Headless CMS
A headless CMS stores and manages content separately from the website’s front end and delivers it through an API to any site, app or channel.
Area
Framer and Webflow building
What it means in practice
In a built-in CMS, content and presentation live together. You edit a page and the platform renders it. In a headless setup, the CMS only manages content. Developers build the front end separately, often with a framework like Next.js, and pull content in through an API.
Common headless CMSs include Sanity, Contentful, Storyblok, Payload and Hygraph. They offer flexible content models, editorial workflows, localization and permissions. The same content can feed a website, a product, docs and a mobile app.
The trade-off is engineering effort. A headless site needs developers to build and maintain the front end, and layout changes usually go through them. Visual platforms with a built-in CMS, like Framer and Webflow, let marketing change layouts themselves.
Why it matters for B2B and AI teams
Headless makes sense for some B2B companies. It fits a large engineering team, content shared across many channels, complex localization or strict performance and security requirements.
For many growth-stage B2B and AI companies, it adds cost and slows marketing down, because every new page layout becomes an engineering ticket. A visual platform with a built-in CMS often gets a marketing site live faster and keeps it easier to change.
The right answer depends on who runs the site day to day and what else the content has to power. Going headless for a five-page marketing site usually adds more work than it saves.
How we approach it
We build on Framer and Webflow, both of which include a CMS. For most B2B marketing sites, that keeps the site in marketing’s hands after handover. If you’re weighing a headless setup, we can talk through whether a visual platform covers what you need.
FAQ
SEO depends on how the front end is built, how fast it loads and how content is structured. A well-built site on either setup can rank.
Both can bring in content from outside sources. Framer does it with CMS sync plugins, such as its Notion and Airtable plugins, and Webflow with its CMS API and third-party sync apps. The setup adds complexity. Most marketing sites on these platforms use the built-in CMS.
When content has to power several products or channels, or when engineering wants full control of the front end and has the capacity to maintain it over time.
Keep exploring
Related terms
CMS (content management system)
A CMS (content management system) is the software that lets a team create, edit and publish website content without touching code.
Webflow
Webflow is a visual web development platform for designing, building, hosting and managing websites, with styling that stays close to how HTML and CSS work.
Framer
Framer is a visual website builder that lets teams design, build, host and publish production websites from a canvas that works much like a design tool.
Information architecture (IA)
Information architecture (IA) is how a website’s content is organized, labeled and connected, so visitors can find what they need and know where they are.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the work that helps search engines crawl, render, understand and index a website. It covers the site’s structure, speed, code and settings.
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