Drupal is the Perfect Headless CMS

Planning to build a digital platform? Find out why Headless CMS is the best solution for your project. In this article, you will also discover why Drupal stands out as the ideal Headless CMS solution, and why you shouldn't hesitate to choose it!

Headless CMS solutions have become extremely popular in recent years. Mainly due to the development of mobile applications. "Headless content management system" is more than just a temporary hype or a buzzword. It is a change in the philosophy of app development.

What is a headless CMS?

Traditionally, online applications/systems have a unified architecture. They consist of a back-end constituting the mechanics of the whole project, a database, and a front-end, which presents content to users. All parts are strongly interconnected. Such a solution has its benefits, but it has been in the doghouse for quite some time. First and foremost, it makes it much more difficult to scale a platform and apply changes to it – in such a situation, more elements have to be reconstructed, making it time-consuming and costly.

Therefore, in some cases, it is much better to bet on modern solutions of the "Headless CMS" type (often also called "Decoupled CMS"). The classic back-end is replaced here by an API (Application Programming Interface). The use of the API gives you complete freedom to choose the technology where the front-end is developed. Moreover, an unlimited number of "heads" can be "connected" to a single CMS. Thus, content from the CMS can be included on, for instance, the website and in the mobile application. 

If you are feeling overwhelmed by technical phrases at this point, let us introduce you to everything with quite an imaginative example from a different field. Say that when building a house you have piped water into the bathroom. It flows from the water supply (database) through pipes (API). Whether you connect a sink tap, a shower, or even a fountain at the end of one of them (website or mobile app) depends entirely on your needs and ideas.

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Drupal, a great headless CMS

Drupal has been on the market for over 20 years. During this time it has undergone quite considerable changes, always for the better. In the minds of its customers, it appears as a stable and reliable CMS. It is trusted by world–renowned institutions and global corporations, such as UNESCO, NASA, and Tesla. However, it is less associated with "headless CMS" solutions – a pity, as it is a great fit for this purpose. 

With the popularity of this type of software, a number of small start–ups that have decided to compete for customers by offering their own CMS solutions have emerged. Some of them even offer pretty good products, but none of them can go head-to-head with Drupal. It is simply unmatched. Years of development and the ongoing support of a community of thousands of developers from all over the world put this open-source CMS ahead of the competition with its functionality and capabilities.

Hardly any other software gets such a clearly defined development path and a transparent calendar of changes and updates. Drupal simply means peace of mind for your application and is a good choice from a business standpoint.

Drupal 9 is currently on the market and version 10 will release soon. With each iteration, the CMS gains new features and gets increasingly stable and secure. In one of our blog posts, we recently discussed why Drupal is the most secure CMS on the market. Want to know more about this topic? Be sure to read our article!

Reasons to choose Drupal as a Headless CMS:

• Multi–channel– enter content once and present it in different media, such as a web service, an app, or the Internet of Things (IoT).
• No content duplication– do you have a site with multiple pages or several sites that will share content? Now they will all use one API.
• Easier frontend changes– want to refresh your platform? You can change its look without having to rebuild the entire architecture. You are also free to choose your technologies. Drupal will work equally well with JavaScript and PHP.
• Faster loading– static web pages are sufficient for presenting content and display at incredible speed. This reduces page rejection rates and can translate into higher conversions.
• Responsiveness – digital platforms based on Headless CMS are easier to adapt for mobile devices.

Summary

Now that you know what Headless CMS is and why Drupal is a good solution in this area you may have decided that you want to use it for your project. In that case, please let us know! Direktpoint's experts will be happy to help you create your new digital platform.