Compare Flow - Flow CMS vs headless CMS: the straightforward choice for business growth
Headless CMS promises ultimate flexibility, but demands a team of developers to deliver it. Flow CMS delivers elite performance and a stunning site without the endless complexity and cost.
The "headless" hype: power you probably can't use (without a full time team)
A headless CMS is a content repository that delivers data via an API to any front end (like a React or Vue.js application). It's powerful, but that power comes with immense overhead.
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It's a developer only project: A headless CMS is just a backend. You need to hire expensive developers to build the entire front end website from scratch, and again for every single change.
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The cost spiral: Beyond initial development, you're locked into ongoing developer fees for content model changes, design tweaks, and bug fixes. The total cost of ownership is extremely high.
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Editorial complexity: The content editing experience is often disconnected from the final design, making it difficult for marketers to preview and layout content effectively.
Flow CMS: high performance, without the headache
Flow CMS is a coupled CMS, the content and presentation layer are seamlessly integrated. We provide the elite performance of a modern stack, pre-assembled and ready for you to manage.
| Headless CMS (Contentful, Strapi) | Flow CMS | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup & ongoing cost | Extremely high (requires a dev team for build & maintenance) | Predictable, all-inclusive price (we build and manage it) |
| Time to launch | Months of development | Weeks, not months |
| Performance | Can be very fast, but only if the dev team builds it perfectly. | Blazing speed out of the box with our optimised framework. |
| Ownership & control | You own the content, but are completely dependent on developers. | You own the website and have direct control to edit and manage content freely. |
| Ideal for | Large enterprises with dedicated dev teams and complex app needs. | Businesses that need a fast, powerful website as a business tool, not a tech project. |
A tale of two processes: launching a new landing page
With a headless CMS:
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A marketer requests a new landing page.
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A developer might need to update the content model in the CMS.
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A front-end developer writes code to fetch the new data and build the page in React.
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The team tests and deploys the code.
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Time: Days or weeks. Cost: High.
With Flow CMS:
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You duplicate an existing page or use a pre-built section.
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You edit the text and images directly in the visual editor.
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You hit "Publish."
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Time: Minutes. Cost: $0.
So, when does headless actually make sense?
Choose a headless CMS only if:
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You are building a complex web application (not just a website) that needs to feed data to multiple digital products (e.g., a website, a native mobile app, and digital kiosks).
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You have a large, in-house team of developers to build and maintain the entire front end.
For 95% of businesses, Flow CMS is the smarter, more powerful choice. It delivers the speed and modernity without the crippling overhead and complexity.