"Headless" has become a popular word in web development. A headless website separates the content management system (the back end) from the website visitors see (the front end, often built with a JavaScript framework). The promise: faster sites, more design freedom, content reusable across channels.
We have built headless websites as well as many WordPress sites. We have delivered only a handful of headless projects, so we will not publish statistics for them. But one pattern was clear in our data: headless builds were our longest website projects and carried the most revision rounds. For comparison, our 110 WordPress projects had a median delivery time of 31.5 days, 15.2 of work and 2 revision rounds.
What headless actually means
In a traditional WordPress site, WordPress stores the content and also renders the pages. In a headless setup:
- A CMS (which can still be WordPress, or another headless CMS) stores the content
- A separate front-end application fetches the content through an API and renders the pages
- The two are deployed and maintained separately
Where headless shines
- Performance at scale. Pre-rendered pages served from a global network can be very fast.
- Design freedom. Developers are not limited by a theme or page builder.
- Multiple channels. The same content can feed a website, an app and other platforms.
- Security surface. The public site does not expose the CMS directly.
- Complex interactive experiences that go beyond classic pages.
Where headless costs more
- Everything is custom. Features that WordPress plugins provide in minutes – forms, SEO fields, redirects, cookie consent, multilingual – must be built or integrated.
- Editing is less visual. Editors often lose the live, drag-and-drop editing they know from page builders. Previews need extra setup.
- Two systems to maintain. The CMS and the front end have separate updates, hosting and deployment.
- More specialised skills. Changes need developers, not just editors.
- More review rounds. Because everything is custom, every component is a potential point of feedback.
Why headless projects took longer in our experience
- Each section and component had to be built rather than configured
- Clients reviewed details that would have been template decisions in WordPress
- Content modelling (which fields each content type has) needed decisions upfront, and changes later meant work in both systems
- Previews and editing workflows needed extra development
- Deployments and environments added steps before each review
Comparison
| WordPress with page builder | Headless | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to first draft | Short | Longer |
| Editing for non-technical users | Visual, flexible | Structured, often less visual |
| Design freedom | High within the builder | Very high |
| Performance | Good with optimisation | Excellent when done well |
| Plugins and ready-made features | Large ecosystem | Mostly custom or third-party services |
| Maintenance | One system | Two systems |
| Cost | Lower | Higher |
| Best for | Most business websites | Complex, high-traffic or multi-channel projects |
When we recommend headless
- The website is part of a larger digital product with apps or multiple front ends
- Performance at very high traffic is critical
- The design requires interactions a page builder cannot deliver
- There is a development team (in-house or ours) to maintain it long term
When we recommend WordPress
- A company website, landing pages or a content-driven site
- Marketing wants to edit and create pages independently
- Budget and timeline matter
- Standard features – forms, SEO, multilingual, booking – are needed
For most of our clients, WordPress with a well-built theme and page builder is the better choice. It is fast enough, easy to edit, and much quicker to deliver.
What headless means for your team after launch
Consider who will work with the site day to day. With WordPress and a page builder, a marketing team can create a new landing page in an afternoon. With a headless setup, new page types or layouts usually need a developer, while editors fill in the predefined fields. For companies with an in-house development team, that is fine. For small marketing teams without developers, it can turn every campaign into a ticket.
Also think about who hosts and monitors two systems, who deploys front-end updates, and how quickly a small text change reaches the live site. These are not reasons against headless, but they belong in the decision.
A middle ground
Performance, one of the main headless arguments, can often be achieved with a well-optimised WordPress site: good hosting, caching, image optimisation and a lean plugin set. We usually try that first.
FAQ
Is a headless website better for SEO?
Not automatically. It can be very fast, but SEO fields, redirects, sitemaps and structured data must be built properly. A well-optimised WordPress site performs very well in search.
Can I still use WordPress as a headless CMS?
Yes. WordPress can serve content through its API to a separate front end. You keep the familiar back end but lose some page builder features.
Why do headless projects need more feedback rounds?
Because more is custom-built, there are more individual decisions to review. We plan extra time for that.
Why does one decision maker matter so much?
Because feedback from several people without a final say turns into extra revision rounds. In our experience a single person who collects feedback and approves is the biggest time-saver on the client side.
How long does a WordPress website take?
Across our 110 WordPress projects, the median was 27.5 days from kickoff to go-live, with the middle half between 18 and 67 days. The first draft usually came after about 8 days; most of the remaining time was feedback and content.
Where the numbers come from: our own project records in Odoo – 233 finished projects, 909 tasks and about 4941 logged hours, mostly from 2025–2026. Durations are calendar days from kickoff and we quote medians, so one unusually long project does not distort the picture.
Planning a website project?
If you want a realistic plan for your own project, book a short call with our team and we will walk you through the phases, what we need from you and where projects like yours usually lose time. You can also browse finished work in our website portfolio.
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