Case study
View case studySlingshot Bio
Roboto converged Slingshot Bio's WordPress and Shopify sites into one headless Shopify build on Next.js and Sanity, instrumented end to end and AI-ready.
From WordPress to Hygraph
We are the WordPress to Hygraph migration experts
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Challenges with WordPress
Key pain points
Talking trash about WordPress is therapy at this point. We've had to build it for years, and it's consistently awful. I guarantee that if you have used it for long enough, you've experienced a site-breaking PHP error or been locked out of your admin panel due to a faulty plugin. We know the world of horrors, and we regret adding to that share of the web. Yes, it really does power over 40% of all sites, roughly 41.5% at the last count.
Potential security vulnerabilities
When you power half the internet, the hackers notice. WordPress stays safe, but only if someone is constantly updating, patching, and watching it like a hawk, which, trust us, you don't want to.
Heavy reliance on plugins
If you want any new feature, install a new plugin. Before you know it, your site is held together by 27 plugins and a prayer that none of those plugins are removed from the market.
Compatibility issues
Themes, plugins, and core updates sometimes play nicely together, leading to surprise breakages and debugging sessions you didn’t plan for.
Maintenance takes time
WordPress doesn’t run itself. You have to run backups, security patches, plugin conflicts, and random errors. Someone has to tuck it in at night.
Performance needs tuning
WordPress sites need caching, CDN, and database optimization to stay fast, especially if you plan to scale.
Customization has limits
You think you can do a lot with themes and plugins, but when it comes to custom experiences, it means custom dev work (or going headless entirely).
Benefits of Hygraph
Key advantages
Hygraph's GraphQL-first setup isn't a gimmick. Queries are precise, you only fetch what you need, and the schema is generated from your content model automatically. Content teams get a clean UI, and developers get proper typing out of the box.
The standout feature is Content Federation: you can pull external REST or GraphQL APIs into Hygraph and query them alongside your content through a single endpoint. That replaces a lot of duct-taped backend glue. Workflows, localization, roles, and staging all come built in.
If you're weighing it up (or trying to untangle an existing setup), talk to us, we've shipped several Hygraph builds and know where the edges are.
GraphQL-first API architecture
Hygraph gives developers precise and predictable queries without over-fetching or duct-taping endpoints. If you're comfortable with GraphQL, go ahead with it.
Multi-region content delivery
Your content gets served from the closest region, so pages load fast everywhere without you having to think about infrastructure.
Fast geo-distributed responses
Because their CDN actually does its job, API calls resolve quickly across regions which is perfect for apps that can’t afford to wait on slow round-trips.
External API integration support
Hygraph’s content federation lets you pull in data from other APIs and treat everything like one unified system without any custom backend glue or microservice jungle.
Generous free tier offering
You can build real projects without paying a penny. It’s surprisingly capable for prototyping, small sites, or testing before you commit budget.
Automated webhook capabilities
All the updates trigger instantly with clean webhooks, which is great for syncing builds, triggering workflows, or piping data into other systems without manual overhead.
Common questions
WordPress to Hygraph migration FAQs
Answers to the most common questions about WordPress to Hygraph migration
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. Managed hosting like SiteGround looks cheap at intro pricing, around $3-8/month, then renews closer to $18-45/month. 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. Since September 2025, plugin installs work on every paid plan from Personal up, not just Business as they used to. 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.
Is Hygraph easy for non-technical editors to use?
It's decent but not great. Hygraph's editor UI is clean and approachable for basic content updates, but the moment your content model gets complex (nested components, multiple locales, lots of reference fields), editors start feeling overwhelmed. The interface slows down with large datasets, and the GraphQL-native approach means the editorial experience is shaped by developer decisions more than in other headless CMS platforms. We've set up Hygraph for teams where editors managed well after proper onboarding, but it requires more hand-holding than something like Sanity's Studio, which was designed with editorial experience as a first-class priority.
How does Hygraph compare to other headless CMS options?
Hygraph's standout feature is Content Federation, which lets you pull data from external APIs into a unified GraphQL layer. That's genuinely useful if you're aggregating content from multiple sources. Compared to Contentful, Hygraph is cheaper at the lower tiers and more developer-friendly if your team already knows GraphQL. Compared to Sanity, Hygraph offers less flexibility in content modelling and lacks real-time collaboration in the editor. The free tier is generous for small projects. For larger builds, we usually recommend Sanity because the customisation ceiling is much higher and you're not locked into GraphQL as your only query language.
What does Hygraph cost as you scale?
Hygraph's Hobby plan is free with 3 seats, 1,000 content entries, 500K API operations, and 2 locales. The Growth plan is $199/month with 10 seats, 10,000 entries, 1M API operations, and 3 locales. Once you pass those limits, Growth charges automatic overages per block of API operations and per GB of asset traffic, so check the current rate on the pricing page before you sign. Enterprise is custom pricing and goes up to 200 seats, 1M+ entries, 50M+ API operations, and up to 80 locales, with SSO and custom roles on top. The catch is the same as it has always been. High-traffic sites burn through included operations fast, and Content Federation queries count against the limit too. Model your expected API usage before committing.
What are Hygraph's main limitations?
Three things come up on real projects. GraphQL is mandatory. There's no REST endpoint, so a REST-heavy stack means writing adapters or a BFF layer, and a team that hasn't used GraphQL faces a real ramp-up. The editor UI slows down as content grows. Big collections, dozens of fields, and double-digit locale counts make the dashboard sluggish for editors. And the paywall sits in awkward places. SSO, custom roles, and higher locale limits only arrive on Enterprise, so a mid-size team that wants proper access control jumps straight from $199/month to a sales call. None of these are dealbreakers if GraphQL is already your default and your content model stays disciplined, but they catch teams who picked Hygraph for the free tier and grew into the constraints.
Can I migrate from Hygraph to Sanity?
Yes, and we do it regularly. Content extraction is the easy part since everything comes out through GraphQL queries. The bigger jobs are two. First, schema translation. Hygraph's content model maps to GraphQL types, and you rewrite those as Sanity schema definitions, then translate every GraphQL query into GROQ on the frontend. The mapping is mechanical once you've done it a few times, but it touches every page that fetches data. Second, rebuilding any Content Federation layer, because that logic lives inside Hygraph and doesn't export. If you've wired three or four external APIs through federation, you replicate those integrations in your application layer. We typically budget 4 to 8 weeks for a Hygraph to Sanity migration depending on content volume and how much federation you're untangling.
Get in touch
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