Headless CMS
A headless content management system (CMS) allows you to manage and reuse digital content from a single repository and publish to web, mobile apps, and single page applications.
Challenges to the headless-only CMS approach.
Deploying a CMS solution limited by headless architecture can lead to several roadblocks for IT and business users.
Siloed development and marketing flexibility.
Slower campaign time-to-market.
Heavy IT dependence.
Inability to easily optimize and measure performance.
Hybrid CMS is the answer to headless-only limitations.
A hybrid CMS is a next-generation solution that can support both the flexibility of a headless publishing environment with the efficiency of channel-centric content authoring.
Deliver an omnichannel experience.
You can reuse content easily to build connected and consistent experiences. Manage your mature channels easily and efficiently while you reuse content for custom apps and emerging channels.
Greater scalability.
You can create and manage context-optimized experiences that easily scale across products, services, organizations, and geographies without waiting on developers.
Create once, publish everywhere.
A full editorial environment with content templates gives you the power of in-context authoring. Then IT can publish quickly to any channel.
Marketers are happy. Developers are happy.
Hybrid CMS puts greater control in the hands of both marketers and developers, allowing you to deliver experiences quickly and at scale.
Adobe can help.
Using a hybrid CMS approach with Adobe's content management and integrated analytics and targeting tools, it’s easier than ever to create, manage, test, deliver, and measure experiences across the customer journey.
Get started with headless CMS in Experience Manager.
Check out our comprehensive tutorial for Experience Manager headless and learn how to use Experience Manager to power mobile app experiences that display event information.
Hybrid CMS delivers the best of both worlds to leading brands.
See how the experiences driven by Adobe Experience Manager lead to better audience engagement.
"All our branding must be a single, unified experience. We see Adobe in the co-creation process as a partner."
— Thomas Vaarten,
E-Commerce Manager, A.S. Adventure
"We looked at our analytics after we launched the new website. In the first two weeks, traffic on the site increased by 30 percent."
— Devarshi Hazarika,
Business Leader of Digital Experience Solutions, Mastercard
Headless CMS FAQ.
How do we publish content using a headless CMS?
Content is pulled into the publishing environment through an API, which then adapts the content to suit the application or technology being requested.
Will a headless-only approach work for my brand?
Mature channels such as web are best served by a channel-centric CMS, so teams can keep up with high content velocity. However, a hybrid CMS approach is better to serve new channels, as business and tech teams must operate with agility in mature channels yet be able to quickly reuse content in new, emerging channels.
What are common use cases for headless CMS?
Single-page applications, mobile apps, experiences for custom screen sizes, and emerging channels are the primary use cases for headless-only CMS.
Can Adobe Experience Manager support headless use cases?
Experience Manager is a hybrid CMS, giving you the flexibility to be used as a decoupled CMS or headless-only CMS. However, Experience Manager is best used with a hybrid approach that supports channel-centric content management and provides headless CMS functionality at the same time.
Why is headless-only CMS a challenge for enterprises?
Speed of execution is the primary drawback. And you can experience issues with asset management, access control and security, workflow management for authoring and publishing, version control, translations, personalization, and more.
What does "decoupled" mean?
Content authoring and editorial functionality is separate from front-end development capabilities. Content is stored within a shared repository that both IT and marketing teams can access.