WordPress to headless, when it's actually worth it.
A headless conversion keeps WordPress as the editor and serves the site from a separate fast front end, in our work Next.js. It pays off for performance-critical, high-traffic, or multi-channel sites, and it is overkill for most brochure sites. We will tell you plainly which yours is.
What does headless WordPress mean?
Headless splits the job in two. WordPress keeps doing what editors like it for, writing, media, and workflows in the same wp-admin, and stops doing what slows it down, which is rendering pages. A separate front end reads the content over an API and serves pages fast from the edge.
The honest trade: you gain speed, a smaller attack surface, and front-end freedom. You lose plugin magic. Anything that renders on the page, builders, sliders, form embeds, stops working and has to be rebuilt deliberately in the new front end. That rebuild cost is what decides whether headless is worth it for your site.
What the work includes
- A fit assessment first, because plenty of sites should stay classic WordPress
- A Next.js front end reading WordPress over its API
- The editing experience preserved: same wp-admin, previews wired up
- Forms, search, and integrations rebuilt for the new front end
- Redirects and SEO carry-over, with the same discipline as every migration
Four phases, one throughline.
Discover
The fit assessment: traffic, performance targets, plugin inventory, and what the rebuild list would actually contain.
Design
Front-end architecture and the plugin-replacement plan, priced honestly before you commit to anything.
Develop
The Next.js build against your real content, previewed side by side with the live site.
Deploy
Cutover with redirects, performance measured against the old site's numbers, and editors working in the same admin they know.
This stack is the one we live on
This site runs on the front-end stack we build headless projects with, Next.js and TypeScript, and its speed and structure are public: run maplegrowthdigital.ca through PageSpeed Insights and inspect what ships.
No client headless conversion is published yet. What we can show today is the working stack, the fit-assessment questions, and the honest cases where our answer was that classic WordPress is the better buy.
Asked before signing.
Is headless actually faster?
Usually, when built well: pages come pre-rendered from the edge instead of being assembled per visit. But a lean classic WordPress build is also fast, which is why the fit assessment measures your current site first. If tuning the existing stack gets you the speed, that costs far less.
Do my editors have to learn a new CMS?
No, and that is the main reason to go headless rather than replatform entirely. Writers keep the same wp-admin, the same media library, and the same workflows. What changes is invisible to them: where pages get rendered.
What breaks in a headless conversion?
Plugins that render output on the page: builders, sliders, embedded forms, some SEO plugin features. Each one either gets a deliberate rebuild in the front end or gets retired. The fit assessment lists them with costs attached, so nothing breaks as a surprise.
What does it cost?
More than a standard rebuild, because the front end is custom engineering, and the quote follows the fit assessment. The honest part first: if your site is a brochure with modest traffic, we will likely tell you not to do this, and that advice is free.