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Headless CMSs

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A headless CMS manages content in an admin interface and hands it to other software over a REST or GraphQL API, without rendering public pages itself. The front end is built separately, often with a web framework or a static site generator. A record carries this category when its documentation names API delivery as the main way content leaves the system. Some also render pages and carry CMS too. Products offered only as SaaS sit beside the register as hosted services. Directus and Payload are examples.

12 projects are headless cmss, listed alphabetically. Written in 5 languages, most of them open source. Counts only projects with momentum; the full list has the rest.

A

  • Alinea

    Git-based headless CMS for Next.js that stores every entry as a JSON file in the project repository.

  • Atomic Server

    Self-hostable server for storage, search, sharing and sync of Atomic Data, with a web app and a RESTful API.

B

  • baserCMS

    Open-source PHP content management system built on CakePHP for building and customizing websites, with a REST API.

C

  • Contember

    Open-source platform for building data-driven web applications, with a GraphQL API, PostgreSQL and a React administration interface.

  • CoreMedia Content Cloud

    Proprietary enterprise content management system and digital experience platform, offered as a hybrid headless CMS.

D

  • dotCMS

    Java content management system with an admin console, REST and GraphQL APIs and multi-site management, distributed as a Docker image and as a managed cloud service.

E

  • Easy CMS

    Embedded headless CMS that runs inside a Nuxt or Next.js app, with a typed local API, a REST API and an admin at /admin.

M

  • microfeed

    Self-hosted content management system for podcasts, blogs, photos, documents and links, running on Cloudflare Workers with D1 and R2 storage.

P

  • Payload

    TypeScript framework that runs inside a Next.js app and generates an admin panel, database schema and REST, GraphQL and local APIs from one config, used as a headless CMS or application backend.

  • PocketBase

    Open-source Go backend shipped as a single executable, with an embedded SQLite database, realtime subscriptions, authentication and a dashboard.

S

  • Statamic

    Laravel-based content management system that stores content in flat files or a database, with a control panel and optional static site generation.

  • Sveltia CMS

    Git-based headless CMS, a single-page admin interface for editing content stored in a Git repository of a static site.

What is the best Headless CMS?

We can't tell from here. What suits an editor-heavy marketing site can be wrong for a static documentation site. The list is alphabetical and nobody paid for a place on it.