Headless CMS agency

What a headless CMS agency does

A headless CMS agency is a specialist partner that takes an organization through the full lifecycle of a headless content platform: selecting the right CMS for the team and the estate, designing the content model, implementing and integrating it, migrating content off the old system, and running the editorial platform after launch. The point isn’t the technology — it’s an editorial team that can publish without developers, on a stack the business owns.

What we do across the CMS lifecycle

Most “headless CMS agency” conversations start too late — after the platform is chosen, when the only question left is implementation. The lifecycle actually has five stages, and the early ones determine whether the later ones go well:

• Selection. Evaluating platforms against your content, your editors, and your integration landscape — with a recommendation you can defend to procurement, not a vendor pitch.
• Content modeling. The unglamorous work that decides everything: structuring content so it’s reusable across channels, brands, and markets, instead of recreating page-builder sprawl in a new tool.
• Implementation. The CMS configured for real editorial workflows — roles, review, preview, localization — plus a custom front end that renders it fast.
• Migration. Moving content, assets, and SEO equity off the old platform without losing rankings or freezing marketing for a quarter. This is its own discipline — see website migration services.
• Running it. After launch: new components, new integrations, editor support, and the steady improvement that keeps the platform from decaying into the next legacy system.

One partner, end to end. The alternative — a consultancy for selection, an integrator for the build, an agency for the front end — is how the seams between vendors become your problem.

The platforms we work with

Bejamas is certified in, and builds on, a deliberately short list of headless platforms — deep partnership beats a logo wall of twenty integrations:

• Sanity — our most frequent recommendation for teams that treat content as structured data: a fully customizable studio, real-time collaboration, and a content lake that serves every channel.
• Storyblok — the visual-editing headless CMS; the strongest fit when marketing autonomy is the top requirement and editors want to see the page as they build it.
• Contentful — the governance standard-bearer: mature permissions, a deep ecosystem, and the platform many large organizations have already procured. We implement it well rather than fighting the choice.
• Hygraph — GraphQL-native, built for content federation across sources; the right tool for API-heavy architectures.

Each profile in the Stack covers what the platform does well, where it doesn’t fit, and what an implementation involves — the same evaluation we run internally, published.

How we choose a CMS with you

Platform selection is the first deliverable of the audit, and it’s evidence-first: we inventory your content types, interview the editors who’ll live in the tool, map the integrations, and score the shortlist against how your organization actually publishes. The output is a recommendation with reasoning — including the pricing model at your scale, which is where headless platforms differ most sharply — not a slide that says “it depends.”

If you want to calibrate before talking to anyone, our curated CMS evaluation is the public version of that scoring. It exists so the first conversation can start from a shortlist instead of a blank page.

Implementation and migration

An implementation done right has a shape: the content model first, the editorial environment configured around real workflows second, the front end built to performance budgets third, and integrations — CRM, search, analytics, commerce, SSO — wired through APIs rather than plugins. Editors get preview, scheduling, and localization from day one, because “publish without developers” is the entire point of going headless; a headless CMS where marketing still files tickets is a more expensive version of the old problem.

When there’s an existing platform to leave — a legacy DXP, an overgrown WordPress — the implementation runs inside a migration: URL inventory, redirect map, parity QA, and phased cutover, so the new platform inherits the old one’s rankings along with its content.

Testimonial

The new site doesn’t just look great—it’s helped us work faster, take on new initiatives, and feel proud of how we present ourselves to the world. Working with Bejamas has been amazing.

How to choose a headless CMS agency

The market is crowded and the label is cheap. Questions that separate specialists from generalists with a new logo on the site:

• “Which platforms are you certified in — and which would you talk us out of?” An agency that says yes to every CMS is optimizing for their pipeline, not your platform. A real answer includes a platform they’d advise against for your case.
• “Show us a content model you’ve designed.” Front-end work is visible in a portfolio; content modeling skill isn’t. Ask to see one, and ask why it’s structured the way it is.
• “Who trains our editors, and what happens after launch?” If the answer to the second half is “handover documentation,” the platform will start decaying immediately.
• “How do you preserve SEO through the migration?” Red flag: any answer that doesn’t mention a URL inventory and a redirect map.
• Red flags generally: a recommendation before they’ve seen your content; pricing before scoping; a team that’s all account managers on the calls and all subcontractors in the repo.

Engagement models

Three shapes, matched to where you are:

• Project. A scoped selection-and-implementation or migration engagement: audit, build, launch, handover. Right when you have an in-house team ready to take the keys.
• Retainer. Ongoing development and editor support after launch — the platform keeps a senior team without you hiring one.
• Web team as a service. Bejamas operates as your web team end to end: platform, front end, releases, and the roadmap. The model most of our clients settle into, because it’s cheaper than a full internal team and faster than coordinating three vendors.

The Bejamas take

Bejamas is a senior European web team that has been building on headless architectures since before “composable” was a category — and the differentiator isn’t believing in headless, it’s having run the full lifecycle enough times to know where it goes wrong. We select with evidence, model content properly, implement Sanity, Storyblok, and Contentful at certified depth, migrate with the rankings protected as an engineering requirement, and stay on to run the platform. If your editors are fighting the CMS — or your license renewal just landed — the audit is the low-risk way to find out what the alternative actually looks like.

Headless CMS work in practice

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Common questions

Which headless CMS is best for a large organization?

There’s no single answer — the honest one is “the CMS whose editorial model matches how your team publishes.” Sanity fits teams that want a fully customizable editing environment and structured content as a first-class asset; Storyblok fits marketing-led teams who want visual editing out of the box; Contentful fits large organizations standardizing on a governed, ecosystem-heavy platform; Hygraph fits API-first, federation-heavy architectures. A good agency runs the evaluation against your content, your editors, and your integrations — not against a feature matrix.

How much does a headless CMS project cost?

Two numbers matter: the platform subscription and the implementation. CMS licensing at this scale ranges from hundreds to thousands per month depending on seats, environments, and bandwidth. Implementation depends on the content model, the front end, integrations, and how much content migrates. Bejamas scopes both during a paid audit — including the total-cost comparison against your current platform, which is often the number that decides it: headless stacks typically come in far cheaper to own than the licensed DXP they replace.

How long does a headless CMS implementation take?

A focused implementation — content model, editorial setup, front end, first integrations — typically lands in a few months. Add content migration from a legacy platform and multi-market structure, and it becomes a phased program. Bejamas ships in phases either way, so editors are publishing on the new platform in weeks for the first sections, not waiting for a monolithic launch.

Can we keep our current CMS and still go headless?

Sometimes, yes. If the blocker is the front end rather than the editorial experience, running your existing CMS headless — headless WordPress is the common case — gets you a modern, fast front end while editors keep the interface they know. It’s a legitimate stepping stone, and occasionally the destination. The audit tells you which: if the content model and editorial workflow are the real problem, going headless on the same CMS just gives the old problems a faster front end.

Where does our content live — and can it stay in the EU?

Headless CMSs are SaaS, so data residency is a procurement question worth asking early. The major platforms offer EU hosting or EU data residency options on their upper plan tiers, and self-hostable options exist where requirements are stricter. Bejamas is a European team working with large European organisations — GDPR, data residency, and procurement review are part of the platform selection, not a surprise after it.