Headless CMS and Qwik framework and their practicalities in the future of application development

Abstract

Web development is an ever-changing field and the need for more flexible, scalable and future-proof methodologies is increasing rapidly. This thesis focuses on the two recently developed approaches on web development, Headless CMS and Qwik framework, and discusses how a shift towards these two technologies addresses the drawbacks and limitations of current traditional web building techniques, and the roles they will play in the future of this field. The thesis consists of two phases: research and development. The research phase aims to point out the flaws of current web architecture and determine the roles of Headless CMS and Qwik in solving the issue. It does that by means of reviewing and analyzing released documents, such as previous studies, official documentations and developer interviews, as well as studying Real World cases of applying the two emerging technologies. The development phase demonstrates an actual implementation of a web application utilizing both Headless CMS and Qwik, presenting all the vital steps of building an application, from the base architecture to deployment and performance testing, to practically prove the indication made in the research part. The findings manage to comprehensively highlight the advantages of Headless CMS and Qwik, as they provide the utmost flexibility by enabling faster web development and better content management, which is crucial to omnichannel strategies and user experiences. However, the study also identifies several drawbacks such as compatibility issues, limited community and documentation, as well as a difficult learning curve. The product implemented in the development phase achieves its aims by providing a well-functional web application with high performance score on the Lighthouse measurement tool.