Headless CMS for Magento comparison - no-code solution
Michał Paprocki
Mon Sep 09 2024
Are you looking to efficiently manage content on your Magento site?
BOOK A CALLAs an eCommerce merchant or an e-commerce business owner, you have a full understanding that efficient workflow depends on how quickly and accurately data from multiple sources is aggregated, managed, and made available for reuse. This can be quite challenging when it comes to dealing with the increasing complexity of product information, evolving customer data or varied sales channels.
Fortunately, content management systems (CMS) offer resources to help improve workflows. In particular, headless CMS for Magento provides eCommerce merchants with various solutions for managing complex content-driven workflows and improving operational efficiency. In this article, we’ll compare a few of these options side-by-side so that you can choose the one that fits your specific needs best!
Magento monolith and headless
Magento is a robust open-source eCommerce platform that can operate as a monolith or headless solution, depending on your business needs. A monolithic Magento setup consists of a single application that provides both the frontend, customer-facing user interface (UI), and backend database. This is a good solution if you are looking for an all-in-one approach to managing your eCommerce store.
The Magento headless commerce version, however, separates the back end from the front end – allowing you to use any front-end technology for your UI. This ensures that product data, orders, and customer profiles are managed centrally in the back end while the front end can be tailored to meet your specific needs. Headless eCommerce allows for presenting your offer on various devices not only mobile and desktop but also other smart devices used everyday.
In Headless eCommerce thanks to API connection you can link your store to any possible device existing now and in the future. This approach is very much future-oriented.
At Panda Group we work with Monolith and Headless Magento versions and have many years of experience in implementing both of the abovementioned solutions. If you need more information about developing a Magento headless, please feel free to read the following blog article on Headless Magento e-Commerce development.
The fact is that headless architecture is advanced and complex and intended for fast-growing eCommerce businesses as it is easily scalable and enables the teamwork of merchants like product and category managers, product owners, marketers, and designers.
What is Headless CMS and when it is important for eCommerce?
Headless CMS is a revolutionary technology for eCommerce that allows businesses to manage content creation and releases without having to reinvent the wheel each time. By decoupling the backend management of eCommerce data sources, teams, and sales channels from the front-end user interface, headless CMS dramatically simplifies the workflow while reducing overall development costs.
These key benefits make it an ideal choice for businesses to manage larger amounts of data and collaborate with multiple stakeholders quickly and efficiently, ensuring customers receive a great experience every time.
With headless content management merchants and marketers can easily:
- create landing pages, banners, pop-ups,
- design and redesign product and category pages,
- create and edit any content pieces throughout the website with composable, predefined elements.
Benefits of using a headless CMS with Magento
For Magento based businesses that need workflow simplicity and flexibility headless CMS integration is an ideal option. A headless content creation system integrates with any existing and future technology to deliver content in real-time so businesses have more control over each individual customer journey.
This also helps editors as they can harness the power of a headless Magento store to manage content from multiple sources, securely at scale, with easy access and quicker updates.
Utilizing headless content management in conjunction with Magento online store puts control back into the business’s hands while enabling collaboration between team members who want to improve workflow and sales strategies at ease.
Top solutions for a headless approach
Finding the perfect headless content management for your eCommerce store can often be a challenging task. With Magento, however, there are a handful of outstanding SaaS and Open Source solutions available to ensure an efficient workflow.
Each of them offers immense potential in terms of optimizing productivity and ultimately creating improved customer experiences across multiple channels. With the help of a CMS editor, integrating a headless content editor with Magento has never been easier!
Headless commerce CMS advantages and disadvantages
When it comes to streamlining the complex processes of headless eCommerce platforms, the right Content Management System (CMS) editor can make all the difference.
All popular CMS editors have a range of upsides and downsides that businesses should consider before making a choice. There’s no one size fits all solution, so it’s important to weigh up each option carefully before taking any decision that could affect your workflow performance in the long run.
How to choose the best fit for your headless eCommerce platform
When businesses start getting complex with multiple data sources, team collaborations, and multiple sales channels, choosing the right Magento headless e-commerce solution to fit your business needs is a good option.
CMS editors can be an extremely helpful asset in making sure you select the best Magento headless e-commerce solution for your business based on its size, budget, and long-term goals.
By researching the pros and cons of each platform and communicating your objectives to CMS editors, you will be able to navigate which Magento headless e-commerce solution is the best fit for your company.
CMS for headless Magento site best match step by step
Here we present the real-life situation we experienced at Panda Group this year. Magento composable commerce is growing fast and so is the team of merchants, marketers, and designers.
There is also a growing problem of e-commerce content management as there is more and more information that needs to be spread throughout the website and managed by different team members.
Headless project requirements
At Panda Group we took the challenge to find a solution to improve the workflow and make it smooth and secure. Other requirements to implement a solution with were as follows:
- long-time perspective to avoid a technological dept,
- fast and cost-effective implementation without excessive development hours for complex updates in the future,
- friendly user interface (UI) with drag-and-drop of existing components,
- real-time visual edition,
- no coding, freeing the merchant's and marketers' potential as no development skills are needed.
Initial solutions' selection
We realized from the very beginning that the most advanced technology is going to be considered in this situation. We had chosen to compare the following solutions:
All of them have strong recommendations and solid backgrounds. However, in our particular situation, we were to point out one. Here is what we considered.
API connection is a must
An API is a set of procedures and protocols used by different software components to communicate with each other. It acts as a bridge between two applications, allowing them to talk to each other in an orderly fashion. APIs are used for a variety of applications, from connecting information from one website to another to enabling new features on mobile apps.
When it comes to headless CMSs, APIs are essential for connecting with external systems and services that can help enhance the functionality of your platform.
The most obvious benefit of using APIs with a headless CMS is that it allows users to easily integrate their platform with third-party services and tools without having to write any code themselves. This saves users time and money by eliminating the need for custom programming or hiring developers.
Additionally, using APIs ensures that all data sent between applications is secure and encrypted, so there’s no risk of personal information being leaked or stolen.
Because all CMS solutions we considered were using API, which was a basic technical requirement, we could go further and check the next features.
SEO support
Builder, Storyblok, Contentful, and Strapi support SEO which is important to optimize content for Search Engine Result Pages (SERP).
CMS headless Magento supports SEO with the following: custom meta titles and descriptions, redirects, canonical URLs, open graph tags, and other important factors that help to make content visible on SERPs.
Multilanguage and Multistore
For growing eCommerce businesses, it's worth considering if the tool allows for multistores creation and translation to different languages.
Multilanguage support is a must as it allows merchants to reach broader audiences and also supports SEO. All considered solutions offer this feature allowing content to be translated into various languages with just a few clicks.
Open source or SaaS
Builder, Storyblok, and Contentful are SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions which means that they are simpler to implement and you do not need to worry about the hosting of your content. However, they all cost around 500 USD per month depending on the number of users.
Only Strapi is an open-source, free of any cost solution but you need to consider maintenance and hosting fees instead. It also involves extra development work for maintenance.
As all the necessary features were available in all the editors we could go further and evaluate other requirements like:
- Fast and simple implementation.
- User-friendly editor.
Fast and simple implementation in Magento headless architecture
Contentful and Strapi have gained a reputation for being reliable CMS options in the market, but their lack of custom extensions can make it difficult to integrate with Magento. As it requires development and manual implementation as well as Magento framework updates in the future to make all components work smoothly. The Strapi and Contentful approach is very well known on the market. This is why savvy developers should look beyond the basics when considering which content creation tool fits best for any specific project.
In our particular situation, it was important not to multiply the extra work for development so we decided to go for SaaS.
Builder.io and Storyblok are great solutions when you need to fast-track the implementation process - their packages can help get your project up and running in a fraction of the time as compared to other approaches, meaning you'll be ready faster than ever!
User-friendly editor
One of the requirements was the easy edition and smooth user experience UX supported by intuitive user interface UI. We wanted the sales, content, and marketing team to work with no difficulties, achieve their goals and benefit from the teamwork.
Builder makes it easy to see what you're creating in real-time, and provides an intuitive drag drop feature that allows for quick customization. With Storyblock, a side panel gives users access to preview options alongside their design elements - all contained within one window. Both platforms provide visual editing capabilities so your projects can be brought quickly from idea to fruition.
Visual edition
Visual edition for headless CMS provides digital marketers and web designers with an incredibly powerful tool to quickly create attractive, engaging product, category or landing pages in an efficient manner. Digital marketers are enabled to freely compose these pages using a plethora of pre-made elements such as photos, videos, texts and even call-to-action buttons.
Furthermore, it is also possible to predefine some style elements so as to ensure that the product/category/landing page adheres consistently to established brand guidelines. All this adds up to powerful, effortless branding capabilities and efficient workflows for content creators and digital marketers alike.
Life preview
Making changes in real-time on a website, with immediate results visible, can be a real time saver and help ensure that modifications are accurate. That’s what headless CMS life preview offers. It provides all the advantages of an extraordinary workspace without splitting it from the live site. Modified changes can be tested easily, eliminating any guesswork and random actions so you get the best results for your site. Life preview is an essential feature that makes customizing web pages effortless and enjoyable.
Please check the examples of the life preview and visual edition of:
No-code solutions for merchants
Sales and marketing ideas can be immensely engaging, but they can also lead to bottlenecks if developers are required to bring these ideas to life. Thankfully, there are resources available that allow merchants to have a certain degree of creativity when it comes to their visions - without harkening back on the developers as much.
The tools involved come with a range of features that will vary depending on the situation, but the end goal is always the same - give the merchant the power of creation in their hands. Developers will help configure and implement these tools so they can be used effectively in operational workflows.
The most advanced headless CMS tools
Builder and Storyblok are the top tools when it comes to content creation. We always recommend them when a client is looking to improve their workflow and create content quickly. Priding themselves on creative freedom, you can go from an idea to output in no time. With the help of these tools, you no longer have to do things the traditional way – allowing for more innovative outputs.
If you wish to try Storyblok please have a look at our our step-by-step tutorial
Source: https://dribbble.com/shots/11499656-Storyblok-UI-Visual-Editor
Panda Group recommendation is accustomed to the client's particular situation
In this particular case, which always needs to be considered individually, we recommended Builder.
Builder.io prevailing advantages
It provides an integrated solution with Magento that allows you to easily access your products, categories, and lists inside the CMS editor. This is incredibly useful for creating a dynamic commercial page as you can instantly enrich it with a product carousel without having to manually add each item. With this integration, it's easy to quickly and efficiently create comprehensive, engaging pages that will keep customers returning to your site time and time again.
Documenting a tool can be invaluable in ensuring that the user understands all its features and applications. In this case, the documentation is both clear and extensive, providing users with all the necessary information they need to get started.
Furthermore, it provides support in terms of solving any problems they may face when using the tool. Additionally, there is a supportive community around this tool that offers additional insight and advice on how to use it effectively.
This makes it easier for users to navigate those complex landscapes. As such, with good documentation and an enthusiastic community available to provide assistance, the learning curve becomes much more manageable for those eager to explore what this powerful tool has to offer.
Source: https://github.com/BuilderIO/builder-public
Conclusion
With an array of technology solutions available on the market, taking the right decision with respect to your eCommerce goals can be a challenge. Headless eCommerce solutions coupled with a powerful platform such as Magento provide businesses with the flexibility they need to stay competitive in this fast-changing and complex industry.
While having such tools as your allies is beneficial, timely and knowledgeable advice on how to utilize them to their fullest potential is of paramount importance. This is why professionals have an important role when it comes to selecting the best solutions for any business and setting up a sound technology stack strategy that will deliver long-term success.
If you are interested in making use of Headless eCommerce for your project, then we are here to help. Get in touch with us today, and let us have an informal discussion about how we can approach this from your individual situation.
