Case Study · SaaS

Project Forge — Headless WP rebuild, Lighthouse 99

Project Forge case study — SaaS / Marketplace. Theme marketplace replaced bloated Elementor stack with headless WordPress + Next.js frontend.

Project Overview

The brief.

SaaS
Industry
WordPress Development
Services
6 months
Engagement
5 specialists
Team size
The Challenge

Why they came to us.

Their own product was a WP theme marketplace, but their site was the slowest WordPress install in the category. The optics were bad and the rankings were worse.

  • !
    Lighthouse 38 mobile - LCP 4.1s, INP 480ms, CLS 0.18.
  • !
    40-plugin Elementor stack - editorial team avoided publishing because it was painful.
  • !
    Schema gaps - product schema broken, no FAQ markup, missed rich results.
  • !
    JS bundle 2.4MB - parse-blocking scripts everywhere, no code splitting.
Before engagement
38
Lighthouse mobile
4.1s
LCP
40
Plugins active
2.4MB
JS bundle
The Strategy

Our approach.

Headless WordPress as CMS, Next.js for frontend. Custom block library so editors keep editing in WP. Performance budgets enforced in CI.

  • +
    Headless architecture - WordPress as CMS, Next.js + Vercel for frontend rendering.
  • +
    28 custom blocks - editorial team kept full WP editing experience.
  • +
    Performance budget - LCP under 1s, INP under 200ms, JS budget 80kb gzipped.
  • +
    Schema rebuilt - Product, FAQ, Organization deployed and validated.
Strategic pillars

Headless WP

WordPress as CMS, Next.js for frontend, Vercel deployment.

Block library

28 custom blocks, editorial UX preserved, no developer dependency.

Performance budget

LCP under 1s, INP under 200ms, 80kb JS budget enforced in CI.

Results

Measurable outcomes.

★★★★★

Their block library let our team publish 3 times faster. Devs love the code, marketers love the editor - best WP build we have ever owned.

AR
Anjali Rao
Product - CourseDeck

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