Choose Your Wix Headless Development Path

Wix Headless enables you to build custom frontends using any technology stack, while leveraging Wix's business management platform. There are two headless development paths you can take to connect your custom frontend to Wix's backend services. Each path determines how much of the setup, configuration, and hosting you manage yourself, and how much Wix automates for you. The right path for you depends on your technical preferences, project requirements, and desired level of control.

Wix Headless supports two main development paths:

• Wix-managed headless: The recommended path. Wix handles project scaffolding, authentication, hosting, and infrastructure, so you focus on your frontend.
• Self-managed headless: Full control over your framework, but you handle authentication and hosting.

Wix-managed headless

Take advantage of a fully Wix-managed solution for developing and hosting your headless project. Wix handles project scaffolding, hosting, authentication, and infrastructure, so you can focus on building your frontend and business logic. This is the recommended path for new headless projects.

To learn more, see About Wix-Managed Headless.

Self-managed headless

Build your own frontend from scratch with any framework or platform, and connect it directly to Wix's backend using the Wix JavaScript SDK or the REST API. You're responsible for all configuration, authentication, and hosting.

Use this path when you need maximum flexibility, or to connect a custom frontend to an existing Wix site.

Existing Wix sites

You can connect an existing Wix site to a headless client, turning the site into the backend for your project. Use this approach to migrate to a custom frontend or to add additional frontends. The authentication strategy is the same as for any self-managed project.

Comparison of development paths

Feature	Self-managed headless	Wix-managed headless
Use any frontend framework	✓
Use any hosting or deployment solution	✓
Astro-based frontend with React, Vue, Svelte, or Solid		✓
Wix JavaScript SDK integration	✓	✓
Automatic Wix Client configuration		✓
Automatic project scaffolding		✓
Automatic environment variable setup		✓
Wix-managed hosting with global CDN, SSL, and auto-scaling		✓
App extensions for custom backend logic and dashboard features		✓
AI-powered bootstrapping with Wix Vibe		✓
Multilingual support		✓

Next steps

Choose a path and start building:

• Wix-managed headless (recommended): About Wix-Managed Headless
• Self-managed headless: About Self-Managed Headless