How a headless CMS works⁡𝅶‍‍𝅺⁡‍𝅴⁡𝅴𝅹‍‍⁢𝅵‍‍⁡​⁡‍⁠⁡​⁡‍‍𝅹𝅴𝅺‍‍‍𝅷‍‍𝅳⁡‍⁠‍‍⁢𝅵‍‍𝅳⁡⁣⁡⁣⁡​⁡⁢⁢𝅵‍𝅺‍𝅺𝅸‌⁡‍𝅶⁠⁡⁣𝅴𝅹⁡‍𝅸⁡​⁡‍⁠⁡​⁡‍‍𝅸‍⁡‍𝅹⁡​⁡‍⁠⁡​⁡‍‍𝅹𝅴𝅺‍𝅺⁡​⁡⁠‍𝅷𝅴⁡⁢𝅳‍𝅺⁢𝅺𝅹⁡⁣⁠𝅹⁡⁣‍𝅸𝅴⁡⁣⁠𝅸⁡⁢‍𝅺⁠⁣𝅴⁡⁣‍𝅺⁠⁢𝅳⁢‍⁢𝅴⁢⁢⁠⁢⁣⁢𝅴‍𝅸⁣⁢‍⁢𝅴⁢⁢‍𝅸⁢⁣⁢‍⁢⁡‍‍𝅸⁢𝅳⁠⁢𝅴⁢‍𝅸⁢‌‌⁢​⁢⁠⁢‍‌⁢⁢⁡⁢⁣⁢⁢⁢⁢⁢𝅺𝅷𝅺⁢‌𝅷⁠⁢𝅸⁠𝅹‍𝅸⁣⁡⁣‍‍‍⁡𝅸

In order to understand what a headless CMS is and how it works, we need to take a trip back to the beginning. Before content management became a thing, all website updates had to be handled manually. Editors would upload their content to a website using a file transfer protocol (FTP) and then had to rely on developers to update HTML pages.

Traditional content management systems made publishing digital content a lot easier. Platforms such as WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla were some of the first traditional content management systems. These solutions allowed users to easily manage and display content on their websites without needing a developer. Back then, this was a huge time-saver!

Traditional CMSs store all content in one big container, which includes images, text, HTML, and CSS (a programming language for styling the webpage). While this made it easy to store, it was hard to reuse this content on other platforms - because untangling all these types of data is often impossible.

As technology developed over time, audiences began using more devices to consume content. Aside from our desktops, we started using mobile applications, virtual reality, digital assistants, wearables, and more. Digital content had to be displayed in every possible format and device. Traditional CMSs weren't designed to do this.