In modern web development, traditional monolith CMS platforms like WordPress and Drupal are often replaced by lighter and faster “headless” alternatives. Headless CMSs separate the frontend from the backend, providing only content storage and management features. This approach allows developers to choose the best frontend for each project without being restricted by a single platform’s design features.
There are two types of headless CMS platforms: Git-based and API-first. Git-based CMSs use Git as the base for content management, with a UI layer for easier use. Content and configurations are stored in files, allowing for full version control and seamless collaboration. However, Git-based CMSs are limited to Git-friendly frontends. On the other hand, API-first CMSs have a database for content storage and an API for content management, making them more flexible but also more resource-intensive and costly.
Git-based CMS platforms offer several benefits compared to traditional CMSs and API-first CMSs. These benefits include full version control, no database limitations, no vendor lock-in, seamless collaboration, familiar workflows, cost-efficiency, faster build times, and easy setup. Git-based CMSs are best suited for simple to medium-sized websites that don’t require frequent content updates or large amounts of data and media files.
There are several Git-based CMS platforms available. Tina CMS is an open source CMS that supports MDX, Markdown, and JSON content files. It offers real-time visual editing, a unique data layer for querying content, and powerful content schema and modeling. Nuxt Studio is a Nuxt-only CMS that provides an enhanced editor, a media gallery, and a UI-focused customization tool. Decap CMS is an extensible CMS built with React, offering rich-text editing, real-time preview, drag-and-drop media uploads, and an editorial workflow. Static CMS is a fork of Decap CMS with enhancements such as better media assets management, internationalization support, dark mode support, custom themes, and more.
Overall, Git-based CMS platforms provide a lightweight and flexible solution for content management, allowing developers to choose the best frontend for their projects while maintaining version control and collaboration capabilities.
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