The “headless CMS” architecture, which separates the front end and back end (administration screen), has become firmly established in modern web production. However, when it comes to introducing it, there are many options such as “Contentful”, “microCMS”, and “Strapi”, and many people are confused about which one to choose.
In this article, we will suggest how to choose the most suitable headless CMS according to the characteristics and situation of your project.
Situation 1: If you value the security and ease of use of domestic products
Recommended: microCMS
“If the management screen is in English, the client’s person in charge cannot update it.” MicroCMS, the leading headless CMS made in Japan, instantly solves this problem, which is common in contract production. The UI of the management screen is very sophisticated, and even users without high IT literacy can submit articles intuitively. In addition, the official Japanese documentation is extensive and the support system is perfect. If you have a corporate site or a small to medium-sized media site, you should definitely choose this one without hesitation.
Situation 2: In the global enterprise field
Recommended: Contentful
For large projects that require multilingual deployment, extensive content versioning, and complex approval flows, Contentful is the industry pioneer for you. It is highly extensible and has a wide range of plugins for linking with various third-party tools (translation tools, DAM, etc.). However, it is important to note that the learning costs are somewhat high due to its rich functionality, and the pricing structure is geared toward large scale users.
Situation 3: If you want complete control over your data
Recommended: Strapi
SaaS type CMS cannot meet your security requirements, or you want to add your own backend processing in the future. In such a case, Strapi, which is open source and can be hosted on your own server (or AWS, etc.), is a candidate. It runs on Node.js, and the API can be easily customized. Although it takes time and effort to manage the infrastructure, you can gain great benefits in terms of freedom and data ownership.
The deciding factor for introduction is “Who will use it?”
The most important thing when selecting a headless CMS is to have not only a developer’s perspective but also an operator’s perspective who actually updates articles. No matter how fast the API response is, if the submission screen is difficult to use, the content will not be updated. First, let’s start by using the free plan and having an operator touch the actual management screen to see how it fits.