Editor-first content model
Content teams keep the WordPress admin they already know while the frontend gains full Next.js control over rendering, routing, and performance.
Headless Stack
WP Engine Headless + Next.js
WordPress is the world's most-used CMS for a reason: editorial workflows, plugin ecosystem, and familiarity. Pairing it with a Next.js frontend gives you both: content teams stay productive in an interface they know, while the site gets the performance, flexibility, and developer experience of a modern React app.
App Router + WPGraphQL
Server Components fetch content directly from WPGraphQL at build or request time, with no client bundle bloat and no content waterfalls.
WP Engine Atlas hosting
Deploying to Atlas co-locates the WordPress backend and Node.js frontend on WP Engine infrastructure, tightening preview, caching, and deployment workflows.
Incremental Static Regeneration
Pages revalidate automatically on publish via WP Engine webhooks, keeping content fresh without full rebuilds.
Custom post types as API primitives
CPTs and ACF field groups become typed GraphQL fragments consumed cleanly by Next.js page and layout components.
Preview mode and draft content
Authenticated preview routes surface unpublished WordPress drafts inside the live Next.js app: safe, linkable, and easy to share with stakeholders.
What an engagement includes
- Next.js App Router project scaffolded against your WP Engine Headless environment
- WPGraphQL schema introspection and typed query layer
- Custom post type and ACF data modeling aligned to frontend component needs
- ISR-backed page generation with on-demand revalidation hooks
- Draft preview routes for stakeholder review
- Deployment pipeline to WP Engine Atlas or Vercel
- SEO foundations: metadata, Open Graph, JSON-LD, and sitemap
- Handoff documentation and editor guide
Why WP Engine Atlas?
Atlas is WP Engine's purpose-built platform for headless WordPress. It runs the WordPress backend and the Node.js frontend on co-located infrastructure, which simplifies environment management, preview deployments, and performance tuning. Combined with WP Engine's managed WordPress hosting reputation, it's a strong production choice for teams that want headless without the operational overhead of wiring two separate platforms together.
I have hands-on experience architecting, building, and shipping on this stack, from initial scaffolding through launch, and I am looking for contract or full-time opportunities where that experience helps a product or marketing team move faster.