WordPress powers a very large share of the web, and for good reason: editors understand it. The question is not whether to use it, but what to use it for. In a headless setup the answer is simple — WordPress is the place where content is written, structured and published. Nothing more.
One job per system
The CMS stores content and exposes it through the REST API. The frontend — in our case Next.js — owns the design, the routing, the performance budget and the SEO output. Neither side has to compromise for the other.
- Editors write in the admin they already know.
- Developers ship a frontend with modern tooling and testing.
- Performance no longer depends on a theme and twenty plugins.
Model content, not pages
The biggest shift is mental. Instead of building pages, you model content: products, services, case studies, articles, people. Each has fields, relationships and a clear shape. The frontend decides how to present them.
If a piece of content can’t be described as fields, it’s probably a design decision hiding inside the CMS.
Publishing without rebuilding
Static speed and editorial freshness are not opposites. With incremental static regeneration, a publish event in WordPress triggers a webhook, the frontend revalidates only what changed, and the new content is live in seconds.
What you give up
Live preview takes work, and some plugins that render on the frontend no longer apply. We think it’s a good trade — but it is a trade, and it should be made deliberately.