What is Strapi, and Why You Should Use it?

A Quick Overview: With Strapi becoming super popular in the CMS world, it’s natural to wonder if it’s the right choice for your project. This blog is here to help you figure out that. We’ll walk you through what Strapi is, how it works, and why so many developers love it. Let’s clear up the confusion and make it easy for you to decide!

If you're a part of the digital industry, you've probably heard about the rise and use of headless CMSs. A rising number of companies are shifting from monolithic systems to modern, flexible content management systems like Strapi.

This is why you can expect the global headless CMS software market to value around USD 3.81 billion by 2032 at a CAGR of 20.5% during the forecast period.

The growing popularity of this trend makes it hard not to question if your team should be part of it. Having worked with both traditional CMSs and advanced headless options, we can confidently say there’s a reason everyone’s talking about Strapi.

If you are new to this concept and need practical insights, then consulting with a team with hands-on experience in headless CMS should be able to help you in the best possible way. Nevertheless, this blog is going to walk you through an overview and all the convincing reasons why you should use Strapi CMS for your next project.

Let’s get to it!

What is Strapi?

Strapi is a headless CMS used to develop websites, mobile applications, eCommerce sites, and APIs. It allows you to create an API without knowing anything about the backend or databases. The system builds APIs based on content models automatically, making it easy to view, manage, and retrieve data through the CMS.

• Strapi CMS uses an API to link your frontend to Strapi's backend.
• It's a developer-friendly, open-source, and free-to-use service.
• It’s simple to learn and use, and you can get work done in minutes.
• Strapi may be used with React, TezJS, Vue, Nuxt.js, Next.js, Angular, Svelte, Sapper, and Flutter.
• It provides an intuitive user interface that allows developers to simply create flexible API architectures.
• Strapi works with a variety of databases, including MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and others.

How Does Strapi Work?

In order to understand how Strapi works, let’s first get a sense of how traditional, monolithic content management systems do.

In traditional CMSs, you need to work on both the backend (content management) and frontend (content delivery). This means you do not have any choice but to customize the content presentation layer, which makes it difficult to work with other frontend technologies. As you work with the backend, the frontend is tightly coupled with it. So, if you want to make any changes to the frontend, you need to modify the backend as well.

Strapi as one of the great headless CMSs turned this conventional, less flexible approach upside down. You get to define the content types and relationships in the backend through an admin panel. It then generates a REST or GraphQL API that connects the data with the frontend framework of your choice, such as Angular, React, or Vue.

This gives you the freedom to display content just as you want it. This level of customization and control makes Strapi an ideal choice for organizations that want to build tailored applications without being tied to rigid structures.

What is Strapi Used for?

Apart from building customizable backend services, there's a wide range of Strapi use cases for developers who want to create efficient, omnichannel digital solutions:

• Content Management – Creating, organizing, and managing content in the backend
• API Generation – Distributing content across various platforms with automatically generated REST/GraphQL APIs.
• Omnichannel Delivery – Content delivery to multiple platforms, such as websites, web apps, mobile apps, IoT devices, etc.
• Self-Hosting – Getting full control over deployment, hosting, and security protocols.
• Custom Integration – Integrating third-party plug-ins like payment, authentication, analytics, location, and more.

Why Should You Use Strapi?

A headless CMS strategy with Strapi makes it simple to get new greenfield projects up and running. Developers can create modular components and use APIs to connect them.

Designers and UX experts can now employ new tools without the constraints of traditional CMSs. These professionals are able to unleash their full creativity in how they want to display and deliver the content to users without any restrictions.

Well, the bottom line is that using a headless CMS gives you the flexibility to use any new technology that makes sense. You'll have the freedom to make content and design-related adjustments in the future without requiring you to rewrite the entire codebase.

Pros and Cons of Using Strapi

Like everything else, there are two sides to the proverbial Strapi development coin. Here is a comprehensive analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the Strapi framework.

Advantages of Using Strapi

There are numerous benefits to using Strapi as your headless CMS, including:

1. Versatile and Simple to Use

Strapi CMS is really simple to use, thanks to its user-friendly UI. Plus, for the plugins, it's entirely configurable. Strapi is ready to use out of the box, but plugins allow you to customize it to your specific needs.

You don't know how to use WordPress? It's no problem! Strapi comes with an ORM that lets you create simple or complicated content types without having to write any code.

Strapi also provides an easy and versatile architecture for backend developers, with the ability to integrate third-party libraries like Koa and AngularJS 4.

Strapi will prove helpful if you wish to design a more sophisticated project. Its modular architecture allows you to personalize it and add your own features. As a result, the system is extremely adaptable to any project.

2. Rapid and Scalable

Strapi development solutions are easy to scale and can handle a high volume of traffic. Data validation is also quite speedy because of its interaction with Koa and Joi.

Strapi also features an automatic brown-field function that prevents developers from developing code that isn't being used. This allows them to concentrate on developing sophisticated features without having to worry about squandering computing resources.

3. It's Open-Source and Free

You cannot only use Strapi for free but also donate to it on GitHub.

You won't have to waste time looking for a Strapi alternative because everything is right on your dashboard. You also don't need to be concerned about licenses or upgrades. Strapi always uses the most recent version of Node.js to ensure that there are no compatibility issues.

As an open-source headless CMS project, it also has a strong developer community that works together to improve and expand the platform's capabilities.

4. Robust Structure

This framework has a solid design that includes everything you'll need to create an API that your frontend application can easily use.

Strapi's modular architecture is responsible for all of its power. All of the plugins are installed via npm, which makes them extremely simple to set up. Each module adheres to Node.js standards and is designed to function with any server or framework.

POST, GET, DELETE, PUT, and OPTIONS are just a few of the queries that Strapi can handle. If you need to construct APIs or RESTful services, you won't have any performance difficulties this way. It also has an admin part with a neat UI for managing content, which cuts development time in half.

5. Pre-Configured Authentication System

Strapi offers a flexible authentication system that may be tailored to your specific requirements. You can establish a variety of users and groups, each with its own set of rights, utilizing ACL, Basic Authentication, JWT, or OAuth 2.0. Furthermore, it supports all common databases, such as MySQL and PostgreSQL, so saving user credentials will be a breeze.

6. Plugins at Your Fingertips

Strapi not only offers a fantastic community, but it also has a diverse collection of plugins that can be quickly put on your new or old app. Strapi also has certain unique plugins, such as Google Analytics integration, LDAP compatibility, and Swagger integrations, which set it apart from other CMS platforms.

Community developers are continuously creating new plugins to extend the functionality of Strapi, so you'll always be able to find what you need. In only a few minutes, you can even create your own custom plugin.

The Drawbacks of Using Strapi

Nothing is flawless. Just like many other things in the tech world, Strapi is no exception, and it does have some drawbacks:

1. It's Difficult to Migrate Existing APIs

If you already have a backend system in place (for example, WordPress), moving it to Strapi will take some time if you want a perfect 100 percent match. Strapi, for example, does not have native support for WP-CRM. Therefore, you will have to manually deploy it in the background.

Frameworks like Kirby or Craft come pre-packaged with everything needed to manage content out of the box, and they merely supply an API on top of that.

Furthermore, using Strapi shouldn't be too difficult if you're familiar with REST APIs, but converting old endpoints to Strapi can be challenging. That is why, rather than attempting to move something, most users utilize Strapi when starting from scratch.

2. TypeScript Support Is Limited

Strapi content management does not support TypeScript out of the box, which is a shame because it is a breakthrough technology. If you're an advanced user working on a large or complex project, this missing feature may hinder your experience. However, a plugin in the npm repositories can quickly restore it. Because the source code is available online, you can even write your own plugin for any language.

3. Strapi isn't Completely Free and Open Source

Strapi is open-source and free to use, but it is not perfect. It does, however, offer a Pro version with additional capabilities such as custom plugin support and professional assistance from its team with priority email access.

4. Continuous Updates

Strapi is a tool that is continually evolving, so expect frequent updates from it. The stable version receives weekly changes, so keep an eye on it if you don't want your platform to break unexpectedly. Although this is standard for most open-source tools these days, it is nonetheless inconvenient for developers who like stable software.

How to Create the First API in Strapi?

The process of creating the first Strapi API is simple; it will take only five minutes.

First of all, create a folder called Strapi demo and two directories inside it called frontend and backend, respectively, to create a Strapi API.

The frontend folder will contain React, TezJS, Angular, Nuxt, or Vue. Strapi will be installed in the backend folder.

Then open your code editor and type the below command:

backend cd

The command cd backend changes the current directory to the backend folder.

Now you may add the Strapi backend to your project.

--quickstart npx create-Strapi-app

Alternatively, you might use yarn.

--quickstart yarn build Strapi-app

This command will guide you through the process of installing Strapi in your project.

Strapi bootstrap will be installed in the current folder thanks to the ‘./’ in the script. -- quickstart is a flag that makes it easier to get Strapi up and running quickly.

So, Do We Recommend Using Strapi?

For the past few years, we’ve been actively using Strapi. Setting it up for the first project was incredibly simple. We wrapped up the overall configuration process within just 10 minutes, and the first few months were just as smooth as that.

With new content requirements, we were able to modify the presentation layer and implement CRUD operations in an instance. This was a huge improvement and a major time-saver over the compared to manually creating modules, planning migration, and configuring APIs for each and every functionality.

However, for more complicated tasks (for example, integrating third-party authentication services), things started to get a bit more challenging. It was doable to some extent, but as we pushed Strapi beyond its original scope, new issues began to appear.

This pattern is not completely unusual though. We had such problems with many other new tools and frameworks.

Considering everything, our experience with Strapi was quite enjoyable. Many aspects of the platform made the process more convenient. Features like auto API generation and media library conveniently cut our development time by around 50%.

So, yes, we recommend using Strapi if your project follows a common JAMstack structure - basic CRUD operations, plugins-supported essential features, and some customized business logic. You’ll get ready-to-use Strapi custom development solutions, which in turn will save an unbelievable amount of time.

In ConclusionStrapi is a fantastic tool for building modern, quick APIs that get updated in real time. It's completely free to use under the MIT license, with no restrictions, which is extremely rare in today's market.This tool may be ideal for you if you need a headless CMS created exclusively for Node.js with integration, LDAP support, and Swagger connections. However, you can still give it a go with their free version. You might still find that it's just what you need, thanks to its simple setup process and thorough instructions.All said and done, if you need help, count on our Strapi development solutions. Working with this pioneering CMS over the years has allowed us to gain a deep understanding of its capabilities. Just as we revamped our content publishing game with Strapi, we can do the same for you, and even more. Feel free to reach out to us!