Choosing the right platform for your business website is one of the most consequential technical decisions you will make. WordPress still powers over 40% of the web, but modern frameworks like Next.js are rapidly gaining ground — especially among businesses that prioritize performance, security, and long-term scalability.
Performance That Directly Impacts Revenue
Google's Core Web Vitals are now a confirmed ranking factor, and site speed directly influences conversion rates. A Next.js site built with static generation and incremental static regeneration (ISR) can achieve sub-second load times out of the box. WordPress, even with aggressive caching and premium hosting, typically delivers 2-4 second load times for content-heavy pages. For an e-commerce business, that difference can translate to a 20-30% drop in conversions.
Total Cost of Ownership
WordPress appears cheaper at first glance — a shared hosting plan and a premium theme can get you online for under $200. But the hidden costs add up fast: premium plugin licenses, ongoing security monitoring, performance optimization, and the inevitable redesign when your theme falls behind. A custom Next.js site has a higher upfront investment, but the reduced hosting costs (often free on Vercel or Netlify), minimal security surface area, and built-in scalability make it significantly more economical over a 3-year window.
When to Choose Each Platform
WordPress remains the right choice for content-heavy sites that need non-technical editors to publish daily, especially blogs and news portals. Next.js is the better fit for businesses that need a high-performance marketing site, a custom web application, or an e-commerce storefront where every millisecond of load time impacts the bottom line. At iCubeTech, we build on both platforms and recommend the right tool based on your specific business goals, not a one-size-fits-all answer.