React and Next.js: when and why
React website development, chosen by fit
React website development for platforms, portals and fast front ends. We build with React and Next.js when a project needs real-time features, heavy logic or a front end WordPress cannot give, and we keep WordPress where your team edits content. One project can use both.
Three ways we use React
Each chosen for a reason
WordPress for your team,
Next.js for visitors
14posts OptiGrid's team published itself after we added WordPress to its Next.js site
Your marketing team writes and edits in WordPress, and visitors get a fast Next.js site. SEO stays in WordPress with Yoast, and the site rebuilds when content changes.
Platforms with
real logic
100+franchise offices on one Next.js platform for Casago
Bookings, portals and dashboards where the business logic is the product. Next.js on the front, NestJS or Node.js behind it, connected to the systems you already use.
React where
WordPress stops
210users in The Submitters' real-time chat, on Firebase's free plan
Some features WordPress should not do by itself, like a real-time chat where every message must arrive the moment it is sent. We build those parts in React, on Firebase or Node.js, inside your WordPress site.
Software we built with React
Physio Anatomy App
Elearning app development for physiotherapy students and their professor, built inside SaberWP's team: a React and Firebase app where the professor builds lessons from materials, used by 30+ people instead of offline course materials.
Strawberry Tours
A tour booking platform with a portal where guides run their tours and their business, while travellers book free walking tours in cities around the world.
Lead Service
A network of 10 lead generation websites in Norway and Sweden: Next.js sites on headless WordPress and the admin system that routes every lead to paying partners, maintained and grown from 2023 to 2026.Tested on the phones your customers use
A lesson from a live project
A large Next.js project we launched worked exactly as planned, for everyone except the business owner. On one of his phones the menu would not open. After a few hours of digging we found the cause: the build was not set up for an older version of mobile Safari, so the site failed silently for him and for every visitor on that version.
Moving away from WordPress does not remove the moving parts. It moves them into the build setup, where they are harder to see and nothing warns you when one breaks. Since then, every React and Next.js site we ship is set up and tested for the browsers your real visitors use, not only the latest ones.
Our React team
Who builds it
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Andrian
Tech Lead, AI Engineer
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Roman
Full Stack Developer
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Oleg
Full Stack Developer, Web Designer
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Slavik
Full Stack Developer
React website development
Questions, answered from our projects
React or WordPress: which should we choose?
It depends on what the site has to do and who edits it. WordPress is the faster and cheaper choice for content and marketing sites your team updates every week. React and Next.js pay off for platforms, portals and real-time features. Often the best answer is both: WordPress for content, Next.js for the front end, as on Strawberry Tours.
What is headless WordPress?
WordPress keeps the content and the editing screens your team knows, and a separate front end, usually Next.js, shows it to visitors. Your team edits as before, and the site rebuilds its pages when content changes.
Is a Next.js site good for SEO?
Yes, when it is set up for it. Next.js renders pages on the server, so search engines read them like any other site. With headless WordPress we connect Yoast SEO, so titles, descriptions and structured data are edited in WordPress and served by the Next.js site.
Can our team edit a React website without a developer?
Yes, if it is built for that. Most companies that come to us already have a React or Next.js site their marketing team cannot touch. We connect it to WordPress, so the team publishes articles and edits pages on its own. OptiGrid's team has published 14 posts that way since we connected WordPress to its Next.js site.
How much does React website development cost?
It depends on the logic, not on the number of pages. A Next.js front end on top of WordPress is a contained job; a platform with bookings, payments and portals is a larger one. We estimate after we have seen what the site has to do and which systems it connects to.
Can you take over an existing React or Next.js project?
Yes. We start by reading the code and the build setup, find the parts that break, then maintain and develop it further or rebuild the parts that hold you back.
Why not build everything in WordPress?
Because some features fight how WordPress works. A real-time chat, for example, would make every open browser ask the database again and again for new messages, and the server load grows without limit. We build those parts in React with Firebase or Node.js, and keep WordPress for what it does well.
Let's make something meaningful
Tell us what you are building. A real engineer replies within one working day — usually with questions, sometimes with a first estimate.
Talk to us
Tell us what you are building. A real engineer replies within one working day — usually with questions, sometimes with a first estimate.