Pros and Cons of Setting Up A Headless WordPress

Keeping up with the ever-growing IoT (Internet of Things) can be a scramble, especially if you’re new to the content and website development game. Restructuring content from the traditional WordPress implementation for more client-side endpoints (such as smartwatches or speakers) can significantly strain your resources.

This is where the concept of Headless CMS comes in. Besides increasing flexibility on the back end of content management, it also makes possible the use of the same bucket of content for numerous outputs.

This post will walk you through what a headless WordPress site is and what some of its benefits are. We’ll also look at the limitations of this approach. Let’s dive in.

What Is a Headless WordPress Site?

Most CMSs are typically meant to handle both the front end of the website (interfaces where visitors interact) and the back end of the website (files stored on servers).

A headless CMS works differently: it basically separates your website’s front end from its back end through a REST API. That said, a headless WordPress site uses WordPress to manage content and some other customized front-end stack to display that content to the visitor.

Benefits of Using Headless WordPress

Given that WordPress is an open-source platform, it offers great flexibility in the creation of any type of website. Using WordPress as a headless CMS allows you to create the front-end of your web application using any web technology and manage its content using one of its most popular CMS. Here is an outline of some specific benefits of headless WordPress:

1. Front End Flexibility 

With a headless CMS, you’ll get to keep the content management attributes of WordPress that you love and outsource the front end to any other software you want, provided that the software can make requests to the WordPress API.

This is especially beneficial for developers who want to use a different coding language than what WordPress uses, and to work inside another application, orto add a front end like React to make their jobs easier.

2. Multi-Channel Use 

A headless CMS can act as a centralized source for several publishing channels. With it, changes made to a particular content in the CMS will automatically reflect across all the devices that are connected to it.

3. Improved Security 

While there are things that you can do to protect your WordPress site without going headless, the security benefit you get by going headless is a welcomed bonus.

When your front-end is separated from your content, it will be more challenging to locate and access your content directly through your website, provided your back-end server is hidden sufficiently.

4. Improved Performance 

Traditional WordPress uses PHP to fetch all the necessary resources from the database, assemble these resources into a page, and then finally send this page to the user. As you can imagine, this process isn’t always the fastest – when pages load slowly, it hurts the user experience and minimizes conversions.

By leaving your front-end delivery up to a separate application, the speed at which your site loads can potentially increase. For instance, you can take certain content from WordPress and assemble it into a static HTML page and then deliver this page to clients upon request.

What Are the Disadvantages of Using a Headless WordPress?

Here are some of the drawbacks to consider before you decide to use a headless WordPress:

• More Maintenance Needed: You may end up having two systems to maintain, in terms of security and updates.
• Tougher Credentialing: Given that a headless CMS has different credentialing of users, this can be a tedious endeavor, even though it enhances the security of your environment.
• Advanced Programming: Suppose you previously didn’t have the need for a front-end programmer; you will now need one. What’s more, you’ll require a more advanced library to make the most out of a headless CMS.

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