Why people leave WordPress
WordPress powers a meaningful share of the open web, and for good reason, it is flexible, well-supported, and has a plugin for almost everything. The trouble starts when a small business owner ends up running a site with 15 to 30 plugins, each on a separate update cycle, each a potential security or compatibility risk. The site slows down. Page Speed Insights starts flagging Core Web Vitals issues. Mobile load times creep up. Every few months a plugin update breaks something visible to customers, and someone has to fix it on a weekend.
The hosting and maintenance cost compounds too. Managed WordPress hosting runs $30 to $100 a month. A dev to fix the plugin-breakage incidents runs another few hundred a year. Security plugins, backup plugins, caching plugins, SEO plugins, all on premium tiers, add up to another $50 to $200 a month. By year three, a WordPress site often costs more in subscription fees than a custom build would have cost to build from scratch.
What we migrate to
A hand-coded site in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Custom Python or Node backend if your business actually needs one (booking, member portal, custom forms). No CMS. No plugins. No subscription fees. The site loads in under a second on mobile, passes Core Web Vitals, ranks better, and runs for years with no maintenance.
The migration process
What we preserve
All content, exported cleanly
Posts, pages, custom post types, media library, comments if you want them. We export from WordPress, restructure for the new site, and import without losing formatting or metadata.
URL structure, where possible
Your /about/, your /services/, your /blog/post-slug/ URLs stay exactly the same. The new site serves them just like WordPress did. Where URLs do change (we usually clean up the old date-based blog archives), 301 redirects preserve link equity.
SEO rankings and backlinks
Every URL that ranks for something gets either preserved or 301'd. Every backlink pointing to the old site continues to count for the new one. We monitor Search Console for 30 days post-launch.
Contact form submissions
Existing forms migrate to the new backend (usually a clean Python or Node endpoint), routed to your email, CRM, or a custom database. No submissions lost.
Schema and rich results
Most WordPress sites have partial schema from Yoast or Rank Math. The new site ships with comprehensive schema, llms.txt, and proper structured data. AI search visibility usually improves immediately.
Hosting cost reduction
Hand-coded sites do not need managed WordPress hosting. They run on basic static hosting (or a simple Python backend if needed) for $5 to $20 a month, instead of $30 to $100. Hosting savings often cover the migration cost within 12 to 24 months.
What this costs
Typical WordPress migration: $2,500 to $7,500. The range depends on how much custom WordPress functionality you have, e-commerce, membership, custom plugins, and how much content needs to be preserved. Sites with WooCommerce or BuddyPress or LearnDash run higher because we are rebuilding equivalent functionality, not just porting pages. Every quote is fixed-price. See full pricing.
FAQs
Can you keep WordPress as the CMS and just rebuild the front end?
Yes, that is a 'headless WordPress' setup. We can do it. We usually do not recommend it, because it preserves the WordPress maintenance burden (plugin updates, security patches) without the convenience of WordPress's full integration. For most small business sites, going fully hand-coded with no CMS is cleaner. We can add a lightweight admin for content updates without bringing WordPress along.
What about my Yoast or Rank Math SEO settings?
We export them and rebuild equivalent schema on the new site. The new site usually has more comprehensive schema than the WordPress original, because we add types Yoast and Rank Math do not handle (LocalBusiness, Service, FAQ, Review, Person, DefinedTerm).
Will my Google Analytics keep working?
Yes. We carry over your existing analytics setup (GA4, Plausible, Fathom, or whatever you use). If you do not have analytics or want to switch to something simpler, we can set that up too.
Do you handle WooCommerce migrations?
Yes, but it is a larger project. WooCommerce sites usually migrate to a custom Stripe or Square checkout on the new platform, with inventory and order management handled either by us or by Shopify if e-commerce is the main business. Quote depends on product count, integrations, and order history preservation.
Can I edit the new site myself after launch?
Yes, but differently than WordPress. We can add a simple admin for the parts of the site you actually update (blog posts, services, hours, photos). For the parts you do not update often (footer, navigation, contact info), changes go through us under monthly care, which is usually faster and cheaper than the equivalent WordPress dev work would have been.
How long does the migration take?
4 to 6 weeks for typical small business WordPress sites. 8 to 12 weeks for sites with custom functionality (membership, WooCommerce, complex custom post types). Week 1 is content audit and URL mapping, weeks 2 to 4 are build, weeks 5 to 6 are QA and launch.