Starting with WordPress as an MVP
Before we dive into the migration journey, it’s important to understand why we initially chose WordPress for the Reviewbah website. When we embarked on this project, our primary goal was to develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) quickly. WordPress, with its user-friendly interface and a vast ecosystem of plugins and themes, seemed like the ideal choice to get our website up and running in no time.
However, as Reviewbah’s website grew and evolved, we encountered numerous challenges. WordPress, while excellent for rapid development, began to show its limitations in terms of performance, scalability, and customization. This prompted us to explore alternative solutions, ultimately leading us to NextJS. In this article, we’ll delve into the reasons behind our decision to migrate and the journey of transforming our website from a quick MVP on WordPress to a high-performance, scalable web application on NextJS.
Why move from WordPress to NextJS
Our decision to move the Reviewbah website from WordPress to NextJS was primarily based on performance and scalability. WordPress can be bloatware, which makes it slow and resource-heavy. Additionally, it can be difficult to optimize for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and implement a good user experience. On the contrary, NextJS takes advantage of modern web development tools and programming techniques, rendering pages faster and also enabling better SEO practices. Additionally, it comes with a microservices architecture that makes scaling much easier.
The Benefits
The most noticeable benefit of using NextJS is speed and performance. The web application framework is optimized to reduce the time it takes to download and display each page. This has led to faster load times and a better user experience for the Reviewbah website. Another benefit of switching to NextJS is better search engine optimization (SEO) since NextJS improves the Server-Side Rendering (SSR) which will affect the website’s ranking on search engines. Additionally, the NextJS’ microservices architecture makes it easier to scale up the website for future growth.
Technicalities involved in the migration
Migrating from one platform to another is not a trivial task; it requires careful planning and execution. The Reviewbah website migration process was divided into four stages: planning, setup, development, and deployment. We used a combination of docker, yarn, and github for the migration. Our development team carefully transferred content and functionality from WordPress to NextJS with attention to detail at each step. Our team also worked to improve the core features of the website, including the user interface, while ensuring the website was optimized for both mobile and desktop devices.
The Drawbacks
While there are benefits to NextJS, there are also drawbacks to consider before choosing a development tool such as NextJS. One of the drawbacks we experienced was the steep learning curve. NextJS is considerably different from WordPress and requires a higher level of technical proficiency to work with. Also, while NextJS has several pre-built UI components which can help speed up the development process, integrating them with the current plugin modules and server infrastructure was complex. Finally, integrating some of the sought-after features, widgets, and plugins from WordPress into NextJS proved to be a challenge.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the migration of the Reviewbah website from WordPress to NextJS was a success. We were able to meet our goal of creating a faster and more scalable website by leveraging the benefits of NextJS. However, there were a few challenges along the way such as integration and a steep learning curve. As a developer, you should always weigh the pros and cons before making a platform decision. Ultimately, it is important to understand the needs of your website and your users to choose the development platform that will enable you to handle your current requirements while providing room for future growth.
In Retrospect: The WordPress MVP Journey
Looking back at our journey, it’s clear that WordPress served as an invaluable starting point. It allowed us to rapidly prototype and validate our concept, providing a foundation upon which we could build. However, as our ambitions and requirements expanded, so did the need for a more robust and performant solution, which NextJS ultimately provided. Our experience underscores the importance of choosing the right tool for each phase of your project’s growth, balancing speed with scalability, and always keeping the end user’s experience in mind.