Hunting for the best headless CMS out there?
Since the headless CMS market has experienced a dramatic increase in demand, it can be hard to pick the right content management platform that will enable you to deliver great customer experiences across all devices. Therefore, we’ve compiled a list of the top 10 headless CMSs solutions of 2024 for you.
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Top 10 headless CMSs for your business
The need to create engaging, high-quality content for a better digital customer experience is rising. Businesses bet on a headless content management system (CMS) to gain and retain consumer attention.
Unlike traditional CMS platforms that offer a typical digital experience for web users, a headless CMS doesn't provide an interface for end-users; instead, it uses APIs to interact with other software applications.
Let’s take a deep dive into the list! Are you ready for the result?
How did we choose the best CMSs?
We started with picking some headless CMSs based on their reviews, reputation, and success. We tried all of them out on that account, and then we selected those headless content management systems that might be well-proven solutions for your business.
In order to help your business choose the right headless content management solution, we’ve collected the 10 best headless CMS options recognized by Forrester, Gartner, and G2Crowd.
These global market research companies provide business and technology leaders insights into marketing research, data analytics, and marketing technology. Now, let’s have a look at the most popular headless CMS software solutions of this year.
Top 10 Headless CMSs in 2024
#1 Kontent.ai
Kontent.ai is a true SaaS model that empowers enterprise content teams. This headless CMS lets both marketers and developers focus on creating the best digital customer experiences. With real-time collaboration, simultaneous editing, single page react app, and project management features, Kontent.ai maximizes team contributions and helps improve consistency. Developers can enjoy the freedom to pick their own tech stack and build online experiences rapidly.
#2 Magnolia
Founded back in 1997, Switzerland-based Magnolia CMS helps enterprises build their corporate websites, unify all content in a single hub, and provides the flexibility of an API-first headless solution. Apart from that, Magnolia allows content creators to deliver structured content across various channels and multiple devices. Moreover, this headless system enables your developers to integrate other frontend frameworks— like Vue, React, or Angular—with the backend.
#3 Agility CMS
The goal of Agility CMS is to be the fastest headless CMS out there. This content platform gives developers all of the flexibility they need to get things done faster. Meanwhile, marketing teams can manage content across multiple channels. Agility CMS empowers editors to work with authoring features, reuse the content, and do more without the help of developers.
#4 Contentful
Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Contentful provides an API-driven headless CMS. You can work on your content in a central hub and deliver it across as many channels and devices as you need. Authors can edit their content from anywhere—any smart device will do. Apart from this, Contentful describes itself as a pure headless platform, which allows marketing teams to publish content on any channel.
#5 Butter CMS
Butter CMS is another API-driven headless CMS. The platform offers several features such as flexible content modeling, multi-size support, content update, webhooks, and user dashboard. This Chicago-based content management system provides the ability to work with a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface. This feature lets developers see what the final product will look like while the document is being edited.
#6 Contentstack
Are you looking for an Enterprise-level solution? Then you might want to consider Contentstack. Designed for enterprises, this headless CMS offers fast content delivery, an easy-to-use interface, and an API-driven architecture. With Contentstack, you can smoothly handle the image management, preview, or workflow of your team.
#7 Bloomreach
This California-based headless CMS platform offers Bloomreach Experience Cloud, Bloomreach Search & Merchandising, and Bloomreach Experience Manager. Developed as a unique cloud-native software platform, Bloomreach makes it easy to build web and mobile applications. Bloomreach’s features include user account management, permission control, paywall support, a collaborative WYSIWYG editor supporting markdown, and fine-grained workflow support.
#8 Netlify
Netlify is an open-source content management system that works with several static site generators. Thanks to these tools, you can speed up the process of content creation while being assured of the security and flexibility advantages that static site generators provide. Plus, Netlify is keenly priced and easy to use.
#9 Sanity
Sanity is a headless CMS that makes developers happy by keeping them out of the design process and delivering regular updates of production code, so designers have a fast iteration cycle. An industry-leading headless CMS encompasses real-time collaboration, customized editing environments, and handy previews, to name a few. Sanity treats content as data which enables companies to use its APIs and share content across several systems.
#10 Strapi
Being an open-source headless CMS, Strapi offers a seamless creation and distribution of content. This self-hosted content management system allows you to create a website without having any scripting knowledge. Being 100% JavaScript and easily customizable, Strapi helps developers speed up their projects. At the same time, marketing teams can accelerate the delivery of content thanks to an intuitive interface.
3 things to consider when choosing the best headless CMS
Support and onboarding
One of the things to consider when choosing a headless CMS is support and customer success management. What kind of support does the vendor offer, and how quickly can they resolve your requests? Does the vendor provide onboarding? Wrapping your head around headless can be a daunting task, so make sure you get all the support and help you need.
Infrastructure
Another thing to bear in mind is the CMS infrastructure. Does the vendor offer a true Software as a Service (SaaS) solution? SaaS is more secure because the content management component is hosted in the cloud while the front-end site resides on your server. However, some vendors provide only managed hosting in the Cloud, so don’t forget to check this.
API response time
When it comes to a headless CMS, the API response time is crucial. It affects the speed of your application and the quality of your website’s user experience. Check whether the vendor offers a global Content Delivery Network (CDN) for digital assets and APIs and ask about the data center location.
Summary.
Nowadays, delivering high-quality content is crucial for every business so as to stay competitive in the modern world. With the right headless CMS, you can create, manage, and publish your content on the fly. Each of the content management platforms from our list helps you plan, author, and distribute content across as many channels and devices as you need.
When deciding on the suitable headless CMS for your company, bear in mind that there will be differences in the level of support the vendor provides. Since switching to headless might be challenging, make sure to choose a solution that will offer you quick support and professional services whenever you need them.
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