Migration / WordPress → Payload
Replace WordPress with a CMS you actually own.
We migrate WordPress to Payload, a TypeScript-native, self-hosted headless CMS, with a fast static front end. You keep full control of your content and data, and lose the plugin-and-patch treadmill.
Request a migration fit check- Data ownership
- 100%
- Plugins
- 0
- Per-seat fees
- £0
- Downtime
- 0
Why move
The case for leaving WordPress
WordPress and Payload solve the same problem from opposite directions. WordPress gives you a huge plugin ecosystem and a database-driven runtime you patch forever. Payload gives you a content model expressed as typed code, self-hosted on your own database, with no plugins to maintain.
For a B2B team that treats its website as infrastructure, Payload's model is the stronger one: the schema lives in git, access control is code you can test, and there is no per-seat or per-record billing to fight as you grow. Your content and data stay entirely under your control.
Paired with a static Astro or Next front end, the migrated site is fast, secure, and cheap to run, while your editors get a clean, modern admin. It is WordPress's flexibility without WordPress's maintenance liability.
The migration preserves your URLs and rankings the same way any careful move does; the difference from a WordPress-to-Astro migration is that you also gain a content backend you fully own.
What teams worry about
Every fear about migrating: answered
"We'll lose our rankings"
URLs are preserved or 301-mapped, metadata and structure carried across. Search sees the same site, faster.
"Self-hosting sounds risky"
We design the hosting topology and ship a runbook, so self-hosting Payload is boring and reliable, not a liability.
"Our content model is messy"
We rationalise it into clean typed collections during the move, so you come out with better structure than you went in with.
"What about upgrades?"
Payload upgrades follow a documented, migration-backed process: no surprise breakage, no emergency rewrites.
The process
Zero-downtime, nothing dropped
Audit & model
We inventory WordPress content and URLs, then design typed Payload collections that fit how you actually publish.
Build & wire
Payload is built with tested access control, and a static front end consumes its API.
Migrate & redirect
Content is scripted across and verified; every changed URL gets a 301.
Cutover & hand over
DNS switches with the old site on standby, and your team gets the admin plus a hosting and upgrade runbook.
FAQ
WordPress → Payload, questions we get asked
Why move from WordPress to Payload instead of another CMS? +
Payload suits teams that want to own their content infrastructure outright: it's self-hosted, TypeScript-native, and has no per-seat or per-record billing, with the schema versioned in git. If control, data ownership, and predictable cost matter more than a hosted convenience, Payload is the strongest fit, and a clean escape from the WordPress plugin treadmill.
Is self-hosting Payload harder than managed WordPress? +
It's different, not harder, when set up properly. We design the hosting topology, automate deploys and migrations, and hand over a runbook, so day-to-day operation is minimal. You trade a managed-WordPress host's monthly fee and plugin patching for infrastructure you control and rarely have to touch.
Will the migration preserve our SEO? +
Yes. As with any careful migration, we preserve or 301-redirect every URL, carry over metadata and structured data, and match content hierarchy, so rankings hold. The move to a fast static front end typically improves Core Web Vitals, which helps.
Can we import our existing WordPress content automatically? +
Largely, yes. We script the bulk of the content import from WordPress into Payload's collections and verify it page by page, handling edge cases manually. Media, posts, pages, and structured fields all migrate; the result is cleaner than a raw dump because we model it deliberately.
Start here
Thinking about moving off WordPress?
Send us your current site. We'll tell you honestly whether a migration is worth it and what it would take.
Zero-downtime migration · Fixed scope
Related