for various programming languages, ensuring wide compatibility.
User interface and ease of use
The user interface and ease of use determine how quickly content creators and developers can get up to speed with the CMS.
Contentful
It features a clean and intuitive UI, but some users find the lack of advanced preview features limiting.
Strapi
It has a user-friendly interface with a drag-and-drop editor. Being open-source, the UI can be tailored to specific needs.
Sanity
The modern, sleek UI with real-time collaboration features, makes it highly appreciated for ease of use.
Hygraph
The user-friendly interface with robust content modeling tools, is designed to simplify complex tasks.
Kentico Kontent
It has an easy-to-use interface with robust content management and collaboration features, suitable for large teams.
Integration capabilities
Integration capabilities are essential for connecting the CMS with other tools and services used in your workflow.
Contentful
Strong integration with services like AWS, Vercel, and Netlify. A large number of plugins and SDKs are available.
Strapi
Integrates well with multiple databases and third-party services. Highly customisable due to its open-source nature.
Sanity
Excellent integration options, including popular tools like Vercel, Netlify, and ecommerce platforms .
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Hygraph
Integrates seamlessly with various platforms and services, providing flexible content federation.
Kentico Kontent
Extensive integrations with popular services and platforms like Azure, AWS, and Salesforce.
Customisation and Extensibility
Customisation and extensibility allow you to adapt the CMS to meet specific needs and extend its functionality.
Contentful
Highly customisable with a rich set of plugins and integrations. Paid plans offer even more extensibility.
Strapi
Extremely extensible due to its open-source model. Users can modify the source code to fit their needs.
Sanity
Highly customisable with a plugin system. The studio can be tailored to fit specific workflows and requirements.
Hygraph
Offers extensive customisation options through its GraphQL API and flexible content model.
Kentico Kontent
Provides robust customisation and extensibility features, suitable for complex enterprise needs.
Total cost of ownership
Choosing the right headless CMS involves more than just comparing features and functionalities; it's crucial to consider the total cost of ownership. TCO includes all the costs associated with implementing, maintaining, and scaling a CMS over its lifecycle.
Initial setup costs
Setting up a headless CMS involves costs such as subscription fees, development, and integration.
Platforms like Contentful and Kentico Kontent offer free plans for small projects, while professional plans can start from $300/month and $1,299/month respectively.
Strapi, being open-source, allows for a more cost-effective initial setup but may require significant development resources.
Long-term maintenance and scaling costs
Long-term costs include ongoing subscription fees, server costs, and scaling expenses. As your content and traffic grow, the costs can increase significantly.
For example, Sanity's professional plan is $99/month but scales up based on usage.
Platforms with enterprise plans, such as Hygraph and Kentico Kontent, offer custom pricing that can be tailored to your scaling needs.
Hidden costs and potential savings
Hidden costs may include expenses for third-party integrations, additional plugins, and custom development.
However, using an open-source solution like Strapi can save costs on licensing fees, but may incur higher costs in development and maintenance.
Savings can be found in platforms that offer comprehensive support and built-in features, reducing the need for additional tools and services.
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Choosing the right headless CMS for your business
Selecting the appropriate headless CMS for your business depends on several factors. It involves considering various factors such as business needs, budget, and technical expertise.
Factors to consider
Business needs
Identify whether your business requires extensive customisation, multiple integrations, or simple content management.
For instance, if you need to deliver content across various platforms like the web, or mobile, a highly flexible CMS like Sanity or Hygraph would be suitable.
Budget
Determine your budget for both initial setup and long-term costs.
Platforms like Contentful and Sanity offer various pricing tiers to fit different budgets, with free plans available for smaller projects and custom pricing for larger enterprises.
Technical expertise
Assess your team’s technical skills. Open-source platforms like Strapi might require more technical knowledge for customisation and maintenance.
Whereas user-friendly interfaces like those of Contentful and Kentico Kontent can simplify content management for non-technical users.
Strapi or Sanity’s free plans are ideal for small businesses looking to minimise costs while maintaining flexibility.
Enterprises
Kentico Kontent and Hygraph, with their robust features and custom pricing plans, are suitable for large-scale projects requiring advanced capabilities and support.
Developers
For teams with strong technical skills, Strapi provides extensive customisation and control over the CMS environment.
Choosing the right headless CMS involves evaluating various factors, including cost, features, and technical requirements. Contentful, Strapi, Sanity, Hygraph, and Kentico Kontent each offer unique benefits that cater to different business needs. By understanding the total cost of ownership and aligning CMS features with business goals, you can make an informed decision to enhance your digital presence and support growth. Always factor in long-term costs and potential savings to ensure the chosen CMS aligns with your growth objectives.
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