The headless architecture decouples a website's front-end from its back-end, creating a presentation layer for user interface and user experience, and a business engine for services like payment processing and order tracking. Composable applications work independently and can be replaced without impacting the rest of the system, allowing for building blocks to be combined to create bespoke solutions. To determine if a service is truly headless, buyers must ask three questions: do their APIs represent a subset of platform functionality, did their service develop from an on-prem product, and are there any limitations on the front-end? True headless services offer everything via API, support any front-end, and build API-first from the ground up. Authentic headless microservices can unlock powerful and personalized software for organizations, but fake services can cause havoc by hamstringing scaling and creating inconsistencies.