WordPress To React: 5 Reasons to Convert
October 30, 2024•5 min read
WordPress is a truly legendary CMS (Content Management System) that has been the foundation for great websites like Time, the PlayStation Blog, TechCrunch, and The New York Times.
Its user-friendly interface and flexibility allow businesses to build e-commerce shops and even large web applications. Additionally, many startups use it to quickly launch MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) and test new ideas.
However, as your business grows, generates revenue, and achieves product-market fit, the limitations of WordPress can start to surface. You may need a more scalable solution that can handle the increasing complexity of your product.
This is where React comes in. This JavaScript library was designed to manage and scale complex systems, while WordPress is a big "box" that restricts your freedom in development.
In this article, I want to show why migrating from WordPress to React can be a crucial decision for your business and what challenges you may face if you stick with WordPress as your project grows.
Let's explore the main reasons to convert a WordPress site to React.
Limitations of WordPress
The first reason to migrate to React is WordPress limitations in flexibility and customization. Developers may need to rely on a variety of plugins created by different third parties, which can cause compatibility issues, increase technical debt, and make the codebase harder to maintain.
Additionally, WordPress's templating system limits how deeply you can customize the frontend without overriding core files or using inefficient workarounds. It makes even simple user interface changes harder to adapt and meet evolving business needs.
In contrast, React's component-based architecture gives developers complete control over the user interface, enabling them to create highly customized and responsive designs with fewer limitations.
The ability to reuse components across the application in React drastically reduces development time, ensuring scalability and consistency — something WordPress struggles with as the system becomes more complex.
Scalability
Imagine an e-commerce platform that starts as a small online shop using WordPress. As the number of products, users, and transactions grows, the platform needs more advanced features like real-time updates, dynamic user interfaces, and personalized shopping experiences.
Implementing these features in WordPress is like driving with just the wheels, without the car. While you might be able to move forward with wheels in your hands, the process is inefficient, time-wasting, and far from optimal. Each new plugin adds complexity, slowing down performance, creating compatibility issues, and leading to a system that's difficult to maintain.
React is a completely different story. It's a modern car designed to deliver smooth, powerful performance. With React, developers can quickly implement highly interactive features and build dynamic, scalable systems that handle complex data processing while maintaining high performance.
React allows your platform to grow without sacrificing speed or user experience, ensuring your product evolves as your business scales.
Lack of Support for Larger Development Teams
As your project grows and your team expands, it becomes crucial to separate development into frontend and backend departments, as it is difficult to achieve with WordPress due to its tightly coupled structure.
Frontend developers can focus on building user interfaces and experiences, while backend developers can concentrate on server logic and data management. This is exactly what makes WordPress to React conversion so effective.
React decouples the frontend from the backend, allowing two teams to work independently. The frontend communicates with the backend through APIs, meaning developers can work on each part of the system without being tied to the underlying content management system.
React's structure promotes a clean division of responsibilities, which is especially beneficial when teams are growing and need to work in parallel without causing conflicts or slowdowns.
Access to Big Pool of Talents
React holds a leading position among the most-used technologies by software developers. According to a Statista study, 39.5% of experts use React, while WordPress is used by only 11.8%, nearly three times less.
It says that developers prefer to work with a powerful tool that helps them to efficiently complete tasks without pauses because of the technical limitations of WordPress.
React developers pool includes many talents who shine with React and can help you migrate to this system quickly and seamlessly. One of the leaders in this field is The Frontend Company. We have already assisted clients in convert WordPress website to React, and here is our case:
Our team successfully reconstructed the existing WordPress views by transforming them into a standalone React application. This process involved utilizing Firebase as the backend infrastructure to streamline and expedite the development process. By doing so, we enhanced the application's performance, improved scalability, and facilitated easier maintenance and updates.
With the new solution, Social Curator grew its customer base and scaled its sales, helping more than 21,000 small business owners to date.
Contact us, and we will help you convert your project from WordPress to ReactJS while providing a solid development team tailored to your business needs.
Growing Technical Debt
Imagine a company using WordPress to build an online marketplace. As they grow, they must add personalized user dashboards, real-time notifications, and complex product filters. To implement these features with WordPress, the team might use multiple third-party plugins that don't natively integrate with each other.
Over time, updates to one plugin may break the functionality of another, requiring continuous patches and bug fixes. The development team spends more time maintaining the system than delivering new features and staying on track.
React is the perfect solution to stop this growing technical debt, ensuring your project remains scalable and profitable. Its component-based architecture allows developers to build each application part with a clear separation of concern and add new features directly into the codebase without relying on external, mismatched solutions.
By changing WordPress to ReactJS, you not only minimize technical debt but also future-proof your project for growth, ensuring that your development team can focus on innovation rather than maintenance.
Conclusion
If your website is operating on WordPress but you expect growth and the need for more advanced features, think about converting WordPress to React. This JavaScript library is an excellent choice for small or medium-sized businesses that provides flexibility and scalability without limitations. With its continuous development and a vast pool of talented developers across industries, React ensures that your platform stays future-proof and in demand.
By migrating at the right time, you will over perform most of your competition and position your product to evolve with the latest industry trends.
However, the migration process isn't simple and requires a reliable partner — like The Frontend Company. We have successfully completed numerous WordPress to React conversions and provided efficient solutions for each client's unique needs.
Contact us today, and our manager will address all your questions and offer the guidance you need to make this critical transition smooth.
FAQ
How long does it take to convert from WordPress to React?
The time to convert WordPress to React depends on the complexity and size of your project. Smaller sites with basic functionality may take a few weeks, while more complex platforms can take several months. The key to a successful migration is careful planning and execution, ensuring the new React-based system is optimized for performance, scalability, and future updates.
What is the main advantage of React over WordPress?
The main advantage of React over WordPress is that React doesn't play by the same rules. While WordPress is great for managing content, it can feel like wearing a suit that's a size too small when you want to build something truly custom. You're stuck with plugins, workarounds, and limitations. React is like upgrading from a scooter to a sports car — speed, control, and limitless possibilities.
What are some well-known projects that use React?
The list is impressive. Facebook and Instagram rely on React for their dynamic user interfaces. Airbnb and Uber use it to power seamless booking and ride experiences. Netflix leverages React to deliver smooth, fast content browsing, while WhatsApp Web and Dropbox use it for their web-based platforms.
Alex Vasylenko is the founder of The Frontend Company, DBC and several other successful startups. A dynamic tech entrepreneur, he began his career as a frontend developer at Deloitte and Scandinavia's largest banking company. In 2023, Alex was honored as one of 'Top 10 Emerging Entrepreneurs' by USA Today.
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