Case Study
View Case StudyTray.ai
Migrating hundreds of thousands of pages, re-platforming and extending for the leading composable AI integration platform
From Sitecore to WordPress
We are the Sitecore to WordPress migration experts
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Challenges with Sitecore
Key pain points
Sitecore is one of the most expensive CMS platforms on the market. Licensing starts around $40,000-$65,000/year for basic XM, and a full XP or XC deployment with implementation lands in the $500,000+ range over three years. On top of the licence, you need specialised .NET developers on retainer, and those contracts aren't cheap either.
The complexity catches most teams off guard. Upgrading between Sitecore versions is closer to a rebuild than an update. Content is stored in a tree structure that doesn't map cleanly to other systems, which makes migrations painful and locks you into the platform longer than you'd like. The editor UI still feels like a late-2000s enterprise portal, and anything beyond basic publishing needs developer involvement.
Most mid-sized companies using Sitecore pay for personalisation and marketing automation they never turn on. If that sounds familiar, a headless CMS paired with a modern frontend gives you 80% of the useful capability at a fraction of the cost. We've moved clients off Sitecore and cut annual platform spend by 60-80% without losing functionality that actually mattered.
Benefits of WordPress
Key advantages
We're trying our hardest to think of good reasons to move to WordPress, but outside of "I like PHP errors" or trying to build a website for under £500, I honestly can't think of a good reason. If you're trying to do things on the cheap, we would highly recommend using a template from Framer or Webflow. They're better solutions in almost every way.
But if you're hell-bent on building a WordPress website, we can't stop you. For that reason, we'd highly recommend SiteGround for hosting to keep it cheap and optimize the hell out of it with their performance plugin. Avoid installing tons of plugins if you can; keep it lean and simple.
Plugins for everything
You want a form? A store? A booking system? A horoscope generator for cats? WordPress has a plugin for it. Half the internet runs on “someone already built that.”
Strong community support
If something breaks, someone online has already fixed it, documented it, blogged about it, and made a YouTube tutorial with dramatic background music.
Easy to use
You can be a writer, founder, or intern, you can easily build a website using WordPress. It doesn’t demand a CS degree. Click, type, publish. Done.
Vast theme selection
You might need a corporate website, minimal, or even a neon-purple-cyber-punk ecommerce store; just pick a theme and ship. Some even look good straight out of the box.
Ideal for beginners
One of the easiest ways to get a site live without knowing the difference between HTML and “the thing that makes the text bold.”
Flexible configuration options
Layers of configuration, widgets, design settings, and custom plugins will only let you shape WordPress into something that actually fits your use case.
Common questions
Sitecore to WordPress migration FAQs
Answers to the most common questions about Sitecore to WordPress migration
How much does Sitecore cost?
Sitecore doesn't publish pricing, but based on what we've seen across client projects, expect to pay six figures annually. Licensing alone typically starts around $40,000 to $65,000 per year for a basic XM setup, and jumps well past $100,000 once you add XP or XC modules. Factor in implementation (often $150,000 to $500,000+), hosting, and the specialised developers you'll need on retainer. For mid-sized companies, the total cost of ownership over three years can easily exceed $500,000. We've helped teams migrate off Sitecore and cut their annual platform spend by 60-80%.
How hard is it to migrate away from Sitecore?
It depends on how deep you are. A basic Sitecore XM site with standard content types can be migrated in 8-12 weeks. If you're using Sitecore's personalisation engine, custom pipelines, or XP analytics heavily, the timeline stretches to 3-6 months. The biggest pain points are content extraction (Sitecore stores content in a tree structure that doesn't map cleanly to other systems) and rebuilding any custom .NET components in a modern stack. Our team typically runs the migration in phases, starting with content export and schema mapping before touching the frontend.
Is Sitecore worth it for mid-sized companies?
No, not in most cases. Sitecore was built for large enterprises with dedicated IT teams and six-figure CMS budgets. Mid-sized companies consistently overpay for features they never use. The personalisation engine sits idle, the marketing automation goes untouched, and the team ends up using it as a glorified page editor. A headless CMS paired with a modern frontend framework gives you better performance, lower costs, and faster development cycles. We've moved multiple mid-sized companies off Sitecore onto leaner stacks and the feedback is always the same: they wish they'd done it sooner.
What are the best Sitecore alternatives for enterprise teams?
It depends on what you actually use Sitecore for. If you need structured content with real-time collaboration and flexible APIs, Sanity is our go-to recommendation. If your team is locked into the Adobe ecosystem, AEM is the obvious (expensive) alternative. For teams that want enterprise workflow controls without the Sitecore price tag, Contentful or Hygraph are worth evaluating. The key question is whether you genuinely need a monolithic DXP or whether a composable stack of best-in-class tools would serve you better. In our experience, composable wins almost every time.
What are the best WordPress alternatives?
It depends on what you're building. For marketing sites, Webflow or Framer will get you further with less pain. For content-heavy projects that need a headless CMS, Sanity is our go-to recommendation. It gives developers full control over the frontend while editors get a clean, modern interface. If you're a developer looking for alternatives specifically, Next.js paired with Sanity or even a static site generator will outperform WordPress on speed, security, and developer experience.
How much does WordPress cost per month?
WordPress.org itself is free, but hosting, themes, premium plugins, and maintenance add up quickly. A basic setup on SiteGround runs about $3-15/month for hosting. Add a premium theme ($50-200 one-time), a few paid plugins ($100-500/year), and a security solution. Realistically, you're looking at $30-100/month for a properly maintained small business site. WordPress.com's managed plans run $4/month (Personal) to $45/month (Commerce) on annual billing, and plugin installs only unlock on the Business plan and above at $25/month. WordPress.com Enterprise starts at $25,000/year.
How do I migrate from WordPress to a headless CMS?
We start by exporting your WordPress content using WP's REST API or a database export, then restructure it for the target CMS. Posts, pages, categories, tags, media, and custom fields all get mapped to the new schema. The frontend gets rebuilt in a modern framework like Next.js. The whole process usually takes 3-6 weeks depending on how many custom post types and plugins you have. We've done this migration enough times to have solid tooling for it.
What are the best WordPress alternatives for developers?
If you're a developer tired of PHP and plugin conflicts, look at headless CMS options paired with a frontend framework. Sanity with Next.js is our top pick. You get TypeScript, version control for your content schema, and a frontend you actually enjoy working with. Strapi is another option if you want self-hosted and open-source. For simple sites, Astro with markdown content is surprisingly powerful and deploys anywhere.
Is it worth migrating away from WordPress?
For most teams we work with, yes. The maintenance burden alone costs more than people realize. Between plugin updates, security patches, performance tuning, and the occasional site-breaking PHP error, WordPress demands constant attention. Modern alternatives give you better performance, stronger security by default, and a developer experience that doesn't feel like 2010. The migration itself is an investment, but the reduced ongoing costs and improved site speed usually pay for it within 6-12 months.
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