Moving off WordPress: what changes for a small Irish business

Moving away from WordPress is a choice about maintenance, editing and ownership. It can make sense when the existing setup is costly to maintain or difficult to change. A well-maintained WordPress site may already meet the business's needs. Start with an inventory, not a promise that a different platform will solve everything.

Compare the actual costs

List hosting, paid extensions, maintenance time and the tasks staff can complete without a developer. Then ask for the same breakdown for the proposed platform. A custom site still needs updates, backups, security work and support. Removing a plugin licence does not remove those responsibilities.

Record the features you rely on: forms, galleries, bookings, reviews, multilingual pages and search metadata. Identify which will be built in, integrated or retired. Confirm access to the source code, database exports and deployment instructions before agreeing the handover.

Export and test before the switch

1. Inventory every public URL and decide whether it stays, redirects to an equivalent page or is deliberately retired.
2. Export content and original media. Check captions, image permissions, review attribution and any plugin-specific data separately.
3. Identify stored enquiries and transfer only the personal data needed under the applicable retention policy.
4. Confirm ownership of the domain, hosting, analytics and Search Console accounts.
5. Test forms, navigation, mobile layouts, metadata and consent behaviour on a restricted preview.

An export is useful only if it can be restored. Check a sample in the destination system, including images and any content embedded through a page builder. Keep the original site and backup available during the agreed rollback period.

Plan the cutover and the return path

A hosting move may involve DNS changes; a rebuild on the same hosting may not. Keep email records separate from website routing. Record the old configuration and allow for cached DNS answers when planning the switch.

Rollback also needs a data plan. New enquiries or orders received after launch must not disappear when switching back. Decide where these are stored and how they will be reconciled. Recheck redirects, certificates, canonical URLs and the production indexing settings after launch. Keep the preview restricted.

Measure the result

Compare representative pages before and after under the same conditions. Record load performance, accessibility issues and whether the owner can complete routine editing tasks. A new stack does not guarantee faster pages, higher rankings or more enquiries.

In the CJM Bathrooms project, the work included a custom theme, moving existing reviews, a DNS cutover and consent-controlled analytics. The case study records those deliverables without inventing commercial gains.

Before commissioning a migration, ask for a written feature inventory, URL map, maintenance arrangement and rollback plan. Those make the scope and the ongoing responsibilities reviewable.