Building with Headless CMS: Choosing the Right Platform and Integrating with Nextjs

If you’ve been exploring the world of web development, chances are you’ve come across the term Headless CMS. It sounds a little mysterious, doesn’t it? Almost like something out of a tech fairytale, headless knights, but for websites. On the other hand, you might already be familiar with the more traditional side of things: systems like WordPress or Drupal that have been powering websites for decades. In this post, we’ll break down what a headless CMS actually is, how it compares to a traditional CMS, why it’s become so popular in modern web development, and how you can use one in your own projects, specifically with Nextjs. We’ll also look at different CMS options (both free and paid) and give you a practical example of integrating one into a Nextjs app. Let’s get into it. What is a Traditional CMS? Let’s start with the familiar. A traditional CMS (Content Management System) is an all-in-one solution where your content and your presentation layer are tightly bound together. Think of i