WordPress or Next.js? How I decide for a client
I've built on WordPress since 2016 and with Next.js for the last couple of years. Here's how I choose between them — and why the answer is usually about who edits the site.
On this page
I've built on WordPress since 2016 — business sites, WooCommerce stores, booking systems, a lot of rescues. For the last couple of years I've also been building with Next.js: a newsroom, a school management system, an accounting app. Clients often ask which one they should choose, usually after someone has told them one is "dead" and the other is "the future".
Neither is true. They solve different problems. Here's how I actually decide.
The first question: who edits the site?
This settles most cases before we talk about technology.
If your team will publish and edit content themselves — pages, posts, team members, case studies — WordPress is hard to beat. The editor is familiar, there's a plugin for almost every need, and you can find help with it almost anywhere in the world.
If the site is mostly an application — people sign in, enter data, approve things, get reports — then content editing is a small part of the job, and the real work is the logic behind it. That's where Next.js earns its place.
When I recommend WordPress
- Marketing sites with lots of content. Services, landing pages, blog, case studies. Madison Ave Consulting and Coverite Insurance are good examples.
- Your team wants to change things without a developer. With Elementor or a well-structured custom theme, editors can build pages safely.
- Standard features. Contact forms, bookings, newsletters, simple stores — mature plugins already do these well. LevelUp's bookings and payments run on Amelia and WooCommerce rather than custom code.
- Budget and timeline matter. For a typical business site, WordPress gets you live faster and for less.
The trade-off: plugins need updates, security needs attention, and a site stuffed with page-builder add-ons can get slow. That's why so much of my work is rescues.
When I recommend Next.js
- It's really an app. Amanot has committee approvals, donor records, SMS receipts, and reports. A school management system I'm building handles admissions, attendance, and fees, and generates every certificate as a PDF. Forcing that into WordPress plugins would be fragile.
- Complex editorial workflows. The Mukto Provat newsroom has drafts, review, approval, scheduling, live updates, and roles. A custom admin fits the newsroom instead of the newsroom bending around a CMS.
- Performance is a feature. A Next.js site can be fully static and very fast — this portfolio is plain files on a server, with no plugins to update and nothing to hack.
- You have (or will have) a developer. Changes that a WordPress editor could make alone often need a developer in Next.js.
The trade-off: a higher upfront cost, and content changes beyond what the admin offers need a developer.
The middle ground
Some projects want both: WordPress for editors, Next.js for speed. That's "headless" WordPress — WordPress as the content back end, Next.js as the front end. It's powerful, but it means running two systems, so I only suggest it when there's a clear reason.
A quick way to decide
| If… | Choose |
|---|---|
| Your team publishes content every week | WordPress |
| You need standard features (forms, bookings, a shop) | WordPress |
| Users sign in and do real work in it | Next.js |
| You need custom workflows, approvals, or reports | Next.js |
| Speed and security are critical, and changes are rare | Next.js (static) |
| You want WordPress editing with a fast custom front end | Headless |
What I'd tell you on a call
Most of the time the answer is clear within ten minutes of hearing what you need. If it isn't, I'll tell you roughly what each option costs to build and to run over two years — that number usually decides it.
If you're weighing the two for a project, book a free call and I'll give you a straight answer.