The Pros and Cons of Sitecore Headless vs. Traditional Sitecore
As we move into Sitecore Headless development, there are lot of advantages and disadvantages when compared to Traditional Sitecore way of development. Let’s see a brief comparison of the two:
Sitecore Headless Development
Pros:
- Developers can use any frontend technology (e.g., React, Angular, Vue.js) to seamlessly build the application without being limited to Sitecore’s presentation layer.
- Since the architecture is decoupled, front-end performance can be optimized without being tied to Sitecore’s processing, enabling better loading speeds.
- If we want to build a site across multiple platforms like mobile apps, IoT devices, and websites, it is more suited as by providing experiences that are consistent across all.
- Since there is no dependency between frontend and backend, it leads to faster and more agile development.
- Changes are immediately reflected on the browser during development when working with front-end technologies thereby helping us to debug and verify the changes quicker.
- Headless CMS is driven by APIs, meaning developers can pull content using Sitecore’s APIs into any system that can consume RESTful or GraphQL APIs.
Cons:
- Since we need to manage both frontend and backend separately, additional layer of complexity gets added in setting up the solution.
- Not friendly to beginners in Sitecore as it requires expertise in both Sitecore back-end management and modern JavaScript frameworks.
- Instead of using the components provided by SXA in traditional Sitecore, developers need to write code to even display a small piece of text or image on the screen.
- While using any frontend technology for Headless development (e.g., React), fixing build issues can be tough task to begin with as each and every piece of code needs to be strongly typed.
- Longer development time compared to Sitecore’s traditional rendering approach as it is building a full front-end from scratch.
- Deployment processes can lead to increased overhead in terms of managing different environments with multiple systems.
Traditional Sitecore Development:
Pros:
- User-friendly to content authors and marketers as it provides rich editor interface with in-context editing.
- Development is streamlined with integrated content management, presentation and commerce features.
- Personalization, A/B testing, content versioning and multi-language support are provided out of the box, reducing the need for external integrations.
- To develop a site and make it up and running in short timeframe, traditional method is best suited to get the job done since most of the components are in-built.
- Sitecore handles both front-end and back-end codebases, thus eliminating the need of creating separate codebases for each.
- Deployment and maintenance is easier due to a single environment.
- Sitecore has built-in tools for user management, security, monitoring and analytics, all tightly integrated with the platform.
Cons:
- Modern JavaScript frameworks usage is limited as Presentation layer is tied to its rendering system (Web Forms or MVC).
- In case of large websites with high traffic, performance takes a slight hit due to full stack of Sitecore(front-end and back-end systems) being managed.
- Building and maintaining multiple versions of the same experience for different platforms (like mobile apps) can be more difficult.
- Upgrading Sitecore versions can be complex, especially if custom development has been heavily integrated, requiring additional testing and resources for seamless migration.
- After deployment in local machines, sites takes some time to load which makes it difficult for developers to debug/test the feature being developed.
Conclusion:
Sitecore Headless can be preferred in the cases where front end development needs flexibility and want to deliver content across multiple channels (e.g., mobile, IoT).
Traditional Sitecore can be preferred in the cases where our needs are focused on web-based content with a simpler setup making use of the personalization and other items which are provided out of the box.
Skybridge Infotech offers comprehensive services in implementing and integrating Sitecore Headless Services in USA and India.