WordPress Migrationto Payload.
Your WordPress site has served you well, but every change now means another plugin, and every update brings a little anxiety. We move it to Payload CMS and Next.js: your content transferred, your features properly rebuilt in code, from the members' area to the shop, and your traffic protected, URL by URL.
In short
A WordPress to Payload migration means rebuilding a WordPress site on Payload CMS and Next.js. We transfer the content: posts, pages, media, categories and custom fields. Features that relied on plugins are rebuilt in code, including member areas, accounts and the shop. And we protect the traffic you've built: URL inventory, 301 redirects, metadata, and checks before and after launch. The result: a site that is easier to run, free of plugin sprawl, with an admin designed around your team. Scroll, a Paris-based agency, runs these migrations from audit to post-launch monitoring.
Keep, simplify or migrate?
WordPress powers a large share of the web, and it works very well for many sites. Our job is to recommend the right option, not the biggest one. Before proposing a migration, we answer three questions.
Keep WordPress
Classic editorial site, suitable theme, comfortable team, few plugins. A clean-up (plugins, theme, security, performance) may be enough. It isn't our day-to-day business: we'll tell you so and point you in the right direction.
Move to an all-in-one tool
Showcase site with stable needs, a team that wants to edit the design itself, few integrations. Webflow may be simpler, and it's a tool we master too.
Migrate to Payload
Lots of interlinked content, several languages, a members' area, a shop, business features, plugins piling up. A well-managed rebuild creates a lasting foundation: structured content, versioned code, a tailored admin.
When should you move away from WordPress?
Leaving WordPress pays off when the site takes more effort than it gives back. The signals we see most often:
The point isn't to switch tools for the sake of it. It's to keep what works and rebuild what holds you back. Recognise several of these signs? Let's talk.
The SEO checklist.
Your traffic is often your first acquisition channel: we're here to preserve it. A migration is never neutral for Google, so nothing is left to chance. Every URL that matters is inventoried, redirected, then monitored after launch.
What we keep, what we rebuild.
A WordPress to Payload migration isn't an export followed by an import. It's a decision made content by content, plugin by plugin.
- URLs that matter
- High-performing content
- Useful metadata
- Media and their alt text
- Useful categories and tags
- Key forms
- Analytics events
- Existing SEO equity
- Editorial autonomy
- The content model
- Custom fields
- Layout blocks
- The design
- Features provided by plugins
- Forms and where they send data
- Members' area, accounts and permissions
- Technical performance
- Hosting and backups
Some plugins are no longer needed after the migration (caching, security, backups): their job is handled differently. Others are rebuilt in code, from a simple feature to a members' area or a shop, replaced by an external service or dropped.
From WordPress to Payload.
The key isn't copying pages, but turning WordPress logic into a lasting content model.
| Existing WordPress | Payload destination |
|---|---|
| Posts and pages | Payload collections, block-based pages |
| Custom post types | Dedicated, interlinked collections |
| ACF fields and post meta | Structured, validated fields |
| Gutenberg, Elementor, Divi blocks | Editorial blocks designed for your site |
| Shortcodes | Components in code, or cleaned-up content |
| Categories and tags | Relationships between content |
| Media library | Organised media, alt text carried over |
| Yoast, Rank Math, redirect plugin | SEO fields, sitemap and redirects handled by the site |
| Forms (Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms…) | Developed, validated, tracked forms connected to your tools |
| Users, roles, members' area | Accounts, permissions and logged-in areas built on Payload |
| WooCommerce | Shop rebuilt into the site: catalogue, orders, payment |
| WPML, Polylang | Languages handled field by field |
Why Payload after WordPress.
Payload is a free, open-source CMS that installs inside the Next.js site itself: one project to host and maintain, no plugins to watch over. For your editorial team, it changes several things:
See our Payload expertiseYour editorial team gets a tool built for its work. For design changes and new features, our team takes over: every change is developed, tested and released properly.
Six steps.
A dedicated team from scoping to delivery, with a dedicated project lead.
Content and plugin audit
Content types, custom fields, active plugins and what they actually do, forms, members' area and accounts, shop, languages, SEO and performance. Full inventory of URLs and their traffic.
Migration plan & mapping
What is transferred, merged, deleted or redirected. Mapping of WordPress content to Payload collections. For each plugin: rebuild, replace or drop. Every important URL gets a destination and a 301.
Design decision
Keep the current design by turning it into components, clean it up or redesign it, depending on your goals. The WordPress theme itself can't be reused as is.
Payload models & Next.js development
Collections, fields, blocks, forms, members' area, accounts and permissions, shop, rebuilt business features, technical SEO and integrations with your tools.
Content transfer & 301s
Automated import from the WordPress database or API where the structure allows, clean-up of shortcodes and legacy HTML, manual transfer where that's more reliable. Redirects put in place.
Testing, launch & monitoring
Content, post rendering, redirects, forms, accounts, analytics, metadata, performance and mobile checked in pre-production. After the cutover: 404s, indexing, Search Console, contact requests.
Both ends of the road.
We're used to migrating WordPress sites: content, media, URLs, redirects, we know what's at stake at cutover time. Payload is something we run in production, on client sites as well as on our own site, migrated to Payload + Next.js. So you're working with a team that knows both the starting point and the destination.
- WordPress sites migrated: content, media and URLs transferred, redirects in place
- Payload in production on client sites, such as Zéro Doute (below)
- Our own site moved to Payload + Next.js, live since 12 June 2026: nearly 200 articles transferred in French and English, with their redirects
- A proven checklist: content stored outside the body text, leftovers from the old tool, internal links, redirects
Before / after.
What the switch changes in practice, topic by topic.
| Subject | Before: WordPress | After: Payload + Next.js |
|---|---|---|
| Admin | Interface shared by every site, adapted with plugins | Admin designed for your content |
| Plugins | Each one to update and monitor | Useful features built into the site |
| Pages | Theme or page builder | Pages built from reusable blocks |
| SEO | Settings spread across theme and plugins | Fields, sitemap and redirects handled by the site |
| Languages | Add-on translation plugin | Translations built into the content model |
| Code | Theme and plugins from various sources | Versioned, tested, documented TypeScript code |
| Security | Attack surface widened by plugins | Fewer third-party parts, controlled updates |
| Evolution | One more plugin | A feature built for your need |
Zéro Doute.
Here's the kind of foundation you get: a directory with interlinked content, the kind of site often built on WordPress with custom post types and ACF fields. Scroll built it with Payload, and the client's team runs it independently.
How long should you plan for?
Every WordPress site has its own history: the audit is what gives a reliable timeline. It depends on factors such as:
- Number of URLs and content items
- Number of content types and custom fields
- Number of plugins and what they do
- Keeping or redesigning
- Multilingual support
- Forms, members' area, shop and integrations
- SEO equity to protect
- How far content transfer can be automated
- Hosting requirements
Frequently asked questions
The questions that come up most often during scoping. If yours isn't listed, get in touch!
Is your WordPress site getting hard to evolve?
Let's talk. We audit your site, its content and its plugins, tell you what to keep, rebuild or drop, and propose a migration plan to Payload that protects your traffic. And if WordPress or Webflow remains the best option, we'll tell you.
75011 Paris