Should You Buy a Headless LMS?

Wondering if a headless learning management system (LMS) is a fit for you? You’ve come to the right place!

While headless is relatively new to the LMS space, it’s not new to technology in general. CMS and eCommerce platforms have used headless technology to decouple front-end and back-end technologies for more than a decade.

In this article, we’ll define what a headless LMS is, whether or not you need one (or if you can accomplish your goals without it), use cases where headless may (or may not) work for you, and questions for consideration. 

What is a Headless LMS?

There are a lot of misconceptions around what a headless LMS is and does. 

A headless LMS is a type of LMS that separates back-end functionalities (e.g., content management, user management, and reporting) from the front-end interface that users see.

eLearning Industry describes headless technology as having three traits: 

1. The separation of the visual (front end) and the content (back end) layers
2. Simultaneous use of multiple front ends
3. API communication

Do You Need a Headless LMS to Be Successful?

This is a great question—and one a lot of teams are asking. 

Ultimately, this comes down to your education team goals, the resources you have available to commit, and whether headless is the right fit for helping you achieve those goals with those resources. In the next section, we’ll talk about when headless makes sense and when it doesn’t.

But for now, let’s talk about what most companies are looking for when they turn to headless technologies: Full control over the design, delivery, and learning experience of their LMS. 

Think of it this type of customization as a spectrum: 

On one end, there’s out-of-the-box capabilities. You’re able to add your own branding and graphics, but are often limited in terms of customization. This is often where customer education programs start–it’s quick and easy to tailor the learning experience to match your brand’s visual identity and it cuts down on time to launch. 

On the other end is completely headless, where you have full control over (and responsibility for) the front-end development. This means you can make it look and work however you want, as long as you have the resources to power that design, development, and engineering work. When using a headless LMS, all heavy lifting is done through APIs, so you’ll need a dedicated team with a deep understanding of how to create and maintain API integrations. This option works well if you’re planning to implement your own user interfaces using other technologies, such as web development frameworks or mobile apps.

In the middle of the spectrum, you can make advanced modifications to learner registration, profiles, catalogs, headers, footers, CSS, and Javascript. This allows you to customize the look and feel to a great extent—without the responsibility of building and coding the entire front-end and learning experience yourself.

Many companies—including Google, Meta, and X—fall in the middle. They have the expertise to go headless, but it isn’t cost-effective. However, they want more control than what comes out of the box.

Headless is Right For You If….

Besides being able to completely customize the interface, headless technology offers a host of other benefits, which makes it a great choice for certain companies. 

A headless LMS solution might be right for you if:

• You have product- or engineering-led education initiatives, with engineering and UX resources available for development and updates.
• You need to publish learning content across multiple channels. If you’re not using an LMS alone, but need to embed content in other interfaces, headless can help.
• You want full control over the front-end experience, including designing the user experience, and know exactly what you’re looking for.
• You’re pulling in data from multiple business applications to algorithmically personalize the user experience, access to content, etc. and need to keep that separate from your LMS vendor.

Headless is NOT Right For You If…

Like any good thing, headless isn’t right for every program, team, or scenario. Headless may not be for you if:

• You don’t have dedicated resources from engineering and UX (or a project manager) to support the development and maintenance of a headless platform.
• You have a limited budget to bring in new technology and headcount to support your education efforts.
• You need to get a learning solution up and running quickly.
• You don’t have someone with deep knowledge of APIs. Headless technologies are powered through a network of APIs and require someone who can troubleshoot and maintain those calls. 
• You’re still proving out the value of your learning programs to justify continued investment.
• You don’t have a clear vision of what you want your front-end to look and act like. With headless, the possibilities are endless, but you have to know what the platform should look like, and be integrated with, so your developers can create those integrations. 

Should You Go Headless?

Still wondering if headless is right for you? Here are some questions to consider:

Do you NEED to go headless? 

Launching and supporting headless technologies is significantly more expensive than other types of solutions, simply due to the technical human resources needed to make it operational. Go back to the section above on customization to see what level of customization your team wants or needs to determine if you need a headless solution, or can use existing LMS customization and integration options to get what you want.

Do you have the resources necessary to make this successful? 

Headless technology requires engineering resources (typically more than one headcount) and UX design. eLearning Industry also recommends a product or project manager who can keep things on track. Are these resources available on an ongoing basis to support the front-end of your LMS, or do you need your people dedicated to developing your products?

What’s your budget for education tools and headcount?

While investment in education has been increasing over the years, like many teams, education is being asked to “do more with less.” When you look at the tools, headcount, and technology you’ll need to meet your goals, where does the budget need to go? Is there room in your budget to support the headcount needed to make headless work, or would it take resources away from other critical initiatives? 

What’s driving the ROI of your education program?

A survey of 150+ education and enablement executives found that the No. 1 capability they believe drives education success is high-quality training content. If you have the budget to implement headless without pulling away from how you develop and deliver learning, go for it!

Are you in the business of creating front-ends?

There’s a concept in technology organizations called “core” and “contextual” work. Core work is what your customers pay you to do—what delights them, solves their problems, and allows your business to move more quickly. Contextual work is necessary, but doesn’t have to be done by your engineering team. For example, payment processing software, subscription management, and dare I say learning management systems?

This visual from a Medium article by Siddharth Ram, CTO at Velocity Global, is helpful for putting core and context work into practice:

When you look at your business priorities for the next 12-18 months, which category does headless fall into?

Regardless of your goals, Intellum can help.

While a fully headless LMS offers unparalleled flexibility, it often requires significant development resources, leading to increased complexity and cost. The Intellum team can help you determine if a headless LMS is right for you. Wherever you fall on the customization spectrum—from light, out-of-the-box customization to fully headless—Intellum has a solution..  Contact our team today to explore how Intellum can help you benefit from headless without the headache.