WORDPRESS MIGRATION
Escape the WordPress Tax
You're spending $135–275/month keeping WordPress alive. What if that money bought you a faster, more secure site that actually does things for you?
Why WordPress Costs More Than You Think
The Six Problems Nobody Warns You About
01
The Update Treadmill
WordPress core, themes, and plugins all require regular updates. Skip them and you're vulnerable. Do them and you risk breaking your site. Our sites have no CMS, no plugins, no updates. The code is the code.
02
Plugin Dependency Hell
Need a contact form? Plugin. SEO? Plugin. Speed? Plugin. Security? Plugin. Each one adds bloat, conflicts, and maintenance burden. We build functionality directly — one MailerLite function replaces 3 plugins.
03
Performance That Degrades
Page builders like Elementor generate massive CSS/JS. A fresh WordPress loads fine. Six months later, you're at 3–5 second load times. Our sites start fast and stay fast — under 1 second, always.
04
Security Is Your Problem
WordPress is the #1 target (~40% market share). Brute force logins, SQL injection, plugin exploits. Our sites have no login page, no database, no server-side code. Nothing to hack.
05
The Hidden Cost Stack
WordPress is "free" but running it well costs $135–275/month. Hosting, security plugins, backups, developer maintenance. Our retainer replaces all of that at $49–79/month.
06
"I Can't Even Edit My Own Site"
The WordPress admin panel terrifies non-technical owners. They pay $50–100 for every small change. With us, either we handle it (retainer) or you describe changes in plain English to AI tools.
The Real Numbers
Full Cost Comparison
Line by line, here's what WordPress actually costs versus what you'd pay with us.
| Expense | WordPress (Monthly) | OnWave (Monthly) |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | $20–50 | $0 (Netlify free) |
| SSL Certificate | $0–10 | $0 (included) |
| Security Plugin | $10–15 | $0 (not needed) |
| Backup Solution | $5–10 | $0 (GitHub) |
| Premium Theme/Builder | $5–15 | $0 (hand-coded) |
| Developer Maintenance | $100–200 | — |
| OnWave Retainer | — | $49–79 |
| TOTAL | $140–300 | $49–79 |
After Migration
Choose Your Path
Once your site is migrated, pick the model that fits how you want to operate.
Done-For-You Retainer
We handle everything. You email us changes, we make them. Analytics reports delivered. Integrations monitored. You never open a code editor or dashboard.
Best for: Owners who want zero involvement with their site
View Retainer PlansAI-Assisted Self-Service
We build your site, then set you up with AI tools to make edits in plain English. No coding required. Book hourly when you need the hard stuff.
Best for: Owners who want control without complexity
Learn MoreReal Projects, Real Numbers
What We've Actually Built
These are live client sites. Here's what WordPress would have required versus what we delivered.
Common Objections
But What About...
If you publish weekly or more, headless CMS options exist without the WordPress baggage — no plugins, no security patches, no update treadmill. Or use AI tools to publish blog posts via plain English. You describe what you want, it generates the HTML and pushes it live.
You own 100% of the code. It's HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in a GitHub repo that you control. Any developer on earth can pick it up, read it, and work on it. No proprietary themes. No locked-in plugins. No vendor dependency.
WordPress has more plugins. Each one is code you don't control, written by someone you don't know, updated on a schedule you can't predict. We build exactly what you need — nothing more, nothing less. Every feature is intentional, tested, and maintained by us.
What are you paying them? If it's $100–200/month just for updates, backups, and security patches, that's the WordPress tax. Our retainer starts at $49/month and covers all of that plus content edits, analytics reports, and integration monitoring.
Sunk cost. The question isn't what you've already spent — it's what you'll spend over the next 3 years. Migration costs $2–4K once, then $49–79/month. WordPress costs $140–300/month every month, forever. You break even in under a year.