The technical choice is rarely yours to make, but its consequences are yours to live with: website speed, maintenance bills, security, and the ability to change a page without calling someone. Here are the differences that really matter.
Speed: the most visible gap
A Next.js website serves pre-generated pages, with no database to query on each visit. A WordPress website builds the page on demand, then compensates with caching plugins. On a phone on average 4G, the usual situation in Morocco, the gap shows: a few hundred milliseconds against two to four seconds for a WordPress site loaded with plugins.
A well-optimized WordPress site, properly hosted and trimmed down, gets good scores. The problem isn't WordPress but what gets added to it: every plugin installed slows every page.
Security and upkeep
WordPress runs a large share of the web, which makes it the most attacked target. Break-ins almost always come through an outdated plugin, not the core software. A WordPress website therefore needs real upkeep: updates, backups, monitoring.
A Next.js website published as static pages has no exposed database and no public admin panel: the attack surface is almost nil, and there are no plugins to update every month.
Editing independence: WordPress's advantage
This is where WordPress keeps a clear lead. You add a page, change a photo, move a block, publish an article, without anyone. For a business that publishes several times a week, that's decisive.
A Next.js website can offer the same by connecting a content management system, but it's a component to plan from the start, with its cost. Without it, every change goes through a developer, acceptable for a ten-page website that rarely changes, painful for a news site.
Cost, at build time and over three years
| WordPress | Next.js | |
|---|---|---|
| Build (business website) | Often cheaper | Similar or higher |
| Yearly hosting | MAD 600 – 3,000 | MAD 0 – 1,200 |
| Monthly upkeep | Required | Minimal |
| Content changes | You, at no cost | Developer, or a CMS to plan |
| Redesign after 3 years | Common (theme ages) | Rare (code is yours) |
Over three years the gap narrows: what you save at build time with WordPress, you pay back in hosting, maintenance and paid plugins.
Which one, depending on your situation
- Blog, magazine, news website updated every day: WordPress.
- Company business website, service website, ad landing page: Next.js, for speed and peace of mind.
- Standard online store run in-house: WooCommerce or Shopify, rather than a custom build.
- Business platform, client area, web application: Next.js, because WordPress isn't made for that.
- Very tight budget and a need to publish yourself: WordPress, keeping plugins to a minimum.
What we use, and why
Wevtex builds with Next.js because most of our clients want a website that loads fast on mobile, runs without monthly upkeep and belongs entirely to them, code included. This website is an example: every page is pre-generated and served as is, in French and in English.
When a client needs to publish every day, we say so and connect a content management system, or we recommend WordPress. The right tool is the one that fits the real use, not the one the provider prefers.