Glossary
Headless CMS
A content management system that exposes content via APIs only, leaving the front-end unconstrained.
Definition
A headless CMS stores and models content but does not render it — content is exposed via REST or GraphQL APIs and consumed by any front-end. Sanity, Contentful, Storyblok, Strapi, Payload and Hygraph are common choices. Headless is the dominant pattern for modern marketing sites and e-commerce storefronts because it lets the front-end be Next.js while editors keep an editor-friendly authoring tool.
Why it matters
Headless CMS is what unlocks Lighthouse-92+ marketing sites without giving up editor experience. The wrong CMS choice can lock you into structures that hurt for years; the right one is invisible.
See also
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