Headless CMS Guide: Content management decoupled from frontend
Headless CMS decouples content management from presentation — content lives in the CMS backend and is delivered via API to any frontend (web, mobile app, IoT).
Comparison
| Solution | Type | Price | Feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strapi | Self-hosted | Free | Highly customizable |
| Contentful | SaaS | Free/$300+/mo | Enterprise-grade |
| Sanity | SaaS | Free/$15+/mo | Real-time collaboration |
| Ghost | Self-hosted | Free | Blog & subscriptions |
| Decap CMS | Git-based | Free | No database needed |
16IDC Takeaway
Headless CMS + static site generators (Next.js, Astro) is the mainstream architecture for content sites in 2026. It combines CMS editing convenience with static site performance. Start with Strapi for self-hosted flexibility.