A WordPress alternative for small businesses
Tired of plugin updates, slow page loads, and a $200/year maintenance retainer? We build static-first custom sites with a simple CMS. None of WordPress's headaches, all of the flexibility.
Why WordPress fell out of favor for small business
WordPress powers 40%+ of the web, but most of those sites are slow, plugin-bloated, and one outdated plugin away from a security breach. For small businesses, the math has stopped working:
- Plugin sprawl. A typical small business WP site runs 15–30 plugins, each one a moving part that can break, conflict, or get hacked.
- Performance overhead. WordPress loads PHP and a database for every page request. Static sites generated once load 5× faster.
- Maintenance retainers. Most agencies charge $150–$300/month "WordPress maintenance" to update plugins, run backups, and fix things that break.
- Hosting costs. Decent WP hosting (managed, scalable) starts at $30/month and goes to $200/month fast.
- Security risk. WordPress accounts for 96% of all CMS-related security breaches. Mostly from outdated plugins.
What we build instead
Modern static-first sites with a simple CMS option:
- Static HTML for the public site. Pre-built once, served from a CDN, loads in under a second.
- Optional CMS for editing content. Clean admin panel, no plugin marketplace, no auto-update anxiety.
- Modern stack: Next.js or Astro frontend, headless CMS (Sanity, Contentful, or self-hosted), Cloudflare or Vercel for hosting.
- No plugins. Every feature is custom code that does only what you need.
Cost comparison
5-year total cost for a typical small business site:
Migrating off WordPress
We handle WordPress migrations end-to-end:
- Content extraction. Posts, pages, categories, tags, featured images, custom fields. Exported and rebuilt.
- URL preservation. Existing URLs stay the same so search rankings don't break. We set up 301 redirects for any URL that has to change.
- Image optimization. Original WordPress images get replaced with modern formats (WebP, AVIF) and proper responsive sizing.
- Form replacement. Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, or whatever you're using gets replaced with a built-in spam-resistant form.
- SEO preservation. Meta tags, structured data, and sitemap all migrate cleanly.
Your old WordPress site stays live until the new one is ready. No customer-facing downtime. Send us your URL for a migration quote.
When WordPress still makes sense
We'll be honest: WordPress is still a fine choice if you publish 5+ blog posts per week and need a battle-tested editorial workflow with multiple authors. WordPress's editorial features are mature and hard to beat.
For everything else. Service businesses, restaurants, e-commerce under 200 products, professional services, single-location retail. Modern alternatives are faster, cheaper, and easier to maintain.
Ready for a real quote?
Tell us your scope. We reply with a flat-rate quote within 24 hours. No call required.
FAQ
For most small businesses, a static-first custom site with an optional CMS beats WordPress on speed, security, and maintenance cost. Our $300 starter site replaces a typical $1,500 WordPress build with no plugin maintenance overhead.
Not when migration is handled correctly. We preserve URLs, set up 301 redirects, migrate structured data, and submit a fresh sitemap to Google. Most clients keep their rankings or improve them after migration because the new site is faster.
Yes. We add a simple CMS as a $400 add-on. You get a clean admin panel for editing pages and posts; the public site stays custom-coded and fast.
Decent managed WordPress hosting starts at $30/month and goes up to $100+ as your traffic grows. Our hosting is $15/month flat for static sites with way better performance. No "plans" or traffic surcharges.
Generally yes, because there's no plugin marketplace and no PHP runtime to exploit. Static sites have a fraction of the attack surface that WordPress does. Most WordPress breaches come from outdated plugins.