# Customization

> Source: https://docs.strapi.io/cms/customization

Strapi contains a backend server and admin panel, both of which can be customized to extend functionality like routes, policies, middlewares, themes, and more.

Strapi includes 2 main components:

- The back-end part of Strapi is a **server** that receives requests and handles them to return responses that can surface the data you built and saved through the Content-Type Builder and Content Manager. The backend server is described in more details in the [Backend Customization introduction](/cms/backend-customization). Most of the parts of the backend server can be customized.

- The front-end, user-facing part of Strapi is called the **admin panel**. The admin panel is the graphical user interface (GUI) that you use to build a content structure, create and manage content, and perform various other actions that can be managed by built-in or 3rd-party plugins.  Some parts of the admin panel can be customized.

From a bigger picture, this is how Strapi integrates in a typical, generic setup: Strapi includes 2 parts, a back-end server and an admin panel, and interact with a database (which stores data) and an external, front-end application that displays your data. Both parts of Strapi can be customized to some extent.

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Click on any of the following cards to learn more about customization possibilities:

- [Back-end customization](/cms/backend-customization): Customize the backend server (routes, policies, middlewares, controllers, services, and models).
- [Admin panel customization](/cms/admin-panel-customization): Customize the admin panel (logos, themes, menu, translations, and more).

:::info
Customizing the database or the external, front-end application are outside of the scope of the present documentation section.
- You can learn more about databases usage with Strapi by reading the installation documentation, which lists [supported databases](/cms/installation/cli#preparing-the-installation), and the configuration documentation, which describes how to [configure a database](/cms/configurations/database) with your project.
- You can learn more about how external front-end applications can interact with Strapi by reading the Strapi's [integration pages](https://strapi.io/integrations).
:::