Headless architecture

Headless architecture is a software design pattern where the frontend (the part users see) and the backend (where the data and business logic live) are built as separate applications and communicate through APIs. The term "headless" refers to the backend having no built-in user interface, no "head." In ecommerce, this means the commerce engine — product catalog, pricing, cart, checkout, orders — is decoupled from the storefront. The storefront is a standalone web application, typically built in a JavaScript framework like Vue, Nuxt, React, or Next.js. The commerce engine exposes REST or GraphQL APIs. The storefront calls those APIs and decides how to render the data. ## The three components A production headless architecture has three layers working together. The **frontend application** owns the user interface, routing, and rendering. The **backend-for-frontend (BFF)** sits between the frontend and the backend services, composing data into optimized responses and handling caching and authentication. The **backend APIs** — commerce, CMS, search, payment, CRM — each expose endpoints that the BFF consumes. ## How it differs from a monolith A monolithic platform ships the frontend and backend as one codebase. Shopify themes, Shopware Storefront, Magento Luma — all render inside the platform itself. Updating the checkout UI means deploying the same application that processes orders. A headless architecture deploys these independently. The frontend can change without touching the backend. ## How it relates to composable and MACH Headless is the first decoupling: storefront from backend. Composable commerce goes further, decoupling every layer of the stack — search, content, payment, PIM, CRM — from every other. MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless) is a stricter subset of composable. All composable stacks are headless; not all headless stacks are composable. ## How Frntkey relates Frntkey is the headless frontend layer in a headless commerce architecture. It connects to Norce or Shopware as the backend through purpose-built API adapters. The storefront, BFF, and integration set are pre-built, so most projects launch in 6 to 12 weeks rather than the 4 to 9 months a fully custom headless build typically takes. For the long-form explanation, see the headless architecture pillar post. ## Related terms Headless commerce · Composable commerce · Headless CMS · Frontend-as-a-service