Headless CMS vs WordPress: What’s Best for Birmingham Businesses?

Headless CMS vs WordPress

In this guide, the KIJO team breaks down what headless CMS (content management system) actually means, how it compares to WordPress, when each approach makes sense, and what we typically recommend (as WordPress specialists who’ve worked with both).

Related Read: Why Use WordPress? KIJO’s Guide for Businesses

What Is a Headless CMS?

The term “headless” makes more sense once you know what the “head” is. In a traditional CMS, the head is the front-end: the templates, themes, and display logic that control how your content appears on your website. The “body” is the backend, where your content is actually created, stored and organised. In a traditional setup, these two parts are built together as one system. When you write a blog post or update a product page, the CMS handles both storing that content and displaying it on your website.

A headless CMS removes the front-end entirely. You still get the backend for managing content, but there’s no built-in website attached to it. Your content sits in the system, structured and ready to go. But, it has nowhere to appear on its own.

So, how does it reach your website? Through APIs, essentially a way for two systems to request and share information with each other. Your website (or app, or whatever you’re building) calls the CMS, asks for the content it needs, and displays it however the developers have designed. The CMS doesn’t care what the website looks like or how it’s built. It just serves up the content when asked.

This separation is what makes headless architectures flexible, but it’s also what makes them more complex to build and manage.

How WordPress Works

In its traditional setup, WordPress is a fully integrated system. The content management system (CMS) and the front-end of the website work together as one, rather than being split into separate layers.

In practical terms, this means content is created, edited and published directly into the website itself. When you update a page in WordPress, you’re updating exactly what users will see. For marketing teams, this approach has some obvious advantages. Because content and design live together, it’s easy to:

• Edit copy and see changes instantly
  
• Create landing pages without developer support
  
• Preview content accurately before publishing
  
• Manage SEO, internal linking and metadata in one place
  

WordPress also supports visual page builders and block-based editing, which allows marketers to build and iterate pages quickly whilst still working within a defined design system. 

From a workflow perspective, traditional WordPress reduces friction. There’s no need to push content through multiple tools or rely on developers for everyday updates. For teams that need to move fast, test campaigns, or respond to performance data, that immediacy can be a real advantage.

Related Read: KIJO’s Ultimate Tips for Improving Your Internal Linking

Can You Use WordPress as a Headless CMS?

Yes. And, this is where the conversation gets more interesting… 

WordPress can also operate as a headless CMS, meaning it manages your content whilst a separate front-end handles how that content is displayed. Instead of WordPress directly rendering the website, it delivers content via APIs (such as the WordPress REST API), which the front-end then pulls in and presents.

This approach combines the familiarity and usability of WordPress with the performance and flexibility of modern front-end frameworks. Marketing teams continue working in a CMS they know, whilst developers can build faster, more tailored digital experiences without being constrained by traditional templates.

For growing businesses, this can be a smart middle ground. It allows organisations to benefit from API-driven delivery and improved performance without committing to a fully headless architecture from day one. In other words, WordPress can scale with you (serving content conventionally today, and via APIs tomorrow) without forcing a disruptive platform switch.

What Are the Disadvantages of Using a Headless CMS?

From a marketing perspective, the biggest drawback of headless CMS is the fact that you now have two systems that need to speak to each other. You’ll most likely need two different teams to manage it too; one on the front end (head) and one on the backend (body). Syncing up these two teams is important as if a change occurs one end, it may affect the other.

Headless builds are also typically more complex to manage and more expensive to maintain. Whilst content can be changed easily in the CMS, front end changes and updates often require developer involvement. In addition, previews can be clunky and SEO needs to be handled very deliberately.

What Are the Advantages of Using a Headless CMS?

A headless CMS allows for far more technical freedom on the front end for teams to be innovative with their designs, unlimited by restrictions. It also means the CMS is able to run multiple touchpoints from websites to apps to TVs – anything that can receive API content.

When to Choose Headless

This setup can be incredibly powerful when you’re working across multiple digital touchpoints or building application-style experiences. It gives developers more control over performance and front-end flexibility, and it scales well for large, complex ecosystems.

If you only have one front-end experience, then headless is probably not the choice for you. If you need your content to be served and consumer across multiple digital touch points, headless should be a consideration. However, you will need to make sure you have the team and resources to set up and maintain it. 

Related Read: 10 Reasons You Should Use WordPress for SEO and Your Business

Headless CMS Alternatives to WordPress

There are other content management system platforms that can be used in a headless set up. These include:

• Storyblok
• Contentful
• Shopify
• Webflow

eCommerce-first businesses may prefer Shopify. Highly technical product teams may prefer a headless CMS like Contentful. Design-led brochure sites and their teams might have a preference for Webflow. 

A very common Headless marriage is Shopify for the eCommerce element of the site, and WordPress for the content and SEO management. 

However, when you look at the full picture (usability, SEO, flexibility, cost, and long-term maintainability) WordPress, for us, remains one of the most well-rounded options available. And that’s why we’re experts in it here at KIJO.

Related Read: Shopify vs WordPress: Which is Best for Your eCommerce Site?

Headless WordPress Examples

Headless WordPress isn’t experimental anymore. It’s already being used by large, content-heavy brands where performance, scale and editorial workflows all matter.

TechCrunch

TechCrunch is one of the most well-known examples. As a high-traffic digital publication, TechCrunch uses WordPress as its content management system while delivering content through a custom front-end. This setup allows editors to publish at speed while developers optimise performance, scalability and page experience across devices. For media brands especially, headless WordPress offers a way to handle vast amounts of content without compromising load times or flexibility. Helpfully, TechCrunch wrote about their transition to a headless set up here.

Contentful

Contentful itself is another interesting case. Despite being one of the most prominent headless CMS platforms in the world, Contentful has used WordPress within parts of its own ecosystem for content management and editorial workflows. It’s a useful reminder that WordPress and headless architectures don’t have to be in opposition. Even companies built around headless technology recognise the value of WordPress as a familiar, robust CMS for certain use cases.

Together, these examples highlight where headless WordPress works best: organisations that need performance and scale, but don’t want to sacrifice editorial control or proven content workflows. For many growing businesses, it represents a practical step forward – not an all-or-nothing leap into complexity.

Related Read: 15 WordPress Website Examples (Some of Which You Use Everyday!)

Headless CMS vs WordPress: What We Recommend for Birmingham Businesses

At KIJO, we’re WordPress specialists – but we don’t default to it blindly. Working with Birmingham-based businesses, we consistently see better outcomes when the CMS supports marketing momentum rather than slowing it down.

For many teams, traditional WordPress is more than enough. For others, headless WordPress offers a future-proof step without sacrificing usability. Fully headless CMS tends to make sense only when there’s a clear technical or product-led requirement driving the decision.

Our recommendations are usually:

• Traditional WordPress for most marketing-led websites
  
• Headless WordPress for businesses scaling into more complex digital ecosystems
  
• Fully headless CMS only when there’s a clear technical or product-led need

For Birmingham businesses in particular, we see the most success when:

• Marketing teams retain control
  
• Content moves quickly
  
• SEO is baked in
  
• Budgets are invested where they matter most
  

WordPress typically excels at that.

Headless CMS vs WordPress: Choose the CMS That Works for Your Team

The debate around Headless CMS vs WordPress often focuses on what’s possible. But for marketing managers, the more important question is what’s practical.

Will your team be able to move quickly? Will content updates be easy? Does the platform support SEO, campaigns and long-term growth without unnecessary complexity?

In many cases, WordPress (whether traditional or headless) remains the most sensible choice.

If you’re planning a rebuild or weighing up your options and want a straight-talking recommendation based on your actual goals, the KIJO team would be happy to help you figure out what’s right for your business.

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