WordPress or headless: how to pick without regretting it later

This decision gets made on the wrong grounds more often than any other. It is not a question of which technology is better. It is a question of who is going to look after the thing.

What each one actually is

WordPress, built properly

One system that holds the content and renders the pages. Built with custom fields rather than a page builder, it is quick, it is editable by anyone, and almost every developer can pick it up.

Headless, in one sentence

The content lives in one place and a separate front end renders it. The result is very fast and very cheap to host, and it needs a developer for anything structural.

The question that decides it

How often does the site change, and who changes it? If the answer is weekly and somebody in your office, WordPress. If it is rarely and us, headless.

Editing is where the difference bites

A headless site with a good editor is fine for changing words. Adding a new kind of page to one is a development job, every time.

Cost, over five years rather than one

Build

Headless usually costs more to build, because more of the front end is written rather than configured.

Running it

WordPress needs updates, backups and a watchful eye. Headless mostly needs hosting that costs a few pounds a month. Over five years that gap closes the build difference and often reverses it.

Our default, and when we break it

We default to WordPress for businesses who edit their own site, and headless for sites that are largely fixed or need to survive a spike in traffic. The exception is ecommerce, where the platform decides for you.