Top 5 Open Source Headless CMS to Manage Content Easily

People say content is king! If that's the case, every business should pay much more attention to its management.

Accordingly, creating digital experiences and delivering quality content has never been so important. CMS comes as a savior for such dire needs, of which we see an increasing usage among enterprises. In fact, 73 million live websites use CMS as of March 2022.

However, instead of traditional CMS solutions like Drupal or WordPress, headless CMS development is now the talk of the town as it allows businesses to quickly and conveniently manage website content with minimum technical knowledge and maximum efficiency.

Although there are plenty of reasons to use headless content management systems, the large number of available options does not make a choice very easy. And that concern in users' minds kind of troubled us.

So, based on our experience, the best open source headless CMS platforms built with JavaScript are– Strapi, Ghost, Directus, KeystoneJS, and Netlify.

And we will discuss more about their features and functionalities in this blog to help you compare them and pick the best-fitted one for your requirements.

Let's dive right into it!

Headless CMS –What the Heck is That?

First up, let’s figure out what we are going to talk about.

The term ‘head’ means static codes on the frontend so that you can display the content on the client side. Quite simply, ‘headless’ defines no frontend system.

Frontend = Head

Backend = Body

CMS = Frontend + Backend

So, all you need to know about headless CMS, aka Jamstack CMS, is that it does not have a head/frontend and essentially includes a backend, a database for file storage, and an API to distribute content.

The biggest advantage of these content management systems is that you can deliver content to any device by publishing through API. There is no requirement for creating backend tasks with the frontend for only a single source.

Moreover, you do not need any hosts, which allows you to easily maintain headless CMSs compared to non-headless ones. Such benefits result in enhanced team collaboration and optimized workflow.

We can say that headless content management systems are a type of decoupled CMS where you can manage the frontend and backend independently. In other words, if you can create and edit content in the backend of your website, it will get transmitted via an API and published in the frontend.

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Why Should You Use a Headless CMS Anyway?

Traditional CMSs come with a lot of limitations for performance and design. As those platforms integrate frontend and backend into one place, it becomes really difficult to reuse content and make changes.

Headless systems can help you mitigate these issues by providing omnichannel experiences across various consumer touchpoints. Here are the top five reasons you should consider using the best headless CMS solutions for your business:

1. Scale as You Want

As the frontend and backend are separate entities, you have the opportunity to scale one up or down without affecting the other. This empowers you to personalize and scale your website anytime without compromising the performance at all.

2. Leverage Flexibility

Unlike legacy CMS, which does not let you do much, self hosted headless CMS enables you to customize our frontend and utilize APIs so that you can spend more time on creating engaging content instead of managing it.

3. Tighten Security

Since the database does not have the capability to access the content publishing environment and API is the single point of contact between your content and tech stack, these tools can help you significantly reduce the number of malware attacks.

4. Excel at Compatibility

Headless content management systems are compatible with a number of platforms, operating systems, and devices, allowing you to consistently deliver high-quality content anywhere you wish. You can also integrate your CMS with multiple codebases and languages to simplify processes.

5. Take Full Control

Headless websites remove the frontend and its maintenance needs. Hence, you get full control over your resources, time, workforce, and money, enabling your team to collaborate and work in sync without any rules or regulations.

What are the Best Open Source Headless CMS Platforms Created with JavaScript?

After walking through some of the undeniable benefits of headless systems, it totally makes sense to migrate your legacy CMS to modern, productive architecture. And looking at their performance and features, you will understand that each has a lot on its plate to offer you.

However, many of them require payment for additional features, and not all of them are suitable for JS developers.

Don't worry, we have made the job easier for you! Check out the list of the top five free headless CMS solutions that you should look out for.

1. Strapi CMS

Kicking off the list is Strapi – a headless content management system that is 100% JavaScript, fully customizable, open-source, and Node.js-based with almost 50k GitHub stars. It's transparently a perfect balance between an automation tool, framework, and CMS to boost the backend development and management process.

The Strapi codebase is publicly available and is quite popular in the developer community. This CMS enables you to have full control over your data costs and maintain your data privacy with self-hosted content. You can create powerful features tailor-made for your needs and build a flexible data structure within minutes.

Some of the impressive benefits of Strapi include:

• Multi-database Support: Strapi JS supports Postgres, MongoDB, MySQL, and SQLite, giving you the option to pick one of your choices.

• Permissions and Authentication: By allowing your users to access your APIs (based on roles), you can secure endpoints with proper measures.

• Internationalization: You can build multilingual web apps or websites by localizing content, translating the text, and implementing the page structure to every version.

• Autogenerated Document: Create and maintain each documentation via a one-click integration.

• SEO Optimization: Use a repeatable field to manage your SEO metadata and optimize the SEO of media properties by using the media library to add custom filenames, notes, and captions.

You can consume the data in the Strapi CMS either through GraphQL or REST API. Additionally, hosting platforms like Render, Digital Ocean, Heroku, is very easy with a one-click deployment option. You can also integrate third-party tools, such as Sentry, Redis, Algolia, etc., to extend its functionalities.

Headless CMS – Strapi with TezJS integration delivers the next-generation digital experience to users. Strapi backs the TezJS framework as a back-end, which allows developers to build an enterprise-grade modern website with an amazing user experience.

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2. Ghost

Ghost takes the second place in our list for its ability to publish beautiful content and grow any business around it. This headless, open-source, API-driven tool is a top Node.js framework based decoupled CMS that you can use either via templates or in a headless manner.

With the help of a set of REST API endpoints (webhooks, admin, and content API), Ghost serves the content, sends newsletters, develops new websites, and provides paid subscriptions to members. It comes with an array of out-of-the-box tools like:

• JavaScript SDK: Ghost offers a set of JS packages that you can use to complete a few basic tasks with APIs.

• Migration Feature: The migration tool is highly useful for migrating your content from one blog platform to another.

• Ghost CLI: You can leverage the Ghost command-line interface tool to manage configurations and installations.

• Code Injection: If you need extra styles or scripts, Ghost allows you to add custom code to the header or footer of your website (per page or site).

• Google Sitemaps: Ensure search engines are able to index each URL by automatically generating and linking every page to a complete Google sitemap.

Ghost is one of the best headless CMS platforms in the market 40.2k starts on GitHub. Begin the 14-day free trial option to explore more for additional benefits and the latest enterprise web development trends.

3. Directus

Directus ranks third in our best headless content management systems comparison blog. This open-source CMS framework supports an instant API wrapper for SQL databases and allows non-technical users to manage that content with an intuitive admin app. You can connect the authored data to various clients like IoT devices, kiosks, native apps, websites, and other such data-driven projects.

Although the first version of Directus (in 2006) was more of a data-administrative GUI and Flash-based asset, the following version focused more on asset and content management for custom-schema databases. The latest version, Directus 9, has Vue.js for the frontend and Node.js for the backend.

Take a look at the important features of this open source headless CMS that might convince you to use it in your business:

• Data Access: Directus does not stand in between your content and you as it handles your database, not the project. It accesses your data directly or via SDKs and APIs.

• Extensible and Modular: You can modify everything you interact with the admin app and even customize add-ons with a powerful set of tools.

• Intuitive UI: It’s flexible with value-based content and enables you to manage it with a range of locations, currencies, ratings, data types, etc.

• Database Mirroring: Directus directly mirrors the database, making it a user-friendly and safe database GUI.

• Secured Data: You never have to lose data with this tool as it’s able to track all activities with feasible rollbacks.

So, if you are looking for a CMS with highly customizable databases and modern Jamstack web architecture, Directus may fill your requirements in the best possible way.

4. KeystoneJS

Keystone is a headless CM system to create scalable and faster web app content using the best JavaScript framework. It is typically a frontend agonistic system with modular architecture and is most suitable for building a variety of large-scale apps like RESTful web services, eCommerce projects, forums, portals, CMSs, etc.

This CMS is highly customizable and lets you choose the features you want to implement, such as automated CRUD, event hooks, and session management. The admin designs, themes, and templates are very intuitive, and you can change them depending on the defined schema.

The following features of Keystone make it one of the superior headless CMS examples in the industry:

• Database Adapters: Keystone enables you to pick multiple storage methods for adapter design for Postgres and MongoDB.

• GraphQL API: You can address all your lists with a dynamic GraphQL API with efficient filtering options and CRUD operations.

• Third-Party Authentication: When it comes to third-party authentication, Keystone gives you a lot of options, including GitHub. Facebook, and Google. It also features a bunch of other authentication methods of PassportJS.

• Access Control: Like all other great headless CM systems, this tool lets you control your users what can and cannot access the API.

• Extensive Admin UI: Manage your data seamlessly with the admin app that works as a high-functional administration UI.

Finally, if you want a CMS that will particularly offer business process automation with CI tooling and fit your Git-based developing workflow, Keystone can be your best bet.

5. Netlify CMS

In the fifth position, we have Netlify CMS, a React SPA that empowers you to manage and deliver content on any website with a static site generator (SSG). This open-source content management system is especially compatible with Git workflow, and thus, you can provide editors with intuitive workflows and friendly UI.

Instead of storing and fetching content data from a database like other API-driven CMSs, Netlify stores it in a Git repository along with the code. This allows you to manage updates directly in Git and work on multichannel publishing and easier versioning.

Some other key advantages of Netlify headless CMS include:

• Fast UI and Platform Agonistic: Netlify comes with drag-and-drop media uploads, real-time preview, and rich-text editing. You can use all these exciting features with any static site generator or top frontend frameworks.

• Highly Extensible: You have the liberty to create customized editor plugins, UI widgets, and previews.

• Version Control: It provides version control systems for both website code and content objects.

• Fast Deployment: Netlify enables you to deploy approved components directly to the production website or to a test site on the hosting platform.

• Flexible Content with Modern Authentication: You can select as many content types as you want with custom fields and implement advanced authentication methods using JSON, Bitbucket, GitHub, or GitLab web tokens.

If you want to start using the Netlify CMS, you can do it by either using a starter template or adding it to an existing site. It offers a free starter template for popular SSGs.

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What’s the Perfect Headless CMS for Your Business?

As you have already understood, comparing content management systems based on their popularity or market demand will not make much sense for your business. The decision is not obvious, and choosing the right one depends a lot on your unique business requirements.

And to choose the right open source headless CMS that can be a perfect match for your brand needs, you have to go into a lot of detail and have a hands-on experience. We can help you with that!

With over two decades of experience, Radixweb experts will clearly outline the benefits and drawbacks of each platform for your venture and pinpoint a clear winner. Explore our market-winning headless CMS development services and let our specialists help you benefit from its promising features!