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. A production headless architecture has three components working together: a **frontend application** that owns the user interface and rendering, a **backend-for-frontend (BFF)** that composes data from multiple backend services into optimized responses, and the **backend APIs** for commerce, CMS, search, payment, and CRM. For the long-form explanation — how it differs from a monolith, how it relates to composable and MACH, and how to decide whether it fits a project — see the headless architecture pillar post. ## Related terms Headless commerce · Composable commerce · Headless CMS · Frontend-as-a-service · Monolith vs headless