From WordPress to Hygraph

We are the WordPress to Hygraph migration experts

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Last verified: August 3, 2026

The process

How we migrate from WordPress to Hygraph

01
Access and gating audit
First we check the existing WordPress and see whether the data is clean enough to move straight over to Hygraph, and plan around any auth walls or bot protection in the way.
02
Rendering assessment and extraction
Then we work out how WordPress renders its pages and pull the content out, even without CMS access.
03
AI-assisted sanitization
Everything extracted runs through our sanitization pipeline, which flags slop, normalizes structure, and leaves us clean content to work with.
04
Content-model design with the client
Before anything moves, we agree the Hygraph content model with you, shaped around how your editors actually work.
05
Transform and soft-migrate
We transform the content to the agreed schema and run a full dry run, so mappings and edge cases prove out before production.
06
Execute the real migration
Once the dry run is clean, everything moves into Hygraph in one controlled cutover.
07
Redirect mapping and throttled sitemap submission
Every old URL gets mapped to its new home with the right redirect, so rankings and link equity survive the move.
08
Agentic-browser QA
Finally, automated browsers sweep the new site for data issues, design regressions, and missing SEO signals.
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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.

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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.

Requires careful management - Contentful

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.

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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

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 $9/month (Personal, or $4/month billed annually) to $70/month (Commerce, or $45/month billed annually) 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Projects migrated without a hitch

Join the growing list of successful migrations

Slingshot 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.

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Jamb

We rebuilt Jamb on Sanity and Next.js, merging two legacy PHP sites into one calm catalogue without losing the SEO equity their antique and reproduction collections had built up.

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Jamb mantelpiece with gilded mirror, hanging lantern, and antiques

Tray.ai

Migrating hundreds of thousands of pages, re-platforming and extending for the leading composable AI integration platform

View case study

The Tray.ai website homepage after the large-scale re-platforming migration

Mario Testino

From Sanity overages to instantaneous publishing, we brought Mario Testino into the fast lane, and did it in style.

View case study

The Mario Testino photography portfolio site with instant publishing

Get in touch

Tell us what you're building. We reply within one working day. Jono or someone on the team picks up every message personally.

We are the WordPress to Hygraph migration experts

How we migrate from WordPress to Hygraph

Access and gating audit

Rendering assessment and extraction

AI-assisted sanitization

Content-model design with the client

Transform and soft-migrate

Execute the real migration

Redirect mapping and throttled sitemap submission

Agentic-browser QA

Challenges with WordPress

Benefits of Hygraph

Common questions

WordPress to Hygraph migration FAQs

Answers to the most common questions about WordPress to Hygraph migration