Supercharge your WordPress website:

Go Headless.

Last update: 18th June 2025
By Chris Hodges

WordPress powers over a third of the web so chances are, it's powering your site too. If you're a content creator you're likely familiar with WP's admin interface and you can probably publish a brand new article in just a few minutes. It's this familiarity and maturity that make Wordpress the most well-supported CMS in the world.

Still, WordPress isn’t perfect. As your site grows, it may become slower, more complex, or more expensive to host compared to modern alternatives. People with more customised setups can find themselves swimming in a sea of plugins or developing custom themes at great expense. On top of this, the slow response times of some WordPress installations can see some sites slipping inexorably down the Google rankings. If this sounds familiar it might be time to consider a headless installation - you'll keep your Wordpress backend but rebuild the frontend with a newer tech stack.

So what actually is the WordPress "backend"?

The backend refers to the admin area of a WordPress site — where you manage everything behind the scenes. It’s only accessible to users with the right login credentials (like administrators or editors). You access it by going to:

yoursite.com/wp-admin

In the backend, you can:

• Create and edit posts and pages

• Install or update themes and plugins

• Manage menus, media, and users

• Configure site settings

It’s basically the control panel for your website — as opposed to the frontend, which is what visitors see.

What's a Headless WordPress installation?

Headless WordPress installation is a setup where the WordPress backend stays the same, but the frontend is replaced by a different piece of software, commonly a static site generator (SSG) like NextJS or Gatsby. Static sites are lightning fast compared to WordPress, they rank better on search engines and are usually cheaper to host. In a headless WordPress installation you keep your existing WP hosting for content creation so your editors don't have to change their workflow or learn a new interface, but you also get a custom frontend which gives visitors to your site a better experience and allows more flexibility for developers.

The Benefits of Headless

🚀 Speed: Headless sites load in milliseconds — boosting user experience and lowering bounce rates.

🔍 SEO: Faster sites get better rankings on Google, meaning more organic traffic.

💸 Cost savings: Hosting costs can drop by up to 90%, especially if you're currently on enterprise WordPress hosting.

🔧 Flexibility: Developers can build custom frontends without being locked into WordPress themes or bloated plugins.

♿ Better UX: A rebuild is also a great time to improve accessibility, performance, and mobile responsiveness.

Should you go headless?

If your site is:

• Slow
• Expensive to host (> £100PM)
• Performing poorly on search engines

... it may be time to consider going headless. It's not suitable for everyone though. If your site has relatively small amounts of traffic and you're not paying too much for hosting then it probably makes sense to keep your regular WordPress installation.

Costs

A headless rebuild may be cheaper than you think. The cost depends on the complexity of the original site rather rather than the number of articles or amount of traffic, but a typical headless rebuild starts at around £2000 / €2400 / $2700, which is often recouped quickly through better SEO, lower hosting bills and higher conversions. Plugins or complex custom themes can cause the price to go up and lots of graphics or fancy visuals can also increase the quote.

Ready to make your WordPress site faster, cheaper, and more powerful? Get in touch today for a free, no-obligation chat about whether going headless is right for you.