Quilium vs headless CMS,
an API and a website in one.

A headless CMS delivers structured content through an API and leaves the frontend to you. Quilium does headless too, and it can also render and host the website, on its own or next to your applications.

Updated September 20263 min read

The short answer

Choose a headless-only CMS when you need open source and self-hosting, or want the CMS inside your own codebase. Choose Quilium when you want the same API for your apps, plus a website rendered and run for you: one content backend, used headless, with its own frontend, or both at once.

A headless-only CMS is the better fit if

You need open source and self-hosting. Strapi (MIT core) and Payload (MIT) give you both.
You want the CMS inside your application's codebase, as Payload does in a Next.js app.
There is no website to deliver: the content only feeds apps, screens or other products.
Your team already runs its own frontend platform and wants to pick every piece.

Quilium is the better fit if

The same content feeds a website and an app, and you would rather not build and host the website yourself.
The project is a custom application, and its web content needs a back office the client can run.
You start from an HTML prototype and want it live with editable fields.
Sites ship in several languages, and languages are never a pricing line.

Side by side

The same content, two ways to ship it.

	Headless CMS	Quilium
What it is	A content backend with an API. Strapi and Payload are open source.	A SaaS CMS that serves content through an API and can also render and host the website.
Content model	Schemas and structured content: the core strength of the category.	Page types, blocks and collections declared in YAML, versioned with the templates.
Content API	The core of the product, with SDKs for the main frameworks.	Headless mode and the API on every plan: apps, mobile and other frontends read the same content.
Website	Yours to build and host, in the framework you choose. Full freedom.	Runs on Quilium, rendered from your HTML turned into Liquid templates, or on your own frontend. Both can run at once.
Hosting	The frontend runs on a host you choose and pay for (Vercel, Netlify, your own servers).	Included: EU hosting, SSL, WAF, daily backups and monitoring.
Multilingual	Locales are managed in the CMS (natively, or by schema and plugins in Sanity) and returned by the API. Locale routing and hreflang tags are built in the frontend.	Unlimited languages on every plan, at no extra cost. Localised URLs and hreflang included when Quilium renders the site.
AI and agents	All five named here offer an official MCP server or plugin for the CMS.	A built-in assistant, plus an MCP server, a CLI and the API covering model, content, templates and settings.
Cost	CMS plan or server, plus frontend hosting, plus frontend build and upkeep.	A flat price per live site, headless mode included. Building is free until launch.

Strapi, Sanity, Payload, Contentful and Storyblok are trademarks of their respective owners. Headless products differ a lot from one another: check each vendor's site before you decide.

What changes

Three ways to use it on a client project.

Headless, when you need it

Quilium serves the content through its API to any frontend: a mobile app, a Next.js or Astro site, screens. Headless mode is on every plan. The client keeps one back office, with drafts, publishing, translations and media, whatever reads the content.

The website comes with it

A headless CMS does not render your site, on purpose: routing, data fetching and deployment live in your frontend code. Quilium can render the website itself, from your Liquid templates on the server, with localised URLs and redirections handled. An app can read the same content through the API at the same time.

Next to a custom application

When the project is an application with its own backend and business rules, a portal or a custom shop, Quilium does not replace it. It runs the web content next to it: pages, news, translations and media, edited by the client and read by the application through the API.

Questions developers ask.

Can I use Quilium headless?

Yes. Headless mode and the API are included in every plan. Your Next.js or Astro frontend, or your mobile app, reads content from the API, and you host it where you like. Quilium can keep rendering the website at the same time. You keep the content model, the back office, multilingual and the agent layer.

Is Quilium open source or self-hostable?

No. Quilium is a SaaS, operated from Luxembourg, with data in the EU. If you need self-hosting, look at Strapi or Payload, both open source. On Quilium, your templates are plain Liquid and HTML in your own repository.

How do I move content from a headless CMS to Quilium?

Recreate the schemas as page types and collections, export the entries from your current API, and load them through the Quilium CLI or API. Then either turn the existing pages into Liquid templates, or keep your frontend and point it at the Quilium API. Redirect any URL that changes.

Try it on your next client site.

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