Free Site Diagnostic
Should You Move Off WordPress?
Enter your site's URL for a live performance audit, then answer eight questions. You'll get a clear recommendation — backed by your actual site data.
Your Site's Performance
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Breakdown by Category
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I build high-performance static sites powered by modern tooling and AI-assisted development. Every build starts with understanding what your site actually needs — not what a theme marketplace decided.
What This Diagnostic Evaluates
WordPress powers 40% of the web — but that doesn't mean it's the right tool for every site. This diagnostic combines a live performance audit of your current site with eight questions about your real-world experience managing it. The result is a specific recommendation, not a generic "WordPress bad" take.
Live Performance Audit
Google PageSpeed Insights scores for your actual site — performance, accessibility, SEO, and Core Web Vitals.
Maintenance Burden
How much time and money are you spending on updates, plugins, hosting, and security patching?
Dynamic vs. Static Needs
Does your site genuinely need server-side processing, or is WordPress overhead for what's essentially a content site?
Security Exposure
WordPress's plugin ecosystem is its strength and its attack surface. How exposed are you?
Content Workflow
Who creates content, how often, and would a different authoring workflow work for your team?
Developer Dependency
Can your team make changes independently, or are you locked into a developer for basic updates?
Hosting Costs
Managed WordPress hosting runs $30–150+/month. Static hosting is typically free.
Growth Readiness
Can your current site handle traffic spikes without falling over or spiking your hosting bill?
Who This Diagnostic Is For
This assessment is for business owners, marketing directors, and founders who've been running WordPress and are starting to feel the friction — slow page loads, plugin update anxiety, mounting hosting costs, or the nagging sense that their site is working against them instead of for them.
If you've ever wondered whether there's a simpler, faster, cheaper way to run your website — there probably is. But not every site should migrate, and this diagnostic will tell you honestly whether yours should.
Built by Alex van Rossum, a fractional CTO and systems architect based in north metro Atlanta who builds high-performance static sites using Astro and AI-assisted development. Learn more about working together.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a static site and how is it different from WordPress? +
A static site is pre-built HTML delivered directly to the browser — no database, no server-side processing, no PHP. WordPress generates every page on the fly by querying a database, which is why it needs plugins, caching layers, and managed hosting to perform well. Static sites are faster by architecture, not by optimization.
Will I lose my blog if I migrate from WordPress? +
No. Static site generators like Astro support blog posts written in Markdown — simpler, more portable, and version-controlled. Your existing content migrates over. The authoring workflow changes (you write in Markdown instead of the WordPress editor), but the content itself carries forward.
What about forms, search, and other dynamic features? +
Contact forms, search, newsletter signups, and analytics all work on static sites through lightweight services (Formspree, Pagefind, Mailchimp embeds). You don't need a PHP server running 24/7 to collect form submissions. The only features that genuinely require a dynamic backend are e-commerce with cart/checkout and user authentication systems.
Can I still update my site myself without a developer? +
Yes, but the workflow is different. Instead of logging into wp-admin, you edit Markdown files and push them through a deployment pipeline. For non-technical teams, a headless CMS (like Decap or Sanity) provides a familiar editing interface that publishes to a static site. The content workflow is part of every migration plan.
How much does a WordPress to static site migration cost? +
It depends on the site's complexity — a 10-page marketing site is very different from a 500-post blog with custom post types. But the ongoing cost savings are significant: static hosting (Cloudflare Pages, Netlify) is typically free or under $20/month vs. $30-150+/month for managed WordPress hosting. No plugin licenses, no security patching overhead.
What if I use WooCommerce or need e-commerce? +
E-commerce is the one area where the recommendation gets nuanced. Static sites can work as the storefront with a headless commerce backend (Shopify, Snipcart), but the integration requires specialized architecture. I can help you evaluate the right approach as a technical advisor — even if I'm not building the Shopify integration myself.
What about SEO — will I lose my rankings? +
Properly executed, a migration preserves all your rankings through 301 redirects and URL structure matching. In practice, most sites see improved rankings after migration because Core Web Vitals scores jump dramatically. Google rewards fast, accessible sites. The key is doing the redirect mapping correctly — which is part of any competent migration plan.