Headless WordPress or WordPress on Workers?
Headless changes the front end and keeps the server; HostlessWP keeps the front end and removes the server. In a headless setup WordPress becomes a content API and a new front end is built in another framework, so your theme stops mattering and WordPress still runs on a server behind it. HostlessWP runs the whole WordPress, theme included, on Cloudflare Workers.
Side by side
| Headless WordPress | HostlessWP | |
|---|---|---|
| Your theme | Replaced by a new front end | Unchanged |
| Plugins with front-end features | Rebuilt by hand (forms, shop pages, SEO tags) | Work as before |
| What you maintain | Two applications: WordPress and the front end | One WordPress |
| Server for WordPress | Yes | No |
| Front-end freedom | Any framework, any design | What WordPress themes and builders can do |
| Effort to switch | A new project | One command |
When headless is right
Headless is a front-end decision. It makes sense when the design or the app you want cannot be built as a WordPress theme, when the same content feeds a website, a mobile app and other channels, or when your team already works in a JavaScript framework. It is not a hosting decision: WordPress still needs somewhere to run, and you take on a second codebase.
If the reason you were looking at headless is to get rid of the server, the slow host or the security worries, and the current theme is fine, you do not need a rewrite for that. That is the case HostlessWP is for.
Headless with no server behind it
The two can be combined. The WordPress REST API works on Workers in our tests, so a headless front end could read from a WordPress that HostlessWP runs, and neither side would need a server. We have not tested GraphQL plugins such as WPGraphQL yet; if you try it, tell us what you find.
Note that the REST API is never served from the page cache, so every API call runs PHP and counts against the Workers and Hyperdrive limits. See what the free tiers cover.
Keep the theme you have
Try HostlessWP on a copy of your site. Nothing changes on your current host.