Renovating your WordPress: when to change technology?

Your website has been running on WordPress for years and works well. But now you hear “WordPress is slow”, “there are more modern technologies”, “you should migrate”. Is it true or marketing? Is the cost and risk worth it?

After migrating 8 businesses from WordPress to modern technologies (and rejecting 15 migrations that didn’t make sense), I’ll explain when it makes sense to change, when it’s throwing money away, and what it really costs.

Why businesses switch from WordPress

1. Speed: every second costs money

Your WordPress takes 3-4 seconds to load. Slow but “it works”.

The problem: Google penalizes slow websites. Each second of delay costs 7% conversion.

Modern technologies: 0.5-1 second typical load time.

Translation to business:

• Before: 100 visits, 2% conversion = 2 sales
• After: 100 visits, 3.5% conversion = 3-4 sales
• +50-75% more sales with the same traffic

2. Hosting costs out of control

WordPress under traffic needs powerful servers:

• 50,000 visits/month: €80-€150/month
• 200,000 visits/month: €200-€400/month

Modern technologies:

• 50,000 visits/month: €10-€20/month
• 200,000 visits/month: €15-€35/month

Annual savings: €1,000-€4,000 in hosting.

3. Security and peace of mind

WordPress requires:

• Constantly updating plugins
• Monitoring vulnerabilities
• Frequent backups
• Hacking risk (90% from outdated plugins)

Modern technologies:

• No vulnerable plugins
• Automatic updates
• Smaller attack surface

Value: How much would it cost you if your website got hacked? Lost customers, reputation, reconstruction…

4. You want mobile app or multi-channel expansion

With traditional WordPress:

• Website separate from mobile app
• Manually copy content
• Two systems to maintain

Migration to flexible system:

• Publish once, appears on web and app
• Single system, less maintenance

When you should NOT migrate from WordPress

Let’s be honest: migrating doesn’t always make sense.

1. Your website works and you don’t plan major changes

If your WordPress:

• Loads in <2 seconds
• You have no security issues
• You only publish content occasionally
• You don’t plan mobile app or expansions

Reality: Migrating would cost €10,000-€30,000 to get… what? Optimized WordPress works perfectly.

2. You depend on WordPress-specific plugins

If you use:

• WooCommerce with 20+ custom extensions
• Complex membership systems (courses, forums)
• Form builders with complex logic

Problem: Recreating that from scratch can cost €30,000-€60,000. Sometimes WordPress is the economical option.

3. Limited budget (<€10,000)

Realistic migration from WordPress:

• Small e-commerce: €15,000-€30,000
• Corporate website: €8,000-€15,000
• Complex blog: €6,000-€12,000

If you don’t have budget, better optimize your current WordPress (€2,000-€4,000).

4. You don’t have technical support after migration

Post-migration you’ll need:

• Developer who knows the new technology
• Monthly maintenance
• Ability to make changes

If your brother-in-law made WordPress changes for free, migrating will leave you without support.

Realistic options: it’s not all or nothing

Option 1: Optimize WordPress (cheaper)

What it includes:

• Speed optimization (cache, images, code)
• Plugin and security updates
• Better configured hosting

Cost: €2,000-€5,000 Result: WordPress 2-3x faster

Perfect for: Websites that work but need improvement, limited budget.

Option 2: Headless WordPress (hybrid)

Keep WordPress as editor (your team knows it) but change how it displays:

• Back-end: WordPress to manage content
• Front-end: Modern technology to display

Cost: €8,000-€18,000 Advantage: Modern speed + WordPress familiarity

Perfect for: Teams that love WordPress but need speed.

Option 3: Complete migration (more expensive but more benefits)

Completely switch to modern technology:

• New management system
• Optimized front-end
• Modern hosting

Cost: €15,000-€50,000 depending on complexity Benefits: Maximum speed, minimum hosting, total scalability

Perfect for: Large e-commerce, SaaS, websites that are the business core.

Realistic migration process

Phase 1: Audit and decision (1 week, free with quote)

We analyze:

• How many pages do you have?
• Which features are critical?
• Current traffic and projections?
• Available budget?

Result: Honest recommendation: optimize, hybrid, or complete migration.

Phase 2: Planning (1-2 weeks)

• New website structure
• Content migration (articles, images, products)
• Redirect plan (don’t lose SEO)
• Realistic timeline

Phase 3: Development (4-10 weeks depending on size)

• New website construction
• Content migration
• Exhaustive testing
• Team training

Phase 4: Launch (1 week)

• Deploy to production
• 24/7 monitoring first week
• Old WordPress as backup for safety
• Post-launch adjustments

Real case: Migrated online store

Initial situation

Fashion e-commerce with WordPress/WooCommerce:

• 1,200 products
• 35,000 visits/month
• Conversion: 1.1%
• Load time: 3.8 seconds
• Hosting: €220/month
• Crashes: 2-3 times/month (lost sales)

The decision

Complete migration to modern technology (similar to Shopify but custom).

Investment: €28,000

Results 6 months later

• Speed: 0.6 seconds (84% improvement)
• SEO: Google improved positions due to speed → +22% organic traffic
• Conversion: 1.1% → 1.9% (+73% more sales per visit)
• Hosting: €220/month → €35/month (savings €2,220/year)
• Crashes: 0 (99.99% uptime)
• Sales: +95% in total revenue (more traffic + better conversion)

The return

Sales increase year 1: +€68,000 Hosting savings year 1: €2,220 Total benefit: €70,220

Recovered investment in 5 months.

Unexpected benefit

Better Google ranking from speed brought even more traffic. Snowball effect.

How much it costs according to your situation

Website type	Optimize WP	WP Headless	Complete migration
Small blog	€1,500-€3,000	€5,000-€8,000	€6,000-€12,000
Corporate website	€2,000-€4,000	€8,000-€12,000	€10,000-€18,000
E-commerce <500 products	€3,000-€6,000	€12,000-€20,000	€18,000-€35,000
E-commerce >1000 products	€5,000-€8,000	€20,000-€35,000	€35,000-€60,000

Signs you need to change

• ✅ Your website takes >3 seconds to load
• ✅ You pay >€150/month for hosting
• ✅ You’ve had crashes or hacks
• ✅ Conversion is low and you need to improve it
• ✅ You plan to launch mobile app soon
• ✅ Your business grows and WordPress doesn’t scale well

Signs you only need optimization

• ✅ Your website works correctly
• ✅ Loads in 1.5-2.5 seconds (acceptable)
• ✅ You don’t plan multi-channel expansion
• ✅ Budget < €8,000
• ✅ Your team only knows WordPress

My honest recommendation

If you’re serious e-commerce or SaaS

Complete migration. Speed and stability directly affect your sales. Pays for itself.

If you’re local business or corporate website

WordPress optimization. Works perfectly optimized. You don’t need to spend €20,000.

If you sell online but tight budget

Headless WordPress. You get speed without spending on recreating everything. Smart compromise.

If you only have blog or portfolio

Light optimization. You don’t need more.

Conclusion: change for the right reasons

Migrating from WordPress makes sense when:

• The numbers justify it (conversion, SEO, hosting)
• Your business depends on the website (online sales)
• Clear multi-channel expansion plans

DON’T migrate just because:

• “WordPress is old” (lie, works perfect when optimized)
• “Everyone uses React now” (your customers don’t care)
• A developer wants to practice with new technology

Does your WordPress need change, optimization, or is it fine as is? Let’s talk with no commitment. We’ll analyze current speed, hosting costs, conversion and future plans to give you an honest recommendation. Sometimes the answer is “optimize what you have for €3,000”, not always “migrate for €25,000”.