What are the main headless e-commerce solutions?

The headless CMS sector encompasses more and more content management system providers, who are there to support you through the roll-out of this architecture within your e-commerce site. There are also open-source solutions, or ones that can be used to transform your current CMS into a “headless” product.

Open source headless CMS solutions

If your company has its own servers, and prefers using open-source software to ensure more control, there are solutions of this kind such as Cockpit and Directus. These free tools enable you to use all the programming frameworks and languages of your choice, and of course add coding elements. They can be personalised at will, and offer great flexibility and freedom to developers when it comes to adapting the headless CMS to company needs. Both can be self-hosted, and Directus also offers a paying option if you wish to be hosted in the Cloud.

Standard CMS solutions used in headless mode

If you like your current CMS options, such as WordPress and Drupal, you could also make them “headless” by resorting to specially-designed technical solutions: RESTful for Drupal, REST API for WordPress. With this configuration, your favourite CMS will be turned into an administration interface without displaying any information in the front-office, and your content will become accessible via an API, to then be circulated on many systems and devices.

Hosted e-commerce headless CMS solutions

Furthermore, you have countless specialised providers at your service offering their own headless CMS solutions - that can either be installed or hosted in the Cloud: Commercetools, Contentstack, ButterCMS, Sanity, Contentful, GraphCMS, KenticoKontent, Spryker, Elastic Path Commerce Cloud or Shopify Plus. Various subscription packs are available, depending on your needs. Some even have trial periods or free versions with limited functions. Their packs are generally affordable for SMEs. This kind of software is welcoming and can be used to quickly create data entries, as well as transfer content from the previous CMS. It is suitable for both beginners and expert headless developers