Headless WordPress: when it's worth it (and when it isn't)

Every few weeks a client asks whether they should "go headless." Sometimes the answer is yes. More often the honest answer is "not yet." Here is how I decide.

What headless actually buys you

When you decouple, WordPress keeps the content and the editorial workflow, and a framework like Next.js renders the front end. In practice you get:

• Speed you can control. Static generation, edge caching and fine-grained image handling.
• Freedom on the front end. You use React components rather than PHP templates.
• One content source for many channels. The website, the app and the kiosk all read from the same API.

What it costs you

Headless isn't free. You lose or have to rebuild:

1. Previews that editors trust
2. Plugins that render on the front end (forms, SEO output, page builders)
3. A single deployment, because you now run two systems

A minimal Next.js + WPGraphQL fetch

export async function getPosts() {
  const res = await fetch(process.env.WP_GRAPHQL_URL!, {
    method: "POST",
    headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      query: `{ posts(first: 10) { nodes { slug title excerpt } } }`,
    }),
    next: { revalidate: 300 },
  })
  const { data } = await res.json()
  return data.posts.nodes
}

My decision checklist

If you're weighing this for your own stack, book a call and we can talk it through.