Enterprise websites built to out-scale your competition.

A headless CMS provides a way to author content through an application program interface, also known as an API. Instead of the content being coupled to a particular output, headless CMS provides your content as data over an API. There are two essential parts of a headless CMS. The “head” relates to where your content ends up and the “body” is where your content is authored. A headless CMS lets you choose the heads, or outputs, that your content will be shared. To recap, a headless CMS has a  database backend with a web-based user interface, and content made accessible through an API.

You now know what a headless CMS is, and how it works. A traditional CMS works a little differently in that you either install and manage the software on your own. A traditional CMS is referred to as “monolithic” because everything is packed into a single system. Authoring, data layering, and rendering are all done under a single system, often providing a WYSIWYG content editing experience. This is because a traditional CMS only has one context for presenting the content on a web page.

Contentful is a headless CMS that lets you create, manage, and publish content to all platforms or channels that your business cares about. Unlike other content management systems, you have total freedom to create content models that fit your content. The platform provides you with RESTful APIs so you can ship your messages across websites, mobile apps, and any other platform that comes to mind. Manage your content alone or in a team, and assign custom roles and permissions to team members for a better collaboration experience.

Any that your heart desires - seriously. Any content can be placed within your content model as long as it’s appropriately structured.

Contentful’s JSON API is a faster alternative to XML and is the API through which all your content is served. Your content will load on any platform that supports HTTP requests and can read JSON. We have listed examples of platforms and languages into which content can be loaded:

• Websites
• HTML4 websites, Interactive HTML5 websites or applications with JavaScript
• Native mobile apps
• Apple iOS, Android, Google Glass, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Java ME, Sencha Touch, Phonegap, and Titanium Appcelerator
• Desktop applications
• Windows (all versions), Apple Mac OS X, and Linux
• Any client or server-side programming setting
• C, Java, .NET, Python, Ruby, PHP, and GO

Contentful is not a website builder. If you have a website, you can use Contentful to manage its content. If you’re looking for development services, head to our web development service page to learn more about our process!

We build fast and are always accessible. Unlike traditional web development firms and marketing agencies, we don’t wait two weeks to push updates live or have team meetings. We meet with your team multiple times per week to share progress reports, discuss new opportunities, and prioritize one week sprints. Learn more about our project engagement by reading our customer success stories.