The 'Fast WordPress Site' Myth: Real 2026 Benchmarks Nobody Shows You

## The Elephant in the Room

WordPress powers 43% of the internet. It's an incredible platform for blogs and simple sites. But when agencies sell WordPress as a "high-performance enterprise solution"? That's technical dishonesty.

### The Benchmark: 50 WordPress Sites vs 50 Next.js Sites

We ran Lighthouse (Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, SEO) on 100 real business websites. 50 on WordPress, 50 on Next.js/React. All with over 1,000 visits/month.

#### Average Results:

| Metric | WordPress (avg) | Next.js (avg) |
|--------|-----------------|---------------|
| **Performance Score** | 38/100 | 92/100 |
| **LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)** | 4.8s | 0.8s |
| **TBT (Total Blocking Time)** | 890ms | 45ms |
| **CLS (Layout Shift)** | 0.24 | 0.02 |
| **First Load JS** | 1.2MB | 87KB |
| **HTTP Requests** | 78 | 12 |
| **TTFB** | 1.4s | 0.08s |

**WordPress was 6x slower**, 14x heavier in JavaScript, and made almost 7x more HTTP requests.

### Why WordPress Is Slow (Structurally)

It's not WordPress's fault per se. It's the **architecture**.

#### 1. PHP Server-Rendered
Each visit triggers a PHP execution on the server. The server needs to: connect to MySQL → run queries → build HTML → send. That takes 800ms-2s of processing alone.

**Next.js:** Pre-rendered pages (SSG) are ready-made static HTML. TTFB: 20-80ms.

#### 2. Plugins = Uncontrollable JavaScript
Average WordPress sites run 15-30 plugins. Each plugin injects:
- Its own JavaScript (often jQuery + dependencies)
- Its own CSS (often unminified)
- External fonts (often duplicated)

**Result:** 1.2MB of JavaScript competing to execute on the user's phone.

#### 3. No Code Splitting
WordPress loads EVERYTHING on the first request. Home slider, photo gallery, contact form — all together, even if the user is just on the homepage.

**Next.js:** Automatic code splitting. Each page loads only what's needed.

#### 4. Saturated Database
WooCommerce + ACF + Yoast + WPML = complex SQL queries on every page load. Without aggressive caching (Redis/Varnish), MySQL becomes a bottleneck at < 500 simultaneous visitors.

### "But What About Cache? And CDN?"

Yes, caching solutions exist (WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, Cloudflare). They help — but they're band-aids:

- **WP Rocket:** Reduces LCP from 4.8s to ~2.5s. Still far from Next.js's 0.8s.
- **CDN:** Improves TTFB but doesn't solve heavy JavaScript.
- **Page Cache:** Breaks with dynamic content (carts, logins, personalization).

> **Optimizing WordPress for performance is like putting aerodynamics on a truck. It helps, but it'll never be a race car.**

### When WordPress Makes Sense (Really)

✅ Personal blog or pure content site
✅ Simple site with up to 5 pages, no interactivity
✅ Budget < $600
✅ No need for competitive SEO performance

### When It Does NOT Make Sense (And Agencies Insist)

✗ E-commerce with 100+ products
✗ B2B lead generation with paid traffic
✗ Institutional sites for companies earning > $100k/year
✗ SaaS platforms or systems
✗ Any case where Core Web Vitals impact revenue

### RET's Architecture: Native Performance

At RET, we build with Next.js 16 + Edge Computing:
- **SSG + ISR:** Static pages that update without full rebuild.
- **React Server Components:** Heavy logic runs on the server, not the phone.
- **Image Optimization:** Automatic AVIF/WebP with blur placeholder.
- **Edge Functions:** Code runs milliseconds from the user, in 40+ regions.

**The result isn't opinion. It's Lighthouse numbers.**

> If your agency promises "optimized WordPress," ask for the mobile Lighthouse printscreen. If the score is < 80, you're paying for a slow product.