I've built on every major CMS platform in the last three decades, and the most satisfying projects aren't the ones with the biggest budgets. They're the ones where choosing the right foundation makes everything else possible.
A small business came to us six months ago with a problem I've seen countless times: a WordPress site that had become a maintenance burden rather than a business asset. Load times were hovering around 4.5 seconds. Their hosting bill was $89 per month for managed WordPress. They were spending hours every week managing plugin updates, dealing with cache conflicts, and watching their Google PageSpeed scores drift into the red.
They needed a modern site with room to grow, but their budget was typical for a small business: tight enough that every dollar mattered. What they got surprised them.
The Foundation We Chose
For this project, the technical architecture was straightforward: Sanity's free tier paired with Next.js, deployed on Vercel's free tier. The entire content management and hosting cost: zero dollars per month.
Not "free trial for three months." Not "free until you hit X pageviews." Actually free, with room to scale when the business grows.
Sanity's free tier includes full access to the Studio, structured content management, and real-time collaboration features, more than adequate for most small business needs. The limits are generous: 10,000 documents, 100GB bandwidth, 200GB assets. For context, this business needed fewer than 150 documents total.
Through our small business package, HT Blue handled the hosting setup at no charge. We connected their Sanity project to a Next.js frontend deployed on Vercel, gave them a proper domain configuration, and delivered a complete content management system with zero monthly recurring costs.
What Complete Creative Freedom Actually Means
Here's what I've learned after thirty years building digital experiences: the platforms that claim to give you "unlimited flexibility" are usually the ones that fight you hardest when you try to do something custom.
WordPress offers thousands of themes and plugins, which sounds like freedom until you realize you're assembling someone else's vision of what your site should be. You're layering other developers' code on top of other developers' code, hoping nothing conflicts, praying the plugin author hasn't abandoned the project.
With Sanity and Next.js, we built exactly what this business needed, with no compromises dictated by theme limitations or plugin architectures.
The content model matched their business logic precisely. Product pages included custom fields for dimensions, materials, care instructions, and shipping details presented exactly how they wanted. Team member profiles supported biography, expertise areas, certifications, and social links in a structure that made sense for their workflow.
Every page template was purpose-built. No "close enough" header layouts. No "almost works" navigation patterns. No fighting with page builders or overriding theme CSS. We designed the exact user experience the business required, then implemented it cleanly in React components.
The editing experience was equally tailored. Sanity Studio's customizable interface allowed us to configure workflows specific to their content team's needs. We organized their content types logically, built custom input components for complex fields, and created preview configurations so editors could see exactly how changes would appear before publishing.
This level of customization in WordPress would have required either a premium theme with extensive customization (adding cost and complexity) or custom theme development (adding significant development time). With Sanity and Next.js, customization is the default approach, not an expensive exception.
The Performance Transformation
Before migration, their WordPress site scored 43 on Google PageSpeed Insights mobile. Desktop wasn't much better at 58. Average page load time measured 4.5 seconds on cable internet, worse on mobile networks.
After migration to Next.js with Sanity, mobile PageSpeed scores jumped to 96. Desktop hit 98. Page load times dropped to under 0.8 seconds.
That's not a gradual improvement. That's a complete transformation of the user experience.
Next.js's App Router enables React Server Components, which reduce client-side JavaScript and improve hydration speed. The framework's automatic code splitting dynamically loads only necessary code for each page, improving load times and overall performance. Combined with Incremental Static Regeneration, which updates static pages at configurable intervals, we delivered both speed and content freshness.
The technical implementation details matter, but what matters more is what this means for the business. Studies show that even a one-second delay in page load time can lead to a 7% reduction in conversions. We didn't just make their site faster. We removed a measurable obstacle to revenue.
The architecture also eliminated common WordPress performance bottlenecks. WordPress sites often struggle with database queries, object caching requirements, and render-blocking resources. Next.js pre-renders pages at build time or on-demand, serving static HTML that loads almost instantly. No database queries on page load. No PHP processing overhead. No plugin conflicts slowing down response times.
One Month from Start to Launch
The timeline surprised them most. We completed the entire migration, including content restructuring and copy improvements, in under 30 days.
Day 1-5: Content audit and structure design. We analyzed their existing WordPress content, identified improvement opportunities, and designed a Sanity schema that supported both current needs and future growth.
Day 6-12: Frontend build. With the content model defined, we built Next.js page templates, component libraries, and navigation structures. Parallel development meant we weren't waiting for content before building pages.
Day 13-20: Content migration and enhancement. We migrated content from WordPress to Sanity, improving copy quality, optimizing images, and restructuring information for better scannability and SEO performance.
Day 21-25: Testing and refinement. Cross-browser testing, mobile optimization, performance validation, and client review with requested adjustments.
Day 26-30: Deployment, DNS configuration, redirects from old URLs, and team training on Sanity Studio.
This timeline was possible because the stack eliminated traditional bottlenecks. No waiting for hosting provisioning. No theme customization friction. No plugin compatibility testing. Clean, purpose-built code that does exactly what's needed and nothing more.
Compare this to typical WordPress projects. Even with an off-the-shelf theme, customization, plugin configuration, and performance optimization often stretch projects to 6-8 weeks. Custom WordPress development can easily take 12 weeks or more.
What Zero Hosting Costs Actually Provides
Every month, this business saves $89 that was going to managed WordPress hosting. Over three years, that's $3,204 staying in their operating budget instead of going to infrastructure costs.
But the real savings run deeper. WordPress maintenance consumes time: plugin updates, security patches, compatibility testing, cache clearing, database optimization. Conservative estimate: 2-3 hours monthly. That's 24-36 hours annually that can go toward business growth instead of platform maintenance.
Sanity's generous free tier usage limits accommodate most small business needs without approaching overage charges. Vercel's free tier handles deployment, CDN, and SSL without monthly fees. The platform scales gracefully. When this business grows beyond free tier limits, paid tiers remain cost-effective: Sanity Growth starts at $99 monthly (still $10 less than their old hosting), and Vercel's paid plans begin even lower.
The absence of hosting costs also removed a psychological barrier to experimentation. Want to test a new landing page design? Build it. Considering restructuring your service pages? Try it. No worry about server resources or bandwidth overages. The infrastructure handles traffic spikes without surprise bills.
The Foundation That Lasts
When I'm evaluating platforms, I look past the marketing promises to a simple question: how will this decision look in five years?
WordPress served the web well for many years, but its architectural foundation was built for a different era. WordPress now powers 43.4% of all websites globally, making it both ubiquitous and a constant target for security threats. WordPress sites face thousands of attacks per day, with recent critical vulnerabilities affecting over 100,000 active installations.
The composable architecture we built with Sanity and Next.js is different. Content lives separately from presentation. The CMS doesn't execute on the public web. Attack surface is minimal. Updates to frontend code don't risk breaking content management, and vice versa.
This isn't just about security. It's about maintaining velocity as the business grows. Want to add a mobile app that uses the same content? It's already structured for it. Need to integrate with new marketing tools or business systems? The API-first architecture makes it straightforward. Planning to expand to multiple brands or markets? The foundation supports it.
For this small business, the right platform didn't require compromise. It didn't force a choice between features and budget, between performance and flexibility, between current needs and future growth.
They got the site they needed, built the way it should be built, on a foundation designed to last, for a monthly cost of exactly zero dollars.
That's what proper architecture delivers.
Author's Note: While this implementation used free tiers throughout, production requirements vary significantly. Sanity's free tier supports up to 10,000 documents and includes full Studio access. Next.js deployment costs depend on traffic and infrastructure needs. Enterprise requirements typically exceed free tier limitations.
