Market Share of Headless CMS
Distribution of headless CMS usage in France 1.
As of November 16, 2021, the BuiltWith website counts 575 websites in France using headless technology.
1. Headless CMS: A New Trend
Unlike the other types of CMS, headless CMS is relatively recent. However, it is gaining more and more popularity, as indicated by the following graph (number of Google searches for the term "Headless CMS" worldwide from 2004 to present):
Graph showing the evolution of interest in the search term "Headless CMS" 2.
And compared to the terms "open source CMS" (in red) and "hosted CMS" (in yellow):
Comparative graph showing the evolution of interest in the searches for Open-Source CMS, Hosted CMS, or headless CMS 3. The latter gradually surpasses the others.
Generally, content management systems have a "back office," an interface accessible only to the website's creator/owner. From there, they can create and manage the content that appears on the "front end" - the actual website accessible to everyone and found by typing its name into a search engine. The front end incorporates a design that can be built by coding, obtained from a template (in open-source CMS), or configured from the options provided (for hosted CMS).
However, headless CMS is not connected to any specific front end. Only the back office is present. This allows for increased configuration possibilities and unique freedom compared to other CMS. In practice, the same back office for a single site can be configured to display differently on various intended platforms: a website for viewing on a computer, regardless of screen size; Windows and/or Mac applications for computers; websites or applications for smartphones or tablets running on any operating system; applications for smartwatches, and more. Its extreme portability makes it highly attractive and comprehensive despite the lack of a predefined front end. They require advanced computer knowledge and are primarily intended for developers 4.
Finally, they can be categorized as either hosted or open-source. The table below summarizes the main advantages of these new CMS compared to older ones:
| Wix | Squarespace | Weebly | Webnode | Jimdo | Webflow | Duda | GoDaddy Websites | Strikingly | One | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advantages |
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| Disadvantages |
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Source: https://www.tooltester.com/en/best-website-builder/ (translated from English, page accessed on 11/11/2021).
1. Source: BuiltWith website, https://trends.builtwith.com/shop/hosted-solution/country/France (Page accessed on 04/11/2021).
2. For all these features, see the help center of both CMS on their respective websites: WIX: http://urlr.me/pDr9x, http://urlr.me/fBH15 and DUDA: http://urlr.me/Krbh4, http://urlr.me/ZzYjG (Pages accessed on 08/11/2021).
3. Source: Duda website, https://support.duda.co/hc/fr-fr/articles/360061888493-Exportation-du-site.
