HEADLESS CMS

WordPress (Headless)

The world's most popular CMS now headless — leveraging WordPress's massive ecosystem of 60,000+ plugins with decoupled REST and GraphQL APIs via WPGraphQL, enabling modern frontend frameworks while keeping the familiar editing experience.

Why You Should Care

Already know WordPress? Keep using it. We take the dashboard you've used for years and connect it to a blazing-fast Next.js frontend. Your website suddenly loads 10x faster and ranks better on Google — and your team doesn't need to learn anything new. Zero learning curve, maximum performance gain.

Editor Experience

See how your team will interact with WordPress (Headless) on a daily basis.

WordPress Gutenberg editor

The familiar WordPress Gutenberg editor — now powering a Next.js site

Key Strengths

What makes WordPress (Headless) stand out from the competition.

Zero Learning Curve

Keep the exact same WordPress dashboard your team has used for years. Nothing new to learn.

Instant Performance Boost

Same content, but now served via Next.js — 10x faster load times and better Core Web Vitals.

Plugin Ecosystem

Access WordPress's massive plugin ecosystem for SEO, forms, analytics, and more — now with modern frontend performance.

Use Case Fit

See how WordPress (Headless) aligns with different content needs.

Marketing & Landing Pages
Good Fit
Blog & Editorial
Strong Fit
Product Catalogs
Strong Fit
Multi-Language / i18n
Good Fit
Real-Time / Dynamic Data
Possible Fit
Media-Heavy (Image / Video)
Good Fit
Docs & Knowledge Base
Good Fit
Multi-Site Management
Strong Fit
E-Commerce Integration
Strong Fit
Membership / Gated Content
Good Fit

Under the Hood

A plain-language breakdown of what WordPress (Headless) can and can't do — so you know exactly what you're getting.

Architecture

Architecture Type

How the CMS is structured. Headless means content is separate from the website — giving you full design freedom.

Decoupled

Deployment Options

Where this CMS can run. SaaS = they host it; Self-hosted = you run it on your own servers.

SaaSSelf-HostedManaged

Open Source

Whether the code is publicly available. Open source means no vendor lock-in and full customization potential.

Yes

Primary Language

The programming language the CMS is built with. This affects which developers can extend it.

PHP

Database Support

Which databases this CMS can store your content in.

PostgreSQLMongoDBMySQLSQLiteAgnostic

Content Federation

Can it pull content from multiple sources into one unified API? Useful for large organizations with distributed content.

No
Editor Experience

Visual Live Preview

Can editors see exactly how their changes look on the real website before publishing?

Yes

Page Builder

Drag-and-drop component-based page building — lets non-technical team members create pages themselves.

Yes

Rich Text Editor

The style of text editing. WYSIWYG = word-processor style; Block-style = Notion-like blocks; Portable Text = structured for maximum flexibility.

Block-Style

Multi-Language Support

Can content be translated? Field-level means every text field can have its own translation; Document-level means entire pages are duplicated per language.

Document-Level

Content Scheduling

Schedule posts and pages to go live at a future date/time without manual effort.

Yes

Bulk Editing

Update many content items at once — essential when you need to make sweeping changes across hundreds of pages.

Yes
Collaboration & Governance

Real-Time Collaboration

Can multiple people edit the same content at the same time — like Google Docs?

No

Granular RBAC

Role-Based Access Control — can you set specific permissions for who can view, edit, or publish different types of content?

No

Custom Workflows

Define approval steps like Draft → Review → Legal → Publish, so content goes through the right hands before going live.

No

Version History

How long are previous versions of your content kept? Unlimited means you can always go back to any prior version.

Unlimited

Audit Logs

A record of who changed what and when — important for accountability and compliance.

No
Developer Experience

API Types

How developers fetch your content. REST and GraphQL are industry standards; GROQ is Sanity's own powerful query language.

RESTGraphQLGROQ

Schema Definition

How content models are created. GUI = point-and-click; Code = defined in files (more powerful but requires a developer).

Visual GUI

Webhooks

Automatic notifications when content changes — used to trigger rebuilds, sync with other tools, or send alerts.

Yes

Custom UI Extensions

Can developers build custom editing interfaces within the CMS dashboard for specialized content types?

Yes

Plugin Marketplace

A library of ready-made add-ons that extend CMS functionality without custom development.

Yes

Official SDKs

Pre-built libraries for different platforms that speed up development and reduce integration effort.

JavaScriptReactNext.jsNuxtiOSAndroid
Media & Asset Management

Image Optimization

Automatically resizes and compresses images so your site loads fast without manual work.

No

Global CDN

Serves your images and files from servers closest to your visitors worldwide — improving load times everywhere.

No

Focal Point Cropping

Mark the important part of an image so it's never cut off when displayed at different sizes or on mobile.

No

External DAM Integration

Connect to external Digital Asset Management tools like Cloudinary or Bynder for advanced media workflows.

Yes
Security & Compliance

SSO / SAML Login

Single Sign-On lets your team log in with your company's existing identity provider (Google Workspace, Okta, etc.).

No

Compliance Certifications

Industry-recognized standards that verify the CMS meets specific security and data protection requirements.

SOC 2ISO 27001GDPRHIPAA

SLA / Uptime Guarantee

A contractual promise that the service will be available a certain percentage of the time (typically 99.9%+).

No

Support Channels

How you can reach the CMS vendor when you need help.

Community ForumEmailLive ChatDedicated SlackAccount Manager
Pricing & Scaling

Pricing Scales By

What factors determine your bill as you grow — e.g., number of users, API calls, or storage used.

Per SeatBandwidthAPI RequestsStorageRecords

Free Tier Available

Can you start for free? A free tier lets you evaluate the CMS with real content before committing.

Yes

Vendor Lock-in Risk

How difficult it would be to move your content to a different CMS later. Low = easy to migrate; High = you're heavily tied in.

Low

How WordPress (Headless) Compares

A feature-by-feature look at WordPress (Headless) versus its closest alternatives.

WordPress (Headless)
WordPress (Headless)
Strapi
Strapi
Payload CMS
Payload CMS
Architecture
Type
decoupled
headless
headless
Open Source
API Types
RESTGRAPHQL
RESTGRAPHQL
RESTGRAPHQL
Editor Experience
Live Preview
Page Builder
Rich Text Editor
Block-Style
WYSIWYG
Block-Style
Multi-Language
Document
Field-Level
Field-Level
Collaboration
Real-Time Collab
Custom Workflows
Version History
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Developer Experience
Schema Definition
GUI
GUI
Code
Plugin Marketplace
Webhooks
Media & Security
Image Optimization
Global CDN
SSO / SAML
Pricing & Lock-in
Free Tier
Vendor Lock-in
Low
Low
Low
Explore all 10 platforms →

Try It Out

A prototype concept showing how WordPress (Headless) works for a real-world scenario.

WordPress headless migration prototype

The Legacy Migration Demo

Update a post in the classic WordPress Gutenberg editor, then watch the incredibly fast Next.js frontend update instantly — proving you can have the best of both worlds.

Build with WordPress (Headless)? Let's Talk.

Our team will help you set up WordPress (Headless) with Next.js, tailored exactly to your business workflow.

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