When we tried headless Gutenberg and rolled back
A case study in a build that didn't pay off. We moved a content site to headless (WP + Next.js front-end) chasing speed, keeping Gutenberg for editing.
What actually happened over 6 weeks:
— Front-end LCP improved modestly: 2.2s to 1.8s
— Block styles didn't carry over; we re-styled everything
— Maintenance cost ~doubled (two codebases, two deploys)
We rolled back to a tuned monolith hitting 1.9s.
Pros:
— Headless front-end was genuinely fast
— Clean API-driven content separation
Cons:
— 0.4s gain didn't justify doubled upkeep
— Editors lost visual parity with the live site
Best for: teams weighing headless; do it for architecture needs, not for a marginal speed score on a content site.
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When we tried headless Gutenberg and rolled back
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