Headless CMS setups — WordPress as back-end, Next.js as front-end.
Best of both worlds: editor UX your marketing team already knows + frontend performance of a modern React app.
Headless splits your site in two: a CMS your marketing team already knows on one side, a lightning-fast modern front-end on the other. You get editor comfort and edge-cached performance at the same time — when the project actually calls for it.
Why headless
You want the fastest possible marketing site with edge caching (Vercel, Cloudflare Pages). But your marketing team is comfortable in WordPress or Sanity Studio. Headless splits the two: the CMS lives on one domain your team edits, the front-end pulls content via API and ships to visitors as static HTML.
Our stacks
WordPress + Next.js: WPGraphQL or the native REST API feeding a Next.js front-end with ISR (incremental static regeneration). Sanity + Next.js: Sanity Studio as CMS, GROQ queries into Next.js. Payload CMS + Next.js: TypeScript-native CMS if your team is technical. Prismic + Next.js: for slice-based marketing sites.
When NOT to go headless
Simple business site under 20 pages: overkill. Content team of one who is fine with vanilla WordPress: overkill. Real-time interactive app: use a real database, not a CMS. Blog with daily posts and SEO ambitions: WPGraphQL adds latency you don't need — just use regular WordPress with good caching.
What 'headless' really means
Traditionally, WordPress both stores your content and renders your pages. Headless separates those jobs: the CMS just stores and serves content through an API, and a separate Next.js front-end pulls that content and ships it to visitors as fast static HTML, cached at the edge. Your team keeps editing where they're comfortable; your visitors get near-instant pages.
The stacks we build on
WordPress plus Next.js via WPGraphQL or REST with incremental static regeneration. Sanity plus Next.js for a clean, structured editor. Payload plus Next.js when the team is technical and wants TypeScript-native. Prismic plus Next.js for slice-based marketing sites. We pick based on who's editing and how the content is shaped.
When NOT to go headless
We'll talk you out of it when it's overkill: a simple site under twenty pages, a single content editor happy in vanilla WordPress, a real-time app that needs a database not a CMS, or a daily-posting blog where the extra API hop just adds latency. Headless is powerful, but it's the wrong default for most small sites.
Traditional WordPress
- One codebase
- Coupled to theme
- Hosting = LiteSpeed or WP Engine
- Editor UX = wp-admin
- ~2s TTFB uncached
Headless
- Two codebases
- Decoupled
- Hosting = Vercel + WP
- Editor UX = wp-admin
- ~200ms TTFB (edge cached)
What's included
- CMS setup (WP / Sanity / Payload / Prismic)
- Next.js front-end with ISR
- Content model + editor training
- Preview flow for drafts
- Deployment to Vercel + CMS host
Often paired with headless cms
Questions people ask about headless cms
Why not just use regular WordPress?
For most sites, you should. Headless earns its cost when you need edge-cached performance AND a CMS your team already knows. Below that bar, regular WordPress with good caching is simpler and cheaper.
Can my marketing team still preview drafts?
Yes — we set up a preview flow so editors see unpublished changes before they go live, just like in normal WordPress.
Is headless faster than a normal site?
For content-heavy marketing sites, meaningfully — think ~200ms edge-cached responses versus a couple of seconds uncached. For a small brochure site the difference isn't worth the complexity.
Which CMS should I choose?
Depends on your team. WordPress if they know it, Sanity or Payload if you want a cleaner structured editor, Prismic for slice-based pages. We'll recommend based on who edits and how.
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