Building a Headless CMS with Django and Next.js

By NSLTD | Published on June 25, 2025

Full Stack Development

Decouple with Power: Django as Headless CMS + Next.js

Django excels as a backend. But what if you want to build your frontend with a modern JavaScript framework? Go headless. Serve your data via APIs and render it with a frontend like Next.js.

What is a Headless CMS?

A content management system that exposes its data via API, leaving the rendering to a separate frontend. You keep Django's admin power while embracing frontend freedom.

Exposing Content with DRF

# serializers.py
from rest_framework import serializers
from blog.models import Post

class PostSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = Post
        fields = ['title', 'slug', 'content', 'published_date']
# views.py
from rest_framework.viewsets import ReadOnlyModelViewSet
from .models import Post
from .serializers import PostSerializer

class PostViewSet(ReadOnlyModelViewSet):
    queryset = Post.objects.filter(published=True)
    serializer_class = PostSerializer

Consuming the API in Next.js

export async function getStaticProps() {
  const res = await fetch('https://yourdomain.com/api/posts/')
  const posts = await res.json()

  return { props: { posts } }
}

Benefits of Headless Architecture

  • Frontend in React/Next.js with full control over UX
  • Scalability—separate deployment pipelines for backend/frontend
  • Use Django's admin panel for content editing without limits

Turn Django into your headless powerhouse and let frontend frameworks like Next.js craft the experience. Clean backend. Blazing frontend.

“The headless revolution begins with cutting the templates.”

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