What is a traditional CMS?

Before we get into explaining what a headless and hybrid CMS is, let us first recap of how a traditional platform works.

Traditional CMS platforms, like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla, allow users to create, edit, and publish content via an easy-to-use front-end interface, usually in the form of a WYSIWYG editor or an HTML editor. In essence, the front-end template helps to determine how the content will look like to the end-user when they visit the web page through a web browser like Google Chrome.

The content that is produced on the front-end editor is then stored on to a back-end database, which also contains the files and codebase to help run the CMS platform.

 Besides governing the content, most traditional CMS help marketers manage other aspects of their website, including page structure, sitemap, and templates. It’s how the world of web content management has worked over the years, and it’s a pretty solid model.

However, the limitations of these traditional CMS platforms became apparent ever since IoT devices, like smartwatches, smart speakers, and even smart cars, grew in popularity.

The pre-built front-end interface dictated how and where content should be distributed, and in most cases, this was to a single web-based application such as a website or application. And since the front-end template is so tightly glued (or tightly coupled, which is the more appropriate term) to the back-end, both marketers and developers have little room for flexibility as to where they can push their content.

So, along came the headless CMS.