What is Headless Mode?

Last modified: October 17th, 2024

Headless Mode is only available for Sites using Unified Configuration. For more information, please read our Unified Configuration migration guide.

Building your Site in CloudCannon is optional. If you do not want to build your Site, you can enable Headless Mode. Headless Mode disables building and hosting for your Site on CloudCannon.

A "headless" website is one where the frontend and backend are separated. In Headless Mode, CloudCannon still manages your content but doesn't affect any frontend activities like building or hosting.

Headless Mode is useful if you want to create fully hosted static websites with visual editing, server-side rendering (SSR) or other server-side functions, or fully hosted APIs while still using CloudCannon as your primary CMS.

When you first create a Site, CloudCannon will prompt you to configure your builds. You can enable Headless Mode during onboarding by selecting I don't want to build after creating your CloudCannon configuration file.

Headless Mode may not be right for you if:

Open in a new tab