Headless websites
Headless website agency for companies that outgrew their CMS
A content model your editors understand, a CMS that fits them, a fast Next.js front end, and a migration that keeps every address that brings in visitors.
When the CMS becomes the bottleneck
A headless website keeps your content apart from the code that displays it. Editors fill in fields: a product, a location, a case study. A front end built in Next.js turns those fields into pages when the content changes, and a CDN serves the finished files from close to each visitor. Nothing is assembled on a server when someone arrives, so there is less to slow down and less to break into. A headless website agency designs that content model, picks the CMS your editors will actually like, and builds the front end.
Teams usually arrive here from a CMS that grew heavy: a theme with dozens of plugins, slow pages, a second language that never quite worked, an update that broke the contact form. The sites we build in Next.js keep their content as structured data, apart from the code. This page sets out when that pays off and when it does not, what the CMS options cost per month, and how a migration keeps your place in Google.
The same site, two architectures
Monolithic CMS
Content, theme, plugins and pages in one system
Content
Theme and plugins
Database and server
Pages, built on every visit
Headless
The content model apart from the front end
- Content modelProducts, services, cities, cases: fields, not pagesIn git, or a CMS such as Sanity, Payload or Strapi
- BuildPages are made once, when content changesNext.js, React
- EdgeStatic files served close to the visitorA CDN such as CloudFront
- Other channelsThe same content feeds an app, a kiosk or a second siteOne source, many outputs
Headless or a classic CMS
| Classic CMS | Headless | |
|---|---|---|
| Who edits | anyone, in the page itself | editors in fields; the layout stays consistent |
| Speed | depends on theme and plugins | fast by default: pages are files on a CDN |
| Security | plugins and the admin login are the usual way in | no admin or database reachable from the public site |
| Languages | a plugin, often with gaps | part of the model, each language with its own addresses |
| Other channels | the website only | the same content can feed an app, a portal or a second site |
| Cost to start | lowest | higher: the model and the front end are built for you |
| Cost to run | updates, plugin licences, fixes | hosting plus a CMS plan; few updates |
When headless pays off
- Choose headless ifyour site has many pages of the same kind: products, locations, services, guides. A model turns them into one template you fix once.
- Choose headless ifyou publish in several languages and want each one to rank. Our page on multilingual website development explains what that takes.
- Choose headless ifspeed or security is a requirement, not a wish: a regulated client, a public tender, a security questionnaire from a large customer.
- Stay with a classic CMS ifthe site has ten pages, nobody will ever need a developer for it and the budget is tight. A well built WordPress or Webflow site is cheaper to own; compare in custom website or WordPress and check whether WordPress is safe.
Which headless CMS fits your editors
The CMS follows from who edits and how often. If the term itself is new to you, our glossary entry on a headless CMS shows the moving parts with an example. Prices as the vendors list them in October 2026, in dollars, before tax:
| Option | Monthly cost | Fits when |
|---|---|---|
| Content in git (Markdown or JSON in the repository) | no licence | a developer adds most pages and every change is reviewed; our own site works this way |
| Sanity | free up to 20 seats; Growth 15 dollars per seat | a marketing team publishes daily and wants live previews |
| Storyblok | Starter free with 1 seat; Growth 99 dollars with 5 seats; Growth Plus 349 dollars with 15 | editors want a visual editor that looks like the page |
| Payload or Strapi | open source; you pay for hosting | you want the CMS in your own cloud account, next to your data |
What a headless build includes
- A content modelPage types and fields designed from the content you have, so a page cannot drift from the design.
- Editor screens with a previewYour team sees the page before it goes live, in every language.
- A static front endPages as files on a CDN, images in the size each screen needs.
- Checks before publishA missing field, a broken link or a bad hreflang pair stops the build instead of reaching visitors.
What a headless website costs, to build and to run
With us a website starts at 1,500 euros for a one-pager; a site with many pages, languages, bookings or a shop costs more, at a fixed price agreed after a first call. A headless site with a CMS for your editors almost always sits in that second group, because the content model and the editor screens are built around your content. You get a fixed price per part after a call; the website cost calculator shows how pages, languages and features move it.
Running costs are small and predictable:
| Item | Typical monthly cost | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Static hosting on AWS CloudFront | 0 dollars up to 1 million requests and 100 GB | the flat-rate Pro plan is 15 dollars for 10 million requests |
| Vercel Pro, if the site renders on a server | 20 dollars per developer seat | the free Hobby plan is for non-commercial use only |
| Hosted CMS | 0 to 349 dollars | see the table above; git-based content has no licence |
Moving a site to headless without losing rankings
- Inventory. Every address of the old site with its traffic and links, from Search Console and a crawl.
- Model. Page types and fields, from the content you have.
- Front end. Built on real content, on a test link you click through.
- Content move. By script where possible, by hand where a page needs rewriting anyway.
- Redirects. Every old address gets a permanent redirect to its new page; pages that go away get a real 404.
- Launch and watch. Sitemaps submitted, Search Console followed page by page in the weeks after.
When SN Group, a builder in Ghent, left its single-page app for a static Next.js site, we kept every address that mattered, added a real 404 page and set the canonicals right; the SN Group case shows what the new site does with its two calculators. Our article on website migration and SEO covers the redirect rules in detail, and moving a website to a new host the practical side.
Where headless projects go wrong
| Risk | How we cover it |
|---|---|
| Editors feel locked out and call a developer for every comma | a CMS chosen for them, with a preview before publishing |
| Rankings drop after the move | a redirect for every old address, checked against Search Console after launch |
| One bad entry breaks the build | the model validates every page before it publishes |
| The CMS vendor raises prices | content as structured data you can export; git or open source when you prefer |
| The start cost eats the budget | a model sized to your content; a small site does not need a big CMS |
Speed, security and accessibility come from the template
A static front end answers as fast as a CDN sends a file, so speed comes from how the pages are made, not from a caching plugin; test any page with our website speed test. There is no login page and no database on the public site, which closes the usual way into a plugin-based CMS. Accessibility lives in the front end too: semantic HTML, visible focus, contrast and a label on every field, which the European Accessibility Act now asks of many online shops and services. Because every page of a type comes from one template, a fix there fixes every page at once.
Headless commerce
The same split works for a shop: catalogue, stock and checkout stay in the commerce platform, the front end is yours. It pays off when a shop needs pages a theme cannot give: a product configurator, price lists per business client, several languages, or category pages with real explanations that have to rank. For most small shops a well set up platform theme is still the better buy; what Shopify costs and Shopify alternatives in Europe help you compare.
Questions before going headless
Can my team still edit the site themselves?
Yes, in a CMS chosen for them. Editors fill in fields and see a preview; the layout stays consistent because it lives in the front end.
Is headless better for SEO?
Not by itself. It makes speed, clean HTML and hreflang easier to get right; the content and the search terms still decide where you rank.
Can you move our WordPress content over?
Yes. Posts, pages and media are exported and imported by script, and every old address is mapped to its new one with a redirect.
What if we want to leave you later?
The code is in a repository in your name, the content is structured data you can export, and the hosting can run in your own account from day one.
Website design
How VBS builds your headless site
We design the content model from your pages, set up the CMS your editors will use, build the front end in Next.js and host it in the EU, with the repository, the CMS account and the hosting in your name. Business Centrum runs four languages from one model and went from 220 to 10,200 Google impressions a day in five weeks; the home page of Villa Lidia went from 8.4 MB to 1.4 MB with the same photos. The full build is described on our website design page. Book a call and send your current site: we say what a headless version changes, what it keeps and what it costs.
Outgrowing your CMS?
Send us your current site. We say what a headless version changes, what it keeps and what it costs.
Rather get in touch right away?