Platform guide
Headless CMS: Content Without a Built-In Website
A headless CMS stores and serves content, and leaves the website itself to be built separately. That split gives developers freedom and gives you two things to pay for.
What "headless" means
A traditional CMS such as WordPress does two jobs: it stores your content and it turns that content into web pages with a theme. A headless CMS does only the first job. Content sits in structured fields and is delivered through an API (a way for other software to request it). A developer then builds the website, or an app, or a screen in a shop, that fetches the content and displays it.
The name comes from removing the "head", the presentation layer, from the "body" that holds content. The approach suits teams that publish the same content to several places, or that want a front end built with specific modern tools. It adds a second system to build, host and maintain.
Three options and their prices
Headless products range from hosted services to open-source software you run yourself. Three examples, with prices from their official pages:
| Product | Free option | First paid tier | Hosting model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contentful | Free: $0, up to 10 users and 10,000 records | Lite: $300 a month | Hosted service |
| Sanity | Free: $0, up to 20 seats and 10,000 documents | Growth: $15 per seat a month | Hosted service |
| Strapi | Community edition: free, open source under the MIT license | Growth for self-hosted projects: $45 a month, including 3 users, plus $15 a month for each extra user | Self-hosted, or hosted on Strapi Cloud |
Strapi also sells hosting for its CMS. Strapi Cloud's pricing page, read on November 4, 2026, lists three plans priced per project, per month on monthly billing: Starter at $35, Pro at $90 and Business at $450. The page offers yearly billing with a saving of "up to 17%" but did not list yearly prices for those plans.
Each vendor sets usage limits on its free tier, such as API requests, assets and bandwidth, and charges or requires an upgrade beyond them. Sanity's page, for example, lists 250,000 API requests and 1 million API CDN requests a month on its free plan. Read the limits against your expected traffic before assuming the free tier will last.
What else you pay for
The CMS subscription is the smaller part of a headless budget. You also need:
- A front end: the website code, built by a developer with a framework of their choice.
- Front-end hosting: a service that runs or serves that code.
- Preview and editing comfort: editors want to see a page before it goes live, which takes setup work.
- Ongoing development: new page types and features need a developer, since there is no theme to switch or plugin to install.
For a small business without developers, that can make headless more expensive to start and to change than a traditional CMS or a hosted builder. It earns its cost when content really does need to reach several channels, or when the business already employs developers.
Leaving a headless CMS
Because content is stored as structured data and requested through an API, getting it out is generally easier than leaving a page builder: a developer can script an export of every entry. Strapi's open-source edition goes further, since you run it and hold the database. The front end is yours already, so a move between headless products changes where content comes from rather than how pages look. Check each vendor's export documentation for the exact formats and limits.
A typical headless setup
A small headless project has more parts than a traditional CMS, and it helps to see them listed:
- The content service, such as Contentful, Sanity or a self-hosted Strapi install, where editors log in and write.
- A content model: the types of entry, such as page, article or product, and their fields, designed by a developer.
- The front end: website code that requests content from the service and turns it into pages.
- Front-end hosting, which serves those pages to visitors.
- A preview setup, so editors can see a draft page before publishing.
- A rebuild or refresh trigger, so new content appears on the site soon after it is published.
Each part has its own account, bill and maintenance needs. That is manageable for a team with a developer and a burden for a business without one.
Three tests for a headless project
- Channels. Name the places the content will appear besides the website. If the list is empty, a headless setup is solving a problem you do not have.
- Next year's work. Write down who will build a new page type twelve months from now, and roughly what it will cost.
- Free-tier headroom. Compare your expected monthly visits and requests with the limits on the free plan you plan to use, and price the next tier before launch.
Strengths and limits
Strengths. One content source for many channels; structured content that stays consistent; developers can choose any front-end tools; content is relatively easy to extract.
Limits. Two systems to pay for and maintain; editors lose the "what you see is what you get" comfort unless preview is built; every new feature needs developer time; total cost is higher for a simple site.
Who a headless CMS tends to fit
On these facts, a headless CMS fits businesses with developers on staff or on retainer, content that feeds an app or several sites, or a product team that wants full control of the front end. A local service business or a first online store will get further, faster, with WordPress, a hosted builder or Shopify. The how to choose a CMS guide helps you decide which side of that line you are on.
Sources for this page
- Contentful: Contentful Pricing. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
- Sanity: Pricing. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
- Strapi: Strapi pricing (self-hosted CMS). Official source, read November 4, 2026.
- Strapi: Strapi Cloud pricing. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
Questions
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