Bracket A · Standard
Marketing site
Up to 20 templates · single locale · ≤ 25 ACF blocks.
$12,000
- Pay
- 40 / 40 / 20
- Timeline
- 28 days
- Guarantee
- Sub-500ms LCP · editorial parity
§ 03.05 — Sprint 05 of 06 · open now
Make WordPress fast as a static site. Keep the editor your team already knows.
A senior engineer migrates your WordPress site to a headless architecture — WordPress stays as the CMS, a Next.js front-end is rebuilt against the REST + GraphQL APIs, the whole thing runs edge-cached on Cloudflare or Vercel. Editors see no change. Visitors see sub-500 ms LCP. Fixed from $12,000. Editorial parity guaranteed in writing — every block, every preview, every workflow.
- Service
- Headless Migration
- Starts at
- $12,000
- Timeline
- 28 days · fixed
- Ideal for
- WP site needing edge perf · editorial parity
- Stack
- WP · Next.js · Cloudflare / Vercel
- Status
- ● Open · next start 09 Jun
§ 03.05.A
In 50 words
A 28-day, fixed-price headless WordPress migration. WordPress stays as the CMS; a Next.js front-end runs on Cloudflare or Vercel with edge caching. Editorial parity locked — every block, preview, and workflow you have today. From $12,000. Target: sub-500 ms global LCP. Editor experience identical to before.
§ 03.05.B
Why teams book this
You've already done the easy performance work — better hosting, plugin diet, image pipeline — and your LCP is still 1.8 s on mobile from EU. Your traffic is global. Marketing is asking why a static landing page on Vercel feels twice as fast as your CMS-driven content site. Some vendor is pitching "rip out WordPress entirely and rebuild in Contentful" — but your editors will riot if their familiar admin disappears.
Headless is the third option. WordPress stays exactly where it is. Editors keep the admin they already know — the same blocks, the same previews, the same drafts, the same media library. The front-end gets rebuilt as a Next.js app pre-rendered at the edge. Pages serve from Cloudflare's 300+ POPs in under 200 ms. SEO, content, search, and admin workflow are preserved 1:1 — written into the SOW with a deliberate editorial-parity checklist that signs off block by block.
Recent client outcomes
- — Northbeam · WP → headless · INP 92ms
- — Maritime logistics · global LCP 280ms
- — Loom & Press · editorial parity in 24 days
Live numbers · /benchmark · refreshed monthly.
§ 03.05.C
What you get · Week by week
W1Discovery + content audit90-min kickoff. WordPress admin access. Page inventory + block catalogue + custom-field map + preview-workflow map. Editorial-parity checklist signed.
W2API + Next.js scaffoldWordPress configured as headless source (REST + WPGraphQL). Next.js app scaffolded: routing, blocks, design tokens, static-generation strategy. Preview server configured.
W3Build + edge deployEvery block rendered in Next.js with 1:1 parity. Edge cache config: ISR / revalidate / on-demand purge. Cloudflare or Vercel deploy. Internal staging URL.
W4Verification + cutoverEditor walkthrough on staging: every block, every preview, every workflow signed off. SEO map verified. DNS cutover. Public PSI URL on launch + 12-month foundation warranty.
§ 03.05.D
Editorial parity · the contract
Sample · Editorial-parity checklist
FIG. 05 — Parity checklist · sample
Signed off block-by-block in W4
What stays identical
- ▸ WordPress admin · same URL · same login
- ▸ Every block · 1:1 visual + behaviour
- ▸ Live preview · drafts · revisions
- ▸ Media library · existing CDN
- ▸ Custom fields (ACF) · all preserved
- ▸ Editorial workflows · unchanged
- ▸ URL structure · 1:1 redirects mapped
- ▸ SEO meta + schema · audited and improved
- ▸ Search · queryable via API
§ 03.05.E
What's out of scope
- × Visual redesign (the design migrates 1:1)
- × WooCommerce / large e-commerce (separate quote)
- × Replacing the WordPress admin with another CMS
- × Multi-site Multisite networks (Bracket C+)
- × Custom plugin development outside the API surface
- × Ongoing Next.js / edge hosting maintenance (separate)
Not sure headless is the right move? Start with an Audit Sprint — 7 days, $1,500, you'll know in writing whether a Performance Rescue on traditional WordPress will get you there or whether headless is genuinely required. The audit fee credits 1:1 against this build.
§ 03.05.F
Pricing · Three brackets
Bracket B · Multi-locale
Localized + richer
Up to 35 templates · 2 — 4 locales · ≤ 40 ACF blocks.
$22,000
- Pay
- 30 / 30 / 20 / 20
- Timeline
- 42 days
- Guarantee
- Per-locale metric
Bracket C · Enterprise
Multi-site
WP Multisite or 5+ properties. Bespoke quote.
From $40,000
- Pay
- Milestones · 5 stages
- Timeline
- 10 — 14 weeks
- Guarantee
- SOW-named per-site
Outcome-tied pricing: sub-500 ms global LCP, editorial-parity sign-off, and the page inventory are written into the SOW on W1. If W4 verification leaves any block without 1:1 parity or any metric open, the back-half / final invoice is voided. 12-month foundation warranty on the Next.js codebase; doesn't cover changes you make to WordPress plugins that break the API surface.
§ 03.05.G
FAQ · Five
Q1
Why headless instead of just optimising the existing WordPress front-end?
Performance ceiling. Traditional WordPress with aggressive optimisation can reach ~700 ms LCP from the host region; edge-cached headless can hit 200 — 400 ms globally because the HTML is pre-rendered and served from a POP near the visitor. If your traffic is regional and your LCP target is > 1 s, a Performance Rescue is cheaper and just as effective. Headless earns its keep when you need global edge performance, real-time content invalidation, or a JavaScript-heavy front-end your CMS can't host.
Q2
Will my editors notice anything different?
No. They keep the same WordPress admin, the same Block Editor, the same blocks, the same previews, the same drafts, the same media library, the same custom-field UX. Save a draft → instant preview as before. Publish → page rebuilds on the edge within 5 — 30 s via on-demand revalidation. The headless layer is invisible to the editorial team — that's the whole point of the SOW's editorial-parity clause.
Q3
What about my existing plugins?
Anything that influences the front-end (page builders, render hooks, frontend output filters) is replaced by Next.js components — those plugins are removed. Plugins that work entirely inside the admin (ACF, Yoast SEO, RankMath, Polylang, WP Migrate, Query Monitor) stay in place. The W1 audit names every plugin and where it lands.
Q4
Who hosts the Next.js front-end after launch?
Your choice. The Next.js app deploys to Cloudflare Pages, Vercel, AWS Amplify, Netlify, or a self-hosted Node server — we configure the one you pick. Most clients land on Cloudflare Pages (cheapest, fastest, edge-by-default). Hosting cost is typically $0 — $40 / month at marketing-site traffic. WordPress stays on its existing host.
Q5
Can we roll back if it doesn't work out?
Yes. The WordPress site stays fully functional throughout the migration — we don't disable the traditional theme until W4 cutover, and the rollback is one DNS change. The 12-month foundation warranty includes rollback support if you decide headless was the wrong call within that window. To date that has happened zero times.