We design, build, and integrate headless CMS solutions for content-driven products, connecting Contentful, Payload, Strapi, and Sanity to Next.js frontends with structured content, type-safe APIs, and editor-friendly workflows.
A headless CMS is a content management system that decouples the content layer from the presentation layer. Instead of a traditional CMS like WordPress - where content and templates are tightly coupled - a headless CMS stores and delivers structured content through an API, leaving your frontend completely free to consume it however it sees fit. The result is a fundamentally more flexible architecture. Your editors manage content in a purpose-built interface. Your developers build the frontend in Next.js without CMS constraints. The two teams work in parallel, ship independently, and never block each other waiting on a shared template system.
At Dev and Deliver, we work with four leading headless CMS platforms and match the right one to your project:
Contentful is the enterprise-grade SaaS CMS - cloud-hosted, globally distributed, and battle-tested at scale. It is ideal for teams that want a fully managed platform with rich content modelling, localisation, and a large ecosystem of integrations. Its Content Delivery API and Preview API connect cleanly to the Next.js App Router and make it a natural fit for complex, multi-locale content operations.
Payload CMS is the developer-first, self-hosted CMS built on Node.js and TypeScript. Payload is code-first by design: your content schema is defined in TypeScript, your access control is written as functions, and the admin UI is generated from your configuration. It integrates directly into Next.js monorepos and supports both REST and GraphQL APIs out of the box - making it exceptional for teams that want full ownership and zero vendor lock-in.
Strapi is the open-source, self-hosted CMS with a visual content type builder. Strapi gives non-technical teams the power to define and manage content structures without touching code, while exposing a flexible REST and GraphQL API for developers. It is a strong choice for projects where editors need autonomy and the team wants a community-backed, self-hosted solution under their own infrastructure.
Sanity is the structured content platform with a fully customisable studio. Sanity's real-time collaboration, GROQ query language, and portable text format make it a uniquely powerful choice for editorial teams working on richly structured, interconnected content. Its CDN-backed Content Lake, live content API, and first-class Next.js integration make it a top pick for performance-sensitive publishing and e-commerce workflows.
Whether you are migrating from a traditional CMS, building a new content-driven product, or powering a marketing site with a Next.js frontend, a well-chosen headless CMS gives your team a clean separation of concerns, faster iteration, and a content layer that scales with your business. 73% of organizations now use a headless architecture, according to WP Engine's State of Headless 2024 report, a Censuswide survey of over 1,000 CTOs, CMOs and IT decision-makers.
Benefits of choosing Headless CMS for your application
We help you choose the right headless CMS for your project - evaluating Contentful, Payload, Strapi, and Sanity against your team's technical capacity, editorial workflow requirements, data ownership needs, and budget. The wrong CMS choice is expensive. We make the right one clear before a line of code is written.
Structured content starts with a well-designed schema. We define content types, field relationships, validation rules, and reusable components that give your editorial team flexibility without creating chaos in your API responses. Good content modelling is the foundation of a maintainable headless architecture.
We build and configure Payload applications on Node.js and TypeScript - defining collections, globals, access control policies, and custom hooks entirely in code. We integrate Payload directly into Next.js monorepos, configure REST and GraphQL APIs to match your frontend's data requirements, and set up the admin panel for your editorial team from day one.
We set up, extend, and maintain Strapi instances for teams that need visual content type building with full API flexibility. We write custom plugins, configure role-based permissions, and connect Strapi APIs to Next.js frontends with type-safe query layers and correctly cached server-side data fetching.
We integrate Contentful's Delivery and Preview APIs into Next.js applications - with Draft Mode for live editorial previews, locale-aware routing, and Incremental Static Regeneration for pages that stay fast and always reflect the latest published content. We also migrate legacy CMS content to Contentful with clean, validated import pipelines.
We configure Sanity Studio with custom schemas, portable text serialisers, and a desk structure tailored to your editorial workflow. We write GROQ queries optimised for your Next.js data fetching patterns - server-side for RSC, client-side for interactive previews, or real-time with Sanity's live content API for collaborative editing environments.
We wire every CMS platform cleanly into the Next.js App Router - with correct use of Server Components for data fetching, Client Components where interactivity requires it, Draft Mode for preview environments, and ISR for content updates that propagate instantly without a full rebuild.
We migrate content from WordPress, Prismic, Contentful, or other legacy platforms to your new headless setup. We support and maintain existing headless deployments, run content model audits, and help teams evolve their schemas safely as product requirements change over time.
From content-heavy marketing platforms serving millions of page views to multi-brand SaaS products and headless e-commerce storefronts, the headless CMS pattern has proven itself across every content use case. Organisations like Nike, Spotify, Netlify, and Figma run headless content architectures in production. The shift away from coupled, template-driven CMS platforms is not a trend - it is the current standard for teams that want to move fast without sacrificing content quality.
Vendor-neutral platform advice
We build long-term relationships, not one-off integrations. You get transparency, honest platform advice - including which CMS to avoid for your specific use case - and a team that challenges decisions when they matter.
Content modelling through to the rendered page
We cover the entire headless stack - from CMS schema design and API configuration to Next.js frontend integration, ISR strategy, and editorial workflow design. No gaps, no handoffs, no integration surprises between your content layer and your frontend.
Hands-on with every major platform
Our engineers have shipped headless CMS integrations across e-commerce, publishing, SaaS, and marketing platforms. We have worked with every major platform in production and know where each one excels - and where it quietly causes problems at scale.
Tested against real editorial workflows
Type-safe content schemas, automated content validation, preview environment testing against real editorial workflows, and performance profiling against actual CMS response payloads are part of how we ship - not afterthoughts added when editors start reporting broken pages.
How our Headless CMS team is built and managed
Headless CMS work calls for a team that understands both the technical and editorial sides. We typically pair a backend engineer handling CMS configuration and content modelling with a frontend engineer wiring the content layer into your Next.js frontend, a QA engineer checking rendering across locales and edge cases, and a project manager keeping editorial and technical timelines in sync.
We run Agile sprints with regular content-model reviews, so your editors get documentation alongside the build, not surprises after launch.
Get started with a headless CMS - build your content layer with a team that knows the full stack
Ready to move beyond a coupled CMS? Whether you are launching a new content-driven product, migrating a WordPress site to a headless architecture, or adding structured content to an existing Next.js application - we will help you choose the right platform and build a headless setup that your editors will love and your developers will trust. Let's talk about your content layer.
A headless CMS separates content management from presentation - it stores and serves content through an API with no built-in front-end templating. Unlike WordPress, where the CMS renders the pages itself, a headless setup lets us build the front end separately in Next.js, giving full control over performance and design while editors keep a familiar admin panel.
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