What if you could build a content-driven application without spending hours building a backend just to manage some content?
That's the idea behind Bando CMS.
I created Bando as an open-source, self-hosted, TypeScript-first headless CMS for developers who want to build applications faster while keeping control over their infrastructure and content.
Why Bando?
Let's say you're building:
- A blog
- A website for a client
- A documentation platform
- A company website
- A news portal
- A catalog
- A landing page with editable content
The frontend itself might be relatively simple.
But suddenly, you need a database, models, CRUD operations, relationships, API endpoints, authentication, and an admin interface just to manage the content.
For a large application, building a custom backend can make perfect sense.
But for smaller content-driven projects, sometimes you just want to build the product and ship it.
That's where Bando comes in.
The idea
Bando separates the application from its content.
You define your content structure in the CMS, manage it through the Bando Studio, and consume it through the API.
Your frontend stays focused on what it does best:
building the experience.
Need to add a new blog post?
Do it from the Studio.
Need a new category?
Create it in the CMS.
Need to update an author or change some content?
You don't necessarily need to open VS Code and modify the application.
The content can be managed independently from the frontend.
What can you build with Bando?
Bando isn't limited to blogs.
You can use it as the content layer for:
- Blogs and publications
- Documentation websites
- Marketing websites
- Client websites
- News portals
- Product catalogs
- Directories
- Landing pages
- Custom web applications
- Any application that needs structured, manageable content
The frontend is up to you.
React, Next.js, Vue, or another framework — Bando doesn't need to control your frontend.
Bando Studio + API
Bando is designed around a simple workflow:
Define → Manage → Consume
You define collections and their fields.
You manage the content through the Studio.
Your application consumes that content through the API.
This makes the CMS independent from the presentation layer.
I built a real application with it
I didn't want to create a CMS and stop at API examples.
So I built Bando Blog, a real blog using Bando as its content management layer.
The project demonstrates how Bando can be used in an actual application rather than just through isolated examples.
The video shows the workflow from development in VS Code to managing content in Bando Studio and displaying it in the blog.
Open source and self-hosted
Bando is open source and self-hosted.
The goal is to give developers control over the CMS and the infrastructure behind it, rather than forcing the application into a specific hosted ecosystem.
Bando CMS v1.0.0 is already published.
Get started
Bando CMS
GitHub:
https://github.com/Bando-CMS/bando-cms
Bando Blog
A real application built with Bando:
https://github.com/williamhumbwavali/bando-blog
Documentation
https://bando-cms.vercel.app/en
Why I built it
Bando started from a simple thought:
For many projects, the backend shouldn't be the thing that slows you down.
Sometimes you don't need to build an entire custom content management backend.
Sometimes you just need a good content layer that lets you define your data, manage it, expose it through an API, and get back to building your application.
That's what I'm trying to build with Bando.
Build the frontend. Manage the content. Ship faster.
If you're a frontend developer who regularly builds content-driven applications, I'd love to hear how you currently handle this problem.
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