The verdict in three sentences
If your B2B WordPress site carries 40 plugins, 4 to 6 second load times and a recent hack, a clean-up at 3,000 to 6,000 EUR only pushes the problem back by 12 to 18 months. A headless migration with a Next.js front end and WordPress kept as back office (15,000 to 30,000 EUR/USD in Amsterdam or Toronto, 12,000 to 25,000 EUR in western France) is the best compromise for a mid-sized company whose marketing team already knows the interface. The real risk is not technical: it is losing 10 to 30% of organic traffic if the 301 redirect plan is rushed.
Three costed scenarios for a mid-sized B2B company
| Criterion | WordPress clean-up | Headless + WordPress back office | Headless + Sanity or Strapi |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 budget | 3,000 to 6,000 EUR | 15,000 to 30,000 EUR/USD | 22,000 to 45,000 EUR/USD |
| Timeline | 2 to 4 weeks | 8 to 12 weeks | 10 to 14 weeks |
| Target mobile LCP | 2.5 to 3 s | under 1.8 s | under 1.5 s |
| Attack surface | Unchanged (PHP and plugins exposed) | Isolated back office, static front | No exposed PHP |
| Team training | None | Minimal (same interface) | 1 to 2 days |
| Monthly hosting | 30 to 80 EUR | 60 to 150 EUR | 80 to 200 EUR |
| Expected lifespan | 1 to 2 years | 5 years or more | 5 years or more |
A clean-up still makes sense for a site under 30 pages that is not a major acquisition channel. As soon as the site drives quote requests or job applications, a headless migration pays for itself through speed, security and lower emergency maintenance costs.
What a headless migration really costs
The budget depends less on page count than on the number of content models (product sheet, case study, job offer, news) and integrations (CRM, ERP, HR tools). Figures below are for a typical project around 20,000 EUR.
| Item | Share of budget | Range for an 80 to 150 page site |
|---|---|---|
| Audit, URL inventory, SEO mapping | 10% | 1,500 to 3,000 EUR |
| Content modelling and API (WPGraphQL or REST) | 15% | 2,250 to 4,500 EUR |
| Next.js front end, components, design system | 40% | 6,000 to 12,000 EUR |
| CRM and form integrations (HubSpot, Pipedrive) | 10% | 1,500 to 3,000 EUR |
| 301 redirect plan and testing | 10% | 1,500 to 3,000 EUR |
| QA, accessibility, go-live | 10% | 1,500 to 3,000 EUR |
| WordPress back-office hardening | 5% | 750 to 1,500 EUR |
SEO risks and how to neutralise them
The 10 to 30% traffic loss seen on failed migrations almost always has the same causes: URLs changed without redirects, lost title and meta tags, broken internal linking, forgotten structured data. Our method comes down to a few rules.
- Export every indexed URL (Search Console, Screaming Frog crawl, server logs) before any development.
- Keep the URL structure where possible, otherwise map each old URL to its new target with a 301, one by one.
- Migrate SEO fields (title, description, canonical, Open Graph tags) along with the content.
- Test redirects on staging before the switch, then monitor index coverage for 4 to 8 weeks.
A well-run migration usually shows a temporary dip of 0 to 5% for 2 to 4 weeks, followed by a gain driven by speed.
Mini case study
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Claire, marketing director of a 60-employee industrial company near Nantes, runs a 120-page WordPress site that gets 2,400 organic visits a month and 35 quote requests. After a hack, she compares options. The 5,000 EUR clean-up leaves LCP at 2.8 s and a risk of reinfection. The headless migration keeping WordPress costs 19,000 EUR and brings LCP down to 1.6 s. With conversion rising from 1.45% to 1.8%, she gets about 8 more requests a month. If one in ten becomes an order with 12,000 EUR of margin, the project pays back in under 3 months. The same logic applies to a distributor in Amsterdam or an engineering firm in Toronto.
FAQ
Can our writers keep using WordPress?
Yes, that is the whole point of the middle scenario. Editors keep their interface and only the public site moves to Next.js, so training takes under an hour.
How long will the site be down during the switch?
No downtime is needed. The DNS switch takes 5 to 30 minutes and the old site stays available read-only during propagation.
Is headless more expensive to maintain?
Maintenance runs around 150 to 400 EUR a month, comparable to a well-kept WordPress. Above all, it avoids emergency post-hack interventions billed at 800 to 2,000 EUR each.
Should we migrate the blog and every old news post?
No. Migrate content that gets traffic or backlinks, often 40 to 60% of the archive, and redirect the rest to topic pages.
What performance gain should we expect?
On our projects, mobile LCP drops on average from 4.5 s to 1.5 to 1.8 s and page weight falls by 50 to 70%. These gains improve Core Web Vitals scores and form conversion rates.
Let's scope your project. Send us your site URL and we will price the right scenario, between 15,000 and 45,000 EUR/USD, with a redirect plan and an 8 to 14 week timeline. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
