The verdict in three sentences
For a London consulting firm with 250 pages and 40 plugins, upgrading WordPress (EUR 3,000 to 6,000) buys time but fixes neither the technical debt nor the slow mobile experience. A migration to Next.js with a headless CMS costs EUR 14,000 to 26,000 and pays back within 24 to 30 months thanks to maintenance cut in half and an LCP brought down from 3.8 s to 1.2 s. The real risk is not technical: it is the 301 redirect plan and 90-day Search Console monitoring, which must be priced into the quote from day one.
Clean up WordPress or move to Next.js: both scenarios priced
Over the years, a consulting firm's WordPress site piles up page builders, redundant form plugins, overlapping SEO extensions and a hand-patched child theme. With 40 plugins, every monthly update becomes a gamble: one conflict breaks a contact form, one abandoned extension opens a security hole. The IT director has two realistic options.
| Criterion | Clean up WordPress | Next.js + headless CMS |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront budget 2026 | EUR 3,000 to 6,000 | EUR 14,000 to 26,000 |
| Delivery time | 3 to 5 weeks | 10 to 16 weeks |
| Plugins after project | 15 to 20 | 0 (coded features or dedicated services) |
| Expected mobile LCP | 2.4 to 2.8 s | 1.0 to 1.4 s |
| Annual maintenance | EUR 4,800 to 7,200 | EUR 2,400 to 3,600 |
| Attack surface | High (PHP, plugins, exposed admin) | Low (static site, separate admin) |
| Estimated lifespan | 2 to 3 years before next redesign | 5 to 7 years |
Cleaning up still makes sense if the firm plans a full rebrand within 18 months: there is no point investing EUR 20,000 in an architecture that will be redesigned. In every other case, migration delivers a lower five-year total cost.
What a serious migration quote covers
A EUR 14,000 quote that does not itemise content migration and redirects is incomplete. Here is a typical breakdown for 250 pages, a 120-post blog and an insights section with downloadable white papers.
| Line item | Share of budget | 2026 ballpark (excl. VAT) |
|---|---|---|
| Audit of existing site and URL inventory | 8% | EUR 1,200 to 2,000 |
| Design system and key mockups | 15% | EUR 2,200 to 3,800 |
| Next.js development (pages, templates, search) | 35% | EUR 5,000 to 9,000 |
| Headless CMS setup (Sanity, Strapi or Payload) | 12% | EUR 1,700 to 3,100 |
| Content and media migration | 12% | EUR 1,700 to 3,100 |
| 301 redirect plan and SEO acceptance testing | 10% | EUR 1,400 to 2,600 |
| Editor training for consultants and 90-day follow-up | 8% | EUR 1,100 to 2,100 |
The CMS choice drives recurring costs: Sanity is free up to 3 users, then roughly USD 15 per user per month, while Strapi and Payload can be self-hosted for EUR 20 to 40 per month of server. Next.js hosting on Vercel Pro costs USD 20 per member per month, often under EUR 600 a year for a firm.
The real risks and how to neutralise them
Traffic loss is risk number one. A consulting firm lives on long-tail queries ("HR transformation consulting for banks") carried by older articles. If 30 URLs generating 60% of organic leads are left out of the mapping, the drop shows within three weeks.
| Risk | Likelihood without method | Countermeasure | Metric to track |
|---|---|---|---|
| URLs missed in the 301 mapping | High | 16-month Search Console export + Screaming Frog crawl | 404 errors in Search Console |
| Lost title and meta tags | Medium | Automated metadata import into the CMS | Click-through rate per page |
| Forms not wired to the CRM | Medium | Functional testing with HubSpot or Salesforce | Leads per week |
| White paper PDFs no longer found | Medium | Redirect old /wp-content/ paths | Downloads |
| Editors lost in the new CMS | Low | 2 training sessions + 10-page guide | Time to publish |
| Temporary ranking dip | Near certain | Weekly tracking for 90 days | Positions of 50 key queries |
A 5 to 10% drop in impressions for 2 to 4 weeks is normal. Beyond 15% after six weeks, audit redirect chains and orphan pages.
Mini case study
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James, IT director of a 60-consultant strategy firm in the City of London, currently pays EUR 6,400 a year in WordPress maintenance (updates, fixes, page builder licence, incidents). The site generates around 35 qualified enquiries per month.
He chooses a Next.js + Sanity migration at EUR 21,000. Maintenance drops to EUR 3,000 a year, saving EUR 3,400 annually. LCP falls from 3.8 s to 1.2 s and the form conversion rate rises from 1.8% to 2.3%, roughly 9 extra enquiries per month. If 1 enquiry in 20 becomes an engagement worth EUR 40,000 in margin, that is about 5 extra engagements a year. The project pays for itself with the first engagement won through the site, and in just over 6 years on maintenance savings alone.
FAQ
How long does a WordPress to Next.js migration take for 250 pages?
Allow 10 to 16 weeks, including 2 to 3 weeks of content migration and one week of SEO acceptance testing. Launching in August or late December limits the commercial impact for a consulting firm.
Will we lose rankings after the migration?
A 5 to 10% fluctuation for a few weeks is common. With an exhaustive 301 mapping and 90-day monitoring, most sites recover within 6 to 8 weeks and then outperform thanks to speed.
Should we keep WordPress as a headless CMS?
It is possible and reduces editor training, but you keep PHP, updates and some plugins. The maintenance saving then drops to 20 or 30% instead of 50%.
Which headless CMS suits a consulting firm?
Sanity fits editorial teams needing approval workflows, Payload or Strapi suit IT directors who want to self-host everything in the UK or EU. Self-hosting adds about EUR 20 to 40 per month.
Is a EUR 14,000 budget enough?
It is enough for a site without a client portal or complex CRM integration. A two-way Salesforce connection or an extranet adds EUR 4,000 to 10,000.
Let's scope your project. Send us your site URL and page count: we will price migration, CMS, redirects and SEO monitoring, with an indicative budget of EUR 14,000 to 26,000 and a 10 to 16 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.
