A Django CMS like no other

Meet the headless Django CMS that integrates with your app using a straightforward API. Smooth, simple, and tasty content integration — that’s Butter.

Posted on July 17, 2024

Intuitive admin interface

So easy to use. So easy to customize. You’re going to love the content you build better with ButterCMS.

Handy integration

Our easy content API and drop-in Python SDK that makes the magic happen in minutes, not hours.

A truly zero-maintenance solution

With ButterCMS, you’ll never worry about security upgrades, hosting, or performance again.

Powerful CMS for Django. Zero headache.

Drop our API-based CMS into your Django app in minutes. 

ButterCMS provides a component-based content management system and content API for your apps. Use ButterCMS to enable dynamic content in your apps for page content, blogs, and anything else. Most customers get our CMS set up in one hour or less. 

That leaves plenty of time for you and your marketing team to do what you do best: create killer apps with killer content. 

Play video

See how Butter’s API enables you to compose flexible page layouts and easily reorder components, without a developer.

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“Best CMS on the market”

headshot of Hampton Catl

After shopping the market, it was clear that ButterCMS was the perfect choice. It allows our developers to build powerful components and makes it easy for our marketing team to drive a better customer experience. Hampton Catlin Creator of Sass and Haml

Deploy our Django starter in 30 seconds!

Or follow the below commands to clone a copy of the repo from github, install dependencies, set your free Butter token, and run your local server on localhost:8000/.

$ git clone https://github.com/ButterCMS/django-starter-buttercms.git
$ cd django-starter-buttercms
$ python3 -m venv butterenv && source butterenv/bin/activate
$ pip install --upgrade pip && pip install -r requirements.txt
$ echo 'BUTTERCMS_API_TOKEN=your_token' >> .env
$ python manage.py runserver

Built to make content marketing easy

ButterCMS is the best headless cms for Django for a simple reason: Django developers can build solutions that marketing people love. Our API allows your content gurus to quickly spin up high-converting, dynamic landing pages, SEO pages, product marketing pages, and more, all using simple drag-and-drop functionality.

  • SEO landing pages
  • Customer case studies
  • Company news & updates
  • Events + webinar pages
  • Education center
  • Location pages
  • And more...

The simplest Django CMS you'll find

Our simple setup saves you time and money. Take us for a spin to see for yourself!

headshot of LUKE GARDNER

It's the epitome of plug-and-play simplicity for content creators. It does exactly what I need it to. LUKE GARDNER, CONTENT SPECIALIST, PRINTAVO

Fast integration with any Django app

Our mission was to make it easy to integrate Butter with your existing Django app in minutes. It’s so simple! To demonstrate, here’s a mini tutorial to give you a feel for the process of adding marketing pages to your app.

Of course, you can also use our Collections to do advanced content modeling. For a full integration guide, check out our Official Guide for the ButterCMS Django API client.

Play video

See how easily you can integrate the ButterCMS Pages API with your Django app.

Seamless Django components

Empower your marketing team with dynamic landing pages that align perfectly with your Django components. 

Components are the essential building blocks of any Django app, and ButterCMS handles them with ease. 

Our drag and drop interface makes it simple to structure your content to match existing Django components and to create new reusable components whenever you need them.

One Django CMS with everything you need

There’s a reason so many developers are choosing a headless content management system. It’s easy to set up, offers flexible, customizable content modeling, and gives you access to our full Django API.

  • Custom page types
  • Custom content modeling
  • CDN for assets
  • Webhooks
  • Testing environment
  • Customer case studies
  • Location pages

ButterCMS saves you development time

Most customers get our Django CMS up and running in less than an hour. Try it yourself!

headshot of DILLON BURNS

Simple as can be, with powerful features and great customer support. DILLON BURNS, FRONT END DEVELOPER, KEYME

How to integrate ButterCMS into your Django application

Just follow the simple steps below to complete the integration and begin creating pages with Butter. Be sure to check out our full guide to creating pages using the ButterCMS Django API.

First you would set up a new Customer Case Study page type in Butter and create a page. With your page defined, the ButterCMS API will return it in JSON format like this:

{
    "data": {
        "slug": "acme-co",
        "fields": {
            "facebook_open_graph_title": "Acme Co loves ButterCMS",
            "seo_title": "Acme Co Customer Case Study",
            "headline": "Acme Co saved 200% on Anvil costs with ButterCMS",
            "testimonial": "<p>We've been able to make anvils faster than ever before! - <em>Chief Anvil Maker</em></p>\r\n<p><img src=\"https://cdn.buttercms.com/NiA3IIP3Ssurz5eNJ15a\" alt=\"\" caption=\"false\" width=\"249\" height=\"249\" /></p>",
            "customer_logo": "https://cdn.buttercms.com/c8oSTGcwQDC5I58km5WV",
        }
    }
}}

Create a new view in customers/views.py:

from butter_cms import ButterCMS
client = ButterCMS('')

def case_study(request, slug):
 case_study = client.pages.get('customer_case_study', slug)
 return render(request, 'case_study.html', {'case_study': case_study.data.fields })

To create these pages in our app, we create a route that fetches content for the page by using a URL slug parameter in customers/urls.py:

url(r'^customers/(?P<slug>.*)/$', views.case_study, name='case_study'),

Display results in template customers/templates/case_study.html:

<html>
  <head>
    <title>{{case_study.seo_title}}</title>
    <meta property="og:title" content="{{case_study.facebook_open_graph_title}}" /> 
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>{{ case_study.headline }}</h1>
    <img width="100%" src="{{ case_study.customer_logo }}">
    <p>{{ case_study.testimonial|safe }}</p>
  </body>
</html>

That's it! If you browse to your homepage you'll see your homepage populated with the content you created in Butter.

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5 benefits of using Django in a headless architecture

Django's architecture and features make it a natural fit for headless setups. You can unlock a multitude of benefits by using a Django headless CMS for your application. For example:

Django ORM and headless architectures simplify content management

Django's Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) system allows developers to interact with databases using Python code instead of SQL queries. This abstraction makes handling complex queries and relationships easier in a headless setup. For example, you don’t have to create multiple SQL queries to manage content models, such as authors, articles, and tags. You can instead focus on building a feature-rich headless application. 

MVT architecture increases code maintainability and scalability

Django's Model-View-Template (MVT) architecture enforces a clear separation of concerns between data models, presentation logic, and user interface templates. This separation promotes code maintainability and scalability. As your headless application grows, these well-defined layers simplify the process of modifying or extending functionalities without affecting other parts of the system. 

Django cms scaling

Large community, extensive documentation, mature ecosystem

Django has a large and active community of developers, which translates to extensive documentation, readily available tutorials, and a vast ecosystem of Python-based libraries and frameworks. When building an application with a Django headless CMS, you can leverage these resources to solve common challenges, locate ready-to-use solutions, and stay up-to-date with the latest advancements.

Battery-included approach fast-tracks development

Django has a “batteries-included” philosophy, which means that it comes with a plethora of built-in features, such as authentication, admin interface, and form handling. These features can speed up development by reducing the need for external libraries and boilerplate code. In a headless Django architecture, this native feature set allows developers to build and deploy new features much faster. 

Security focus for peace of mind

In a headless setup, the decoupling of the frontend and backend layers increases the attack surface compared to a monolithic architecture. Django’s built-in security features, such as authentication and authorization, Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) protection, and SQL injection protection, help mitigate these risks and ensure the security and integrity of your headless application.

Advantages of using ButterCMS as a headless CMS for Django

ButterCMS is the ultimate headless CMS for Django applications, engineered for enterprise-grade performance and seamless integration. Here are a few reasons why ButterCMS stands out as the ideal choice for your Django project:

A streamlined headless CMS

ButterCMS has a streamlined feature set that simplifies and streamlines the process of building immersive omni-channel experiences with Django and other frameworks. Some highlights include a built-in blog engine, content workflows, revision history, team presence, multi-site and multi-environment management, daily backups, and in-app image editing.

Client libraries and starter kits decrease time to market

ButterCMS offers client libraries and starter kits specifically designed for Django projects. These resources include pre-written code for common tasks like fetching content and integrating with ButterCMS's API. This reduces development time and allows you to focus on building the unique functionalities of your application.

Component-based architecture complements MVT

ButterCMS's component-based approach mirrors Django's MVT architecture. Using a drag-and-drop interface, you can build reusable content components in ButterCMS that directly map to Django's template structure. This architectural synergy simplifies front-end development and ensures a consistent and maintainable codebase.

Django CMS components illustration

Batteries included for a smooth headless journey

Like Django, ButterCMS provides a rich set of developer-friendly features out of the box, including one-click migrations, image API, localization, webhooks, and an API explorer. This reduces the need to build essential features from scratch or integrate with third-party tools, accelerating development and reducing project complexity. 

Built to scale with you

Both ButterCMS and Django are built with scalability in mind. As your application grows in size and traffic, both platforms can adapt and handle increased demands. This future-proofs your development stack and ensures that your headless application remains performant and reliable, no matter how much it scales.

How can you leverage a Django Headless CMS for better website performance?

Here are some ways to leverage a headless Django CMS for increased website speed and performance:

API-driven content delivery

A Django headless CMS, like ButterCMS, uses APIs to deliver content, which leads to faster and more efficient data retrieval at scale. This reduces load times and improves your website's overall performance.

The power of CDNs

The best headless CMS platforms integrate with Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), allowing you to distribute your static content across geographically dispersed servers. This reduces overall latency and improves website speed and reliability. 

Image and asset optimization

Native image and asset optimization in headless CMSs reduce file size without compromising quality. This improves page load speed and the overall user experience. 

Pre-rendering and server-side rendering

Headless architectures enable pre-rendering or server-side rendering (SSR) of your website's content. This approach improves SEO, as search engines can easily crawl and index your content, even if it's dynamically generated. Also, SSR can improve users' initial load times.

Try Butter free for 14 days

See for yourself what makes Butter the best Django CMS out there. Click the button below to sign up for your free 14-day trial.