Index
When it comes to developing a website, today there are as many options as there are crucial aspects to be considered. While traditional CMSs continue to be popular, the advent of new technologies, such as headless CMSs, has created new opportunities for the publication of content. In this article, we explore Strapi, a headless open source CMS that is becoming increasingly popular.
The rise of headless CMSs
CMSs are imperative given the vast amount of content and data quantity circulating nowadays. They allow content to be created and managed quickly and easily. However, they can prove to be quite limiting. Depending on the CMS, developers, for example, may be bound to a specific programming languag to design the website.
While it is true that traditional CMSs like WordPress offers everything that is needed to create a website, it is also true that nowadays, a website must fulfil many requirements, including page responsiveness and a clear presentation of content to ensure a high user experience at all times.
The main difference between traditional and headless CMSs lies in the fact that traditional ones consist of a backend, a database and a frontend. In the backend, employees manage content that is memorised in the database and transmitted to website visitors from the frontend. The headless CMS, on the other hand, has no frontend, exposing only APIs. This way, content can be accessed from multiple channels, and not just from the browser. APIs can in fact be invoked by a Single Page Application, a mobile app, other APIs...
Strapi
Strapi is a headless open source CMS that is very flexible because it offers developers the freedom to choose their preferred frontend tools and frameworks, and is extensible through a plugin system.
Strapi therefore enables the world's largest companies to accelerate content distribution and build beautiful digital experiences.
This headless CMS is based on Node.js, so you can use Javascript to modify the strawberry source code and adapt it to your needs. You can connect any type of relational database; Strapi is free and open source forever, the entire code is available on Github and is maintained by hundreds of contributors. The security of Strapi is paramount and data is hosted securely on the servers. Finally, it is possible to generate complex APIs without having to write a line of code (thus also positioning itself as a no-code platform).
Some data on Strapi:
- 1.2 million downloads on npm
- Over 25,000 stars on GitHub
- Over 422 contributors - 95% outside the Strapi team.
- Over 13,000 commits
- Over 300 community plugins released on npm
- Over 10 community-managed user groups
- Over 4,800 public Strapi projects on GitHub
Pros and cons of Strap
Advantages:
- Customisation: the headless CMS Strapi offers endless possibilities for choice and customisation.
- Simple data modelling: Strapi can connect to any type of database, relational or non-relational, and offers an excellent interface for data modelling.
- Speed of development: this is a great strength as several development teams can work on different components in parallel.
- Security: Strapi's built-in authentication and robust security and permissions system makes it one of the most secure options for development and data security.
- REST and GraphQL API: Strapi offers documented REST and GraphQL APIs out of the box.
Disadvantages:
- Frequent updates: while this is good for the ecosystem in general, it is also a challenge for developers because they can introduce breaking changes to previously developed versions.
- Schema changes: these can greatly complicate the migration of data to and from Strapi.
Conclusion
We believe that for building a website or mobile app with a lot of content, Strapi is a great choice, especially when you want to scale content and have multiple integration requirements because it offers a very simple and automated way to create APIs and lends itself very well to any kind of customisation.
If you are looking for a software house experienced in implementing IT solutions with the best technologies, contact us for a free consultation.
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