For years the default was simple: one big application where the backend (PHP, Java, .NET, Ruby…) generated full HTML pages on the server and sent them to the browser. It was fast to build, easy to deploy, and worked perfectly… until it stopped working.
Everything started cracking around 2013–2016 when three things happened at once:
- Users began expecting real mobile apps, not just a responsive website.
- JavaScript frameworks (React, Angular, Vue) exploded and suddenly the frontend became a real, complex application on its own.
- Companies wanted to publish the same content and functionality on web, iOS, Android, smart TVs, kiosks, chatbots, and watches — all at the same time.
The monolithic model collapsed under that pressure:
- Changing one line of HTML required a full backend deployment.
- Mobile teams had to wait for backend developers to expose new API endpoints.
- Reusing the same server-rendered templates on a native app or a voice device was basically impossible.
- Development speed slowed to a crawl because two completely different disciplines (server-side rendering vs modern frontend) were chained together.
So the industry did the obvious thing: cut the rope.
Separate the “content and business logic” (backend) from the “experience and presentation” (frontend). Let the backend become a pure data service (headless) and give every channel its own specialized frontend.
Read more on 4coders.own.pl HEADLESS – Story about REST and GraphQL
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