The Problem
Every WordPress website costs $80-150+/month in hosting, plugins, security, and maintenance. At scale (50-300 sites), this is $48,000-540,000/year in recurring costs — most of which goes to keeping the WordPress engine running, not the website itself.
The Solution
Migrate static marketing websites to Cloudflare Pages. Hosting drops to $5/month total (Workers Paid covers the entire account, not per site). Performance improves. Security surface shrinks to near-zero. AI tools can manage content changes directly.
The Trade-off
You lose the WordPress visual editor (Divi, Elementor). You gain speed, security, cost savings, and AI-native workflows. Content editing is handled through 4 alternative workflows ranging from browser-based to AI-assisted.
Bottom Line
For brochure/marketing sites that don’t need e-commerce, user accounts, or complex dynamic features — Cloudflare Pages eliminates recurring hosting costs entirely while delivering better performance and security.
A typical medical practice, med spa, or small business WordPress site:
| Cost Category | Monthly | Annual | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Managed WordPress hosting | $25-60 | $300-720 | SiteGround, WP Engine, Flywheel, etc. |
| Domain registration | $1-2 | $12-20 | Annual renewal |
| SSL certificate | $0-8 | $0-100 | Some hosts include free, some don’t |
| Premium theme license | $7-15 | $89-180 | Divi, Avada, etc. |
| Premium plugins: | |||
| - SEO (Yoast/RankMath Pro) | $8-16 | $99-199 | |
| - Security (Wordfence/Sucuri) | $8-17 | $99-199 | |
| - Backup (UpdraftPlus Pro) | $6-8 | $70-95 | Included with WP Engine |
| - Forms (Gravity Forms) | $5-10 | $59-119 | |
| - Performance (WP Rocket) | $4-8 | $49-99 | |
| - Other premium plugins (2-5) | $10-30 | $120-360 | |
| CDN (if separate) | $0-20 | $0-240 | Already using Cloudflare O2O |
| Subtotal: Tools & Hosting | $74-194 | $897-2,331 | |
| Maintenance labor: | |||
| - WordPress core updates | $10-25 | $120-300 | Monthly updates |
| - Plugin updates (10-20 plugins) | $15-30 | $180-360 | Testing after updates |
| - Security monitoring | $10-20 | $120-240 | Scan reviews, incident response |
| - Backup verification | $0-5 | $0-60 | Automated with WP Engine |
| - Performance monitoring | $5-15 | $60-180 | Page speed checks, caching |
| - PHP/server maintenance | $5-15 | $60-180 | Version updates, server config |
| Subtotal: Labor | $50-115 | $600-1,380 | At $25-50/hr developer rate |
| TOTAL PER SITE | $124-309 | $1,497-3,711 |
| Portfolio Size | Monthly Cost (Low) | Monthly Cost (High) | Annual Cost (Low) | Annual Cost (High) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 sites | $1,240 | $3,090 | $14,970 | $37,110 |
| 50 sites | $6,200 | $15,450 | $74,850 | $185,550 |
| 100 sites | $12,400 | $30,900 | $149,700 | $371,100 |
| 300 sites | $37,200 | $92,700 | $449,100 | $1,113,300 |
| Cost Category | Monthly | Annual | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare Pages hosting | $0 | $0 | Free: unlimited sites, unlimited bandwidth |
| Workers Paid plan | $5/account | $60/account | Recommended. 5,000 builds/mo, 10M req/day, 100K files/deploy. Covers ALL sites. |
| SSL certificate | $0 | $0 | Automatic, included |
| CDN | $0 | $0 | Included, 300+ locations |
| DDoS protection | $0 | $0 | Included |
| Serverless functions | $0 | $0 | Included with Workers Paid |
| Email delivery (SendGrid) | $0 | $0 | Free tier: 100 emails/day |
| Domain registration | $1-2 | $12-20 | Same as WordPress |
| TOTAL (portfolio-wide) | $5 + $1-2/site | $60 + $12-20/site | $5/mo covers the entire account |
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Developer time (migration) | $500-2,000 | 10-40 hours depending on complexity |
| Testing & QA | $200-500 | 4-10 hours |
| DNS cutover | $100-200 | 2-4 hours |
| Total per site | $800-2,700 | One-time |
No more monthly/annual payments for:
Hosting plans
Plugin licenses
Security subscriptions
Backup services
CDN services
SSL certificates
Performance tools
| Metric | Typical WordPress | Cloudflare Pages | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to First Byte (TTFB) | 400-1200ms | 20-80ms | 5-60x faster |
| Page Load (LCP) | 2.5-8.0s | 0.5-2.0s | 2-4x faster |
| Lighthouse Mobile | 40-70/100 | 80-95/100 | +20-50 points |
| Global availability | 1-3 server locations | 300+ edge locations | 100x more |
| Attack Vector | WordPress | Cloudflare Pages |
|---|---|---|
| PHP vulnerabilities | Exposed | None (no PHP) |
| Database injection (SQL) | Exposed | None (no database) |
| Plugin vulnerabilities | Exposed (20+ plugins) | None (no plugins) |
| Brute force login | Exposed (wp-login.php) | None (no login) |
| File upload exploits | Exposed (media library) | None (no uploads) |
| XML-RPC attacks | Exposed | None |
| REST API leaks | Exposed | None |
| Active attack surface | Large | Near zero |
This is the strategic advantage that compounds over time:
AI can’t easily modify Divi layouts, shortcodes, or plugin configurations. The WordPress database stores content in serialized formats that are fragile to edit programmatically.
AI tools (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini) can directly:
Impact: High for teams that rely on drag-and-drop editing.
| Method | Skill Level | Time | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Browser editing (GitHub.com or Cloudflare Dashboard) | Basic | 5-10 min | Quick text changes |
| Astro + CMS panel (Decap/Tina) | Non-technical | 5-10 min | Regular content updates |
| AI-assisted (Claude Code, etc.) | Tell AI what to change | 2-5 min | Any change, any scale |
| Local development (Git + code editor) | Developer | 15-30 min | Major redesigns |
Impact: Medium — Most plugins solve problems that don’t exist on static sites.
| Plugin Category | WordPress Plugin | Cloudflare Alternative | Migration Effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forms | Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms | Cloudflare Functions + SendGrid | Medium |
| SEO | Yoast, RankMath | Static meta tags (built at deploy) | Low |
| Security | Wordfence, Sucuri | Not needed (no attack surface) | None |
| Caching | WP Rocket, W3TC | Not needed (already static + CDN) | None |
| Backup | UpdraftPlus | Git (built-in version control) | None |
| Image optimization | ShortPixel, Imagify | Build-time WebP conversion | Low |
| Search | WP Search | Pagefind (client-side) | Low |
| Analytics | MonsterInsights | Direct GA/GTM script | Low |
| Booking | Calendly plugin | Embed Calendly directly | Low |
| Cookie consent | CookieYes, etc. | Embed script directly | Low |
Impact: Low for most marketing/brochure sites.
Impact: Medium initially, decreasing over time.
The transition curve:
| Timeframe | Experience |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | Unfamiliar, slower than WordPress |
| Week 2-3 | Comfortable with browser/CMS editing |
| Month 2 | Proficient, comparable speed to WordPress |
| Month 3+ | Faster than WordPress (especially with AI) |
| Approach | WordPress/Divi | CF Pages (HTML) | CF Pages (Astro) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple 5-page site | 1-2 days | 0.5-1 day | 0.5-1 day |
| 10-20 page site | 3-5 days | 2-3 days | 1-2 days |
| 50+ page site | 1-2 weeks | 1 week | 3-5 days |
| Change | WordPress/Divi | CF Pages (Browser) | CF Pages (AI) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Change phone number | 2 min | 5 min | 2 min |
| Update hero image | 5 min | 10 min | 3 min |
| Add new page | 15-30 min | 30-60 min | 10-15 min |
| Redesign section | 1-2 hours | 1-2 hours | 30-60 min |
| Add new form | 15 min (plugin) | 30-60 min | 15-30 min |
| Site Complexity | Estimated Time | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Simple (5-10 pages, 1 form) | 8-16 hours | Crawl, optimize, forms, test, deploy |
| Medium (20-50 pages, 2-3 forms) | 16-32 hours | + plugin replacements, visual QA |
| Complex (50+ pages, custom features) | 32-80 hours | + custom function development |
| Role | WordPress Skills | Cloudflare Pages Skills | Learning Curve |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content editor | WordPress admin, Divi builder | Browser editing, CMS panel, or AI tools | 1-2 weeks |
| Designer | Divi/Elementor, WordPress themes | HTML/CSS, Astro templates | 2-4 weeks |
| Developer | PHP, WordPress hooks, plugin dev | HTML/CSS/JS, Node.js, Wrangler CLI | 1-2 weeks |
| DevOps | cPanel, PHP config, MySQL, server admin | Wrangler CLI, Cloudflare Dashboard | 1 week |
| Skill | Who Needs It | Difficulty | Training Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic HTML editing | Content editors | Easy | 2-4 hours |
| Git basics (commit, push) | Developers | Easy | 1-2 days |
| Wrangler CLI | Developers | Easy | 1-2 hours |
| Cloudflare Dashboard | Everyone | Easy | 1-2 hours |
| Astro framework | Developers | Medium | 1-2 weeks |
| Cloudflare Functions | Developers | Medium | 1 week |
| AI-assisted editing | Everyone | Easy | 1-2 hours |
| Skill | Why Not Needed |
|---|---|
| PHP development | No PHP on static sites |
| MySQL administration | No database |
| WordPress plugin management | No plugins |
| Server administration (cPanel, etc.) | No server |
| WordPress security hardening | No WordPress |
| WordPress performance tuning | Already optimized by design |
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Migration development | $500-2,700/site | One-time, can be batched |
| Team training | $500-2,000 | One-time for the team |
| Tooling setup | $0 | All tools are free |
| Item | Cost | When Needed |
|---|---|---|
| Workers Paid plan | $5/month (per account) | Recommended for any portfolio. Covers all sites: 5,000 builds/month, 10M requests/day, 100K files/deploy |
| Cloudflare Pro | $20/month per domain | Only for specific high-value domains needing image optimization (Polish/Mirage) or advanced WAF rulesets |
| SendGrid paid plan | $15-20/month | If >100 emails/day across all sites |
| Headless CMS (Contentful, etc.) | $0-300/month | If using external CMS (free tiers available) |
| AI tools (Claude Pro, etc.) | $20-200/month | For AI-assisted editing at scale |
| Item | Monthly Savings | Annual Savings |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress hosting | $25-60/site | $300-720/site |
| Plugin licenses | $15-40/site | $180-480/site |
| Security services | $5-15/site | $60-180/site |
| Backup services | $5-10/site | $60-120/site |
| CDN services | $0-20/site | $0-240/site |
| SSL certificates | $0-8/site | $0-100/site |
| Performance plugins | $4-8/site | $49-99/site |
| Maintenance labor | $50-115/site | $600-1,380/site |
| TOTAL ELIMINATED | $104-276/site | $1,249-3,319/site |
WP Engine provides automated daily backups with one-click restore. However, backups still contain the full WordPress stack (database, plugins, themes, uploads) which adds restoration complexity compared to static deployments.
| Feature | WordPress | Cloudflare Pages |
|---|---|---|
| Backup method | Scheduled copies | Every deploy = backup |
| Restore time | 30-60 minutes | < 1 minute |
| Version history | Limited | Complete (Git) |
| Storage cost | $5-10/month | $0 (included) |
| Backup testing | Manual | Automatic (every deploy is testable) |
| Risk | Probability | Impact | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEO ranking drop during migration | Low | Medium | 301 redirects, preserve URLs, monitor |
| Forms stop working | Medium | High | Test thoroughly on staging first |
| Missing content/pages | Low | Medium | Automated crawling + manual QA |
| Team resistance to change | Medium | Medium | Training, gradual rollout, show benefits |
| Client confusion | Low | Low | Transparent communication, documentation |
| Risk | Probability | Impact | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare service outage | Very Low | High | 99.99% uptime SLA. When Cloudflare is down, most of the internet is affected. |
| Free tier limits exceeded | Very Low | Low | Workers Paid ($5/mo per account) covers all realistic needs |
| SendGrid email deliverability | Low | Medium | Monitor, backup email service |
| AI tool dependency | Low | Low | Manual editing always available |
| Risk | Probability | Impact | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plugin vulnerability exploit | Medium-High | Critical | Constant updates, monitoring, WAF |
| WordPress core vulnerability | Medium | Critical | Immediate patching required |
| Server compromise | Medium | Critical | Security hardening, monitoring |
| Host outage | Low-Medium | High | Redundancy, CDN |
| Database corruption | Low | Critical | Backups, testing |
| PHP version incompatibility | Medium | Medium | Testing before upgrade |
Trade-off: Lose the visual page builder. Gain everything else.