What is Next.js?
Next.js is a React framework built by Vercel. It renders pages on the server, regenerates them on a schedule, and can serve most of a site as static files from an edge network close to the visitor. Nike, TikTok and Notion run on it. It isn’t a CMS by itself; it’s the rendering layer. We pair it with Sanity, which handles the content side, so editors get a dashboard and the site keeps its speed.
Performance comparison: real numbers
These are the metrics Google actually weighs for ranking. The Next.js column reflects our own builds; the WordPress columns reflect widely-reported market ranges.
| Metric | Next.js (our builds) | WordPress (standard) | WordPress (optimised) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lighthouse | 95–98 | 35–55 | 60–75 |
| LCP | 0.6–1.2s | 3–6s | 1.8–3s |
| INP | < 100ms | 200–400ms | 150–250ms |
| CLS | < 0.01 | 0.05–0.2 | 0.02–0.08 |
| Time to first byte | < 200ms (Vercel edge) | 400–800ms | 200–400ms |
| Plugin dependencies | 0 | 15–40 | 10–20 |
Our Efedra Clinic build holds an LCP of 0.8 seconds and a Lighthouse score of 98, figures that come from not loading code the page doesn’t need, rather than from a caching plugin patching over a heavy theme.
SEO: which stack helps you rank?
Server-side rendering is the quiet advantage. With Next.js, Googlebot receives full HTML on the first request, so there’s no wait for JavaScript to paint the content. Structured data sits in the templates, no plugin required.
WordPress can rank well, and Yoast or RankMath do help. They also add page weight, and the default category and tag archives can spawn duplicate-content problems if no one prunes them. The gap shows in practice: after moving from a slow platform to Next.js, Efedra reached the top three on Google for its primary keyword within three months.
Developer experience and cost
For a technical reader weighing the hire, the trade-offs are concrete.
| Factor | Next.js | WordPress |
|---|---|---|
| Language | TypeScript / JavaScript (React) | PHP + JavaScript |
| Developer pool (UK) | Smaller, specialist | Large, commoditised |
| Hourly rate (UK) | £60–£120/hr | £30–£80/hr |
| Update complexity | npm packages, predictable | Plugin conflicts, a common cause of breakage |
| Hosting | Vercel: edge network, auto-scale | Managed WP hosting required |
| Security patches | Framework-level, rare | Weekly plugin and core updates |
A Next.js developer costs more per hour. The codebase is also cleaner to hand over, so you spend fewer of those hours chasing a plugin conflict that broke a page after an update.
Content editing: WordPress wins here
This is the honest counterpoint. If your site’s main job is publishing (a newsroom, a high-volume blog, a team of non-technical editors filing daily), the WordPress dashboard is hard to beat. It’s familiar, and the editing workflow is built for that pace. Sanity is good, and most clients edit from it happily, but it’s a different model. If you need ten or more posts a week from staff who don’t touch code, WordPress makes sense.
When to choose Next.js
- Performance is a priority; Core Web Vitals are a ranking factor, and local SEO rewards speed
- You need custom integrations: booking, CRM, payments, more than one language
- Your site is five to twenty-five pages and doesn’t need daily multi-author publishing
- You want a fixed price and full code ownership, with the GitHub repo
- You’re building a SaaS or product site that has to scale
When to stick with WordPress
- You publish twenty or more articles a month with a non-technical editorial team
- You run WooCommerce for 200+ products with complex inventory
- You already have a large WordPress site and the migration ROI is unclear
- Your budget is under £1,500 and a template approach is acceptable
