Migration10 min read

Migrating from WordPress to Next.js

There are two versions of this migration and they are very different projects. Knowing which one you want before you talk to anyone will save you a lot of money.

Headless WordPress keeps WordPress as the admin panel and content database, and replaces only the front end with Next.js. You keep the editor your team knows. You still run, update and secure a WordPress install.

Full migration moves content into a different CMS — or into the codebase — and retires WordPress entirely. Nothing left to update, nothing left to be exploited, but your team learns a new editor.

Neither is universally right. If your team publishes daily and lives inside the WordPress editor, headless is usually correct. If WordPress is a brochure site touched twice a year, keeping a full CMS running to serve nine pages is maintenance for no benefit.

What actually gets migrated

Content is the easy part and people worry about it most. Posts, pages, images and metadata come across through the WordPress REST API, generally in a single scripted pass. The parts that need real attention:

  • URL structure. Every existing URL either survives unchanged or gets a 301 to its new home. This is the single highest-risk item in the project and it is where most botched migrations lose their traffic.
  • Page builder content. If the site uses Elementor or Divi, the content is stored in that builder's format, not clean HTML. It has to be converted, and depending on volume this is the largest line item in the quote.
  • Forms. Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms and the rest do not come across. Forms are rebuilt, and the destination — email, CRM, WhatsApp — gets rewired.
  • Anything a plugin was doing. Bookings, memberships, e-commerce, multilingual. Each is a decision: rebuild it, replace it with a service, or drop it.

The URL mapping step, in detail

This is the part worth being pedantic about, because it is where migrations go visibly wrong.

Before touching anything, export every URL that has ever earned a click or a link. Three sources, all of them necessary: Search Console's Pages report for what Google has indexed, your analytics for what people actually visit, and a crawl of the live site for what exists. Union of the three, not any one of them.

Every URL in that list gets a decision — kept identical, 301-redirected to a specific new URL, or deliberately retired with a 410. There is no fourth option, and 'redirect everything to the homepage' is not a strategy. Google treats a bulk redirect to the homepage as a soft 404 and drops the page rather than transferring its authority.

Canonicals, hreflang if you have it, and the XML sitemap all need to reflect the new structure on launch day, not a week later.

If a migration proposal does not mention 301 mapping, ask about it before signing. It is the difference between keeping your rankings and starting over, and it is the first thing a cheap quote leaves out because it is unglamorous and takes real hours.

What you actually gain

Being specific rather than saying 'it is faster':

  • Pre-rendered HTML from an edge CDN. The page is built ahead of time and served from a location near the user, so TTFB stops depending on a PHP process on a shared server.
  • Only the JavaScript that page needs. No global plugin runtime on pages that do not use it.
  • Images handled by the framework. Correct format, correct size per device, correct loading behaviour, without a plugin.
  • No plugin update treadmill. No Tuesday morning where an update breaks the checkout.
  • A dramatically smaller attack surface. Most WordPress compromises come through outdated plugins. A static front end has almost nothing to exploit.

What you lose

Worth being straight about. You lose the plugin ecosystem — if your site depends on a plugin that does something unusual, that functionality is now custom code, and custom code costs more than a $49 licence.

You lose 'anyone can edit anything from the dashboard'. With a headless setup content editing stays familiar, but layout and design changes go through a developer rather than a page builder. For most businesses that is a feature — it is why the site stays fast — but it is a real change in how you work and you should want it before you sign up for it.

And you lose the enormous pool of people who can work on WordPress. There are more Next.js developers every year, but there are more WordPress developers in your city today.

Timeline and cost

A brochure site of five to fifteen pages with no page builder: two to three weeks. A content site with hundreds of posts, or anything built in Elementor: four to eight weeks, with the content conversion dominating. E-commerce is a different conversation entirely and depends on catalogue size and payment setup.

Our published pricing sits on the service pages — in USD for US clients and in INR for India. Migration is quoted on top of the build, and the variable is almost always the page builder content and the URL count, not the page count.

Common questions

Will I lose my Google rankings if I migrate?

Not if the URL mapping is done properly. Every existing URL either stays identical or gets a 301 to a specific equivalent page. Done that way, rankings typically wobble for two to four weeks as Google recrawls, then settle at or above where they were, because the new site is faster. Migrations that lose traffic permanently almost always skipped the mapping step.

Can I keep the WordPress editor?

Yes — that is headless WordPress. WordPress stays as the admin and content database, Next.js replaces the front end and reads content through the REST API or GraphQL. Your team's workflow does not change. The trade is that you are still running and updating a WordPress install.

How long does a WordPress to Next.js migration take?

Two to three weeks for a straightforward brochure site. Four to eight weeks for a content-heavy site or anything built with a page builder, because the builder's stored format has to be converted to clean content. E-commerce depends entirely on catalogue and payment complexity.

Is it worth it for a small business site?

Often no, and we will say so. If you have a nine-page site on a decent theme with ten plugins that loads in three seconds, the money is better spent on SEO or ads. Migration pays off when the site is genuinely slow, genuinely hard to maintain, or when speed is costing you conversions you can measure.

Want us to look at your site?

We will tell you whether the problem is hosting, plugins, architecture or something else entirely — including when the answer is that you should not rebuild and should spend the money on traffic instead. No charge for the assessment.

Run the free audit tool

Pricing: US clients (USD) · India clients (INR)

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