Next.js vs WordPress: which to use for a business website

Short answer: choose WordPress when non-technical staff will edit content often, you want a large plugin ecosystem and the site is mostly pages and posts. Choose Next.js when you need custom behaviour, strong performance control, or an application feel, and you have a developer to maintain it. Both can rank well. Neither is safe from neglect.

What are they?

• WordPress is a content management system written in PHP with a database, an admin panel, themes and a huge plugin library. A large share of websites run on it.
• Next.js is a React framework. You build the site in code, with pages rendered on the server or at build time, and content comes from files, a database or a headless CMS.

How do they compare?

Editing content

WordPress wins by default. Editors log in, use a visual editor and publish. With Next.js, editing means either changing code or adding a headless CMS, which is extra setup and cost but gives a good experience.

Speed and Core Web Vitals

Next.js gives you more control: server rendering, static generation, image optimisation, code splitting. A WordPress site can be fast with good hosting, a light theme and caching, and gets slow with many plugins and heavy page builders. Speed is a result of choices, not of the platform name.

Security

WordPress is the most attacked CMS simply because it is the most used. The usual compromises come from outdated plugins and themes, weak passwords and abandoned add-ons. Keep core and plugins updated, remove unused ones and use two-factor authentication. Next.js sites have fewer moving parts when static, though they still have vulnerabilities: framework security releases happen, and you must apply them. Whichever you choose, someone has to patch it.

SEO

Both can achieve strong search results. WordPress has mature SEO plugins that help non-technical users with titles, sitemaps and schema. In Next.js you control the same things in code: metadata, canonical URLs, sitemaps and structured data. Search performance depends on content quality, site speed and links, not on the framework. See SEO vs AEO vs GEO.

Cost

WordPress can be cheapest to launch: hosting, a theme and some plugins. Costs grow with premium plugins and maintenance. Next.js costs more developer time upfront and can be cheap to host, even free for small sites on some platforms. The real cost is who maintains it for the next three years. See how much a small business website costs.

Flexibility

If you need unusual functionality such as dashboards, custom calculators, authenticated areas or integrations with your own systems, Next.js is more natural. WordPress can do many of these with plugins, until requirements hit the plugin's limits.

How do you decide?

• A local business with a brochure site, a blog and staff who edit text: WordPress, with managed hosting that handles updates.
• A product site, a portfolio or a site with custom features and a developer on hand: Next.js.
• Editors need ease and developers need control: Next.js with a headless CMS, or WordPress used as a headless backend.
• You have no one to maintain either: a hosted site builder is safer than an unmaintained install of anything.

What I use

This website is built with Next.js because I write the content as code, want full control of structured data and fast static pages, and I maintain it myself. That is a reason specific to me. A bakery owner who wants to change the opening hours at 7 a.m. from a phone is better served by WordPress.

Questions to ask your developer

• Who updates the software, and how often?
• Where are backups stored and have you restored one?
• How do I edit a page and who can see the admin?
• What happens if you are unavailable?
• Do I own the code, the content and the domain?