Web Development in Vancouver: Why We Chose Next.js Over WordPress for Client Sites
Web Development in Vancouver: Why We Chose Next.js Over WordPress for Client Sites We used to build everything on WordPress. For 8 years, it was the right call — easy for clients to update, huge plugin ecosystem, familiar hosting landscape. Then the world changed. WordPress still powers 40%+ of the web, but for modern client work, we kept hitting the same walls: Performance ceiling: A typical WordPress site with 10 plugins loads in 3-5 seconds on a good CDN. Core Web Vitals become impossible to
Web Development in Vancouver: Why We Chose Next.js Over WordPress for Client Sites
We used to build everything on WordPress. For 8 years, it was the right call — easy for clients to update, huge plugin ecosystem, familiar hosting landscape. Then the world changed.
The Problem with WordPress in 2026
WordPress still powers 40%+ of the web, but for modern client work, we kept hitting the same walls:
Performance ceiling: A typical WordPress site with 10 plugins loads in 3-5 seconds on a good CDN. Core Web Vitals become impossible to optimize without aggressive caching that then breaks the editor.
Security: Every plugin is a potential vulnerability. We've cleaned up more WordPress malware infections than we'd like to count. For clients in regulated industries, this is a compliance risk.
Developer experience: PHP templating hasn't aged well. Building custom post types, taxonomies, and meta boxes requires significant boilerplate that other frameworks solve better.
Cost: WordPress "free" hides the real cost: hosting that can handle the CPU spikes, security monitoring, plugin licenses, and developer time for maintenance.
The Alternative: Next.js + Headless CMS
Our current default stack:
- Next.js 14 (App Router) for the frontend
- Cloudflare Pages for hosting (free tier, global CDN, edge functions)
- Contentlayer or Sanity as the CMS (editor-friendly, API-first)
- Tailwind CSS v4 for styling
For clients who want to edit content: we give them a beautiful CMS interface. For clients with developer teams: we give them Markdown files in Git.
Real Results
Comparing a recent client migration (same scope, same content):
| Metric | WordPress | Next.js |
|---|---|---|
| Load time | 4.2s | 0.8s |
| Lighthouse score | 62 | 97 |
| Monthly hosting cost | $45 | $0 (Cloudflare) |
| Security incidents | 2/year | 0 |
| Time to add new page | 30 min | 5 min |
When We Still Use WordPress
- Clients who need WooCommerce (the e-commerce ecosystem is unmatched)
- Clients with an existing WordPress installation who want to continue
- Clients whose team is already trained on WordPress and the cost of retraining is high
But for new projects over $5K? Next.js every time.
Looking to migrate or start fresh? [email protected]
