Best Headless CMS Platforms to Use in 2025
Content management is no longer just about publishing. It’s about ensuring your customers have the same smooth experience across websites, apps, smart devices, and any new platform that emerges tomorrow.
That said, some businesses still stick to rigid, monolithic content management systems (CMSs) that offer nothing but complex updates, clunky integrations, poor performance, scalability issues, and limited customization options.
Luckily, a simple headless CMS, with its flexible architecture, tackles the above challenges completely. It’s no wonder that by 2026, nearly 70% of organizations will adopt composable digital experience technology.
“A headless CMS empowers businesses to innovate without limits, scale without friction, and meet customers wherever they are.”
In this article, we’ll discuss the six best headless CMS platforms and explain how exactly they can benefit you.
What Is a Headless CMS?
A headless CMS is a content management system that decouples the backend, or the “body” (where content is created and stored), from the frontend, or the “head” (where it’s displayed to users).
This separation gives you the very flexibility that headless is cherished for. You create content once and publish it everywhere, whether on websites, applications, smart devices, or AR/VR. All of this without being locked into one presentation layer and having to recreate content for every new device or channel your business needs to address.
To better understand how this approach differs from a traditional CMS, let’s look at the table below.
Traditional CMS | Simple Headless CMS | |
Architecture | Coupled, the content management layer and the presentation layer are connected | Decoupled, the content management layer and the presentation layer are separated |
The “Head” | Fixed, a CMS automatically generates the visual interface | Non-existent, a CMS provides content only, delivered via an API |
Content Delivery | Primarily built to deliver content to one channel: a website | Built to deliver content to any channel: websites, mobile apps, smart devices, etc. |
Flexibility & Speed | Limited, updates to the design require changing the entire system | Maximum, teams can update the frontend tech stack without affecting content or vice versa |
Why Headless CMS Is Gaining Popularity
High customer expectations mainly drive the switch from traditional to headless CMSs. These imply that the digital experiences you deliver must be fast, personalized, and, most importantly, consistent on all channels.
This transition is now a dominant trend, as a 2024 WP Engine survey found that 73% of organizations already use headless, and 98% of the rest plan to evaluate it within the following year.
Here’s why the best headless CMSs are so in demand:
Omnichannel delivery. Content you’ve created once can be reused across multiple touchpoints. This allows for consistent messaging and faster delivery, the primary reasons for the headless CMS market’s growth from $851 million in 2024 to $3.68 billion by 2031.
Faster dev cycles. API-first architecture simplifies integration and speeds up updates. Developers add features faster, while marketers launch campaigns without waiting on technical teams.
Scalability and cloud adoption. Top headless CMSs are SaaS or cloud-native. This means they efficiently scale to handle traffic spikes, growing audiences, and expanding product catalogs.
Personalization through APIs. APIs make it easy to integrate with specialized personalization tools, including analytics, marketing, and AI. The AI part is particularly critical. According to Gartner, 40% of organizations will fail to deliver impactful digital experiences due to weak AI-driven content strategies — a gap that a headless CMS can fill.
Developing or migrating to a headless CMS with Bits Orchestra is a true content liberation. We make the transition so seamless, your team will wonder why they didn’t do this years ago.
Thinking about going headless?
Let’s discuss your project to find out if a headless CMS is right for your business.
Best Headless CMS Platforms in 2025
Now that you’ve seen that the shift to decoupled content is mandatory, your next logical question is: What are my best options? Here are the six top headless CMS platforms we recommend for 2025:
Contentful
Contentful is the most popular headless CMS for enterprises. It’s valued for its stability, strong API ecosystem, and modular content.
Key features:
API-first architecture. Delivers content anywhere through REST and GraphQL.
Global content delivery network (CDN). Guarantees fast content delivery worldwide.
Content model flexibility. Treats content as structured data chunks, which makes it easy to reuse content across different channels.
Enterprise-ready. Offers custom roles and permissions, localization, enhanced governance, and advanced workflows.
Ecosystem and integrations. Offers a large partner network and app marketplace with eCommerce, AI, analytics, personalization, A/B testing, and other solutions.
Developer-friendly. Provides SDKs and documentation for major frameworks.
Best for: Global enterprises facing complex content needs, including multi-language support, advanced governance, and robust scalability, require Contentful development services.
Strapi
Strapi is an open-source headless CMS, loved by developers for its flexibility and control.
Key features:
Open-source and customizable. Allows devs to extend core functionality, modify source code, or install plugins and integrations from the marketplace.
Developer-friendly. Primarily aimed at developers, built on Node.js, supports both REST and GraphQL APIs.
Flexible hosting. Enables self-hosting or choosing the Strapi cloud.
Simple content modeling. Allows developers to create content models with Content-Type Builder and Custom Fields, as well as design content structures with a no-code UI.
Best for: Startups, SMBs, and companies with strong internal dev teams looking for customization, control, and affordability through Strapi development services.
Sanity
Sanity is the best headless CMS software for real-time collaboration and a structured content approach.
Key features:
Sanity Studio. Offers a completely customizable, collaborative editing environment that can be configured with TypeScript and customized with React.
Content lake and CDN. Lets you store content as JSON templates and query content data using GROQ query language.
Integration-friendly. Works well with different frameworks and enables deployment of content-driven apps and functions on AWS, Google Cloud, Vercel, and more.
Best for: Businesses that deal with complex content structures and require collaboration tools might benefit from Sanity development services.
Pick the best headless CMS for your business
Check out our list of headless CMS platforms and choose the right one for your needs. Talk to our experts to help you evaluate the leading solutions.
Optimizely
Optimizely is well-known in the broader digital experience platform space, offering an easy-to-manage headless CMS.
Key features:
Advanced SEO. Allows you to optimize content for search engines, AI answers, and summaries.
Visual builder. Makes it easy to create and publish content, tailoring it for different devices.
Simple integration. Enables you to connect the CMS to various tools, including CRM, marketing automation, translation, and SEO.
Audiences. Provides AI-powered suggestions and insights on tailoring content to each user’s location, language, and behavior.
Best for: Enterprises that need an end-to-end platform for content management, personalization, and optimization.
Kontent.ai (by Kentico)
Kontent.ai, formerly Kentico Cloud, offers a hybrid headless model, which connects the traditional “all-in-one” CMS with headless API delivery.
Key features:
Dual approach. Can be used as a headless CMS via REST/GraphQL APIs or as a traditional one with built-in presentation features via MVC/.NET Core.
Marketing features. Includes campaigns, A/B testing, and personalization.
Content governance. Offers tools for defining and tracking content access, workflows, and approvals.
Content modeling. Allows for seamless content creation, management, and delivery across various channels.
Best for: Enterprises that want both headless flexibility and traditional marketing capabilities might need to cooperate with a Kentico development company.
Umbraco
Umbraco is an open-source CMS that extends into headless with Umbraco Heartcore, its SaaS product.
Key features:
Heartcore headless CMS. Offers API-first content delivery via REST and GraphQL to websites, apps, or any other digital experiences.
Flexible options. Lets you use the classic coupled open-source Umbraco CMS extendable for headless through APIs.
Familiar backoffice. Provides a simple, user-friendly editing experience.
Best for: Organizations looking for a cost-effective, community-backed CMS with both traditional and headless options might want to collaborate with an Umbraco CMS development company.
How to Choose the Right Headless CMS for Your Project
You’ve seen the best headless CMS 2025 options. But how do you know which one is right for you? Here’s a simple framework to guide your decision:
Business size and complexity. Small teams or startups should look for open-source or flexible SaaS such as Strapi or Umbraco Heartcore. Enterprises that prioritize governance, compliance, and scalability might benefit from Contentful, Sanity, Kontent.ai, and Optimizely.
Integration needs. If you need to integrate with CRM, ERP, eCommerce, and other platforms, pick a CMS with robust APIs and vast ecosystems. Contentful, Strapi, Sanity, and Optimizely excel in this case.
Budget and licensing. Consider the pricing model that suits your capabilities best. CMS platforms we discussed today offer SaaS, hybrid, and open-source options.
Developer resources. Got a strong development team? Open-source CMS gives flexibility and full control. If you have limited dev resources, SaaS platforms with built-in support may be the better fit.
How Bits Orchestra Can Help
Bits Orchestra specializes in delivering headless CMS solutions for businesses. With over 8 years of CMS expertise, we’ve helped companies of all sizes migrate, integrate, and scale their digital ecosystems. The technologies we work with include:
.NET
Kentico
Umbraco
Contentful
Strapi
Sanity
That is, our company can assist you with the majority of the headless CMSs from our curated list.
Conclusion
Headless CMSs completely change the way businesses deliver content. They offer flexibility, scalability, and speed unimaginable in traditional systems.
Today, we’ve discussed the six best headless CMS for eCommerce and beyond, but the right choice depends entirely on your requirements, goals, and resources. In case you need help with picking a suitable system, reach out to Bits Orchestra for a consultation.
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FAQ
Is a headless CMS better than a traditional CMS?
It depends on your needs. Traditional CMSs might be enough for simple websites. Headless solutions, in turn, are better suited for complex content structures and businesses dealing with multiple channels.
Can I migrate from a traditional CMS to a headless CMS easily?
Of course. But there’s one requirement to make the transition to the best headless CMS for eCommerce smooth: you need a reliable partner. A partner like Bits Orchestra can help you with planning, content auditing and modeling, API integration, and, ultimately, data transfer.
How secure are headless CMS platforms?
Very. This high level of security can be explained by the decoupled nature of headless CMSs. Since backend (content) and frontend (its visual representation) are separated, the attack surface is smaller.
Can I use a headless CMS for my existing website?
Definitely, if that’s what you require. You can easily integrate the fastest headless CMS with your current website through APIs.
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