Frontastic

Frontastic GmbH, founded in 2017 by Thomas Gottheil, Henning Emmrich, Kore Nordmann, and Tobias Schlitt, developed a Composable Frontend Platform aimed at simplifying website creation for brands and retailers operating in a headless commerce environment. The company originated in Münster, Germany, and operated with a remote-first team across various international locations. In November 2021, Frontastic was acquired by commercetools, a pioneer in the headless commerce movement, to integrate its frontend capabilities and expand the adoption of MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless) architecture, particularly for the mid-market segment. Following the acquisition, Frontastic now operates as commercetools Frontend.

The business offers a Frontend-as-a-Service (FaaS) solution that serves brands and retailers by decoupling the frontend presentation layer from the backend commerce functions. This model addresses the complexity and time-consuming nature of building and maintaining modern commerce frontends from scratch. The platform is designed for both B2C and B2B commerce clients, enabling them to launch products and enter new markets more rapidly. Revenue is generated through a subscription-based model for licensing the platform. Frontastic's target clients range from ambitious dealers to large international enterprises like Universal Music, Flaconi, and Apollo Optik.

The core product is a cloud-based platform that empowers both developers and non-technical business users, such as marketers. It provides tools to build and deliver websites and progressive web apps with greater agility. Key features include the Frontastic Studio, a visual user interface for business teams to build pages and manage content without coding, and an API Hub to connect and orchestrate data from any backend API. For developers, the platform offers tooling, a framework for building reusable components based on ReactJS, and handles frontend delivery, performance optimization, and scaling. This structure is intended to allow marketing teams to work more independently of IT, and for developers to focus on creating value-added features rather than repetitive frontend tasks. The platform's modular approach, using pre-built components called "tastics", and its focus on mobile-first design contribute to faster time-to-market and higher conversion rates for its customers.

Keywords: Composable Frontend Platform, headless commerce, Frontend-as-a-Service, FaaS, commercetools Frontend, MACH architecture, API orchestration, progressive web apps, PWA, digital experience platform, frontend management, website builder, e-commerce technology, multi-channel retail, site builder, frontend delivery, visual UI, B2C commerce, B2B commerce, ReactJS components, API-first