Headless Drupal is genuinely excellent in 2025. Drupal's JSON:API is one of the most capable content APIs available, and Next.js has matured into a production-grade framework that pairs with it beautifully. But there are gotchas.
What works well
Content modelling in Drupal is best-in-class. The ability to define complex entity relationships, add computed fields, and expose everything through a consistent API is Drupal's strongest advantage over WordPress or Contentful for headless use cases.
Next.js App Router with Partial Prerendering (PPR) allows us to statically generate the shell of every page while streaming in dynamic content. This gives us sub-100ms TTFB from the CDN edge.
What to watch out for
Preview mode is painful to implement correctly. Drupal's content moderation states do not map cleanly to Next.js Draft Mode. Budget time for this — we typically spend 2–3 days per project getting preview exactly right.
Image optimisation requires careful setup. Drupal serves images from its own CDN, Next.js wants to proxy them through its Image component. Define your remote patterns early and test at scale.
