WordPress vs Next.js: Which is Faster for Australian Small Business Sites? (2026)

The test — what we measured and how

We tested 12 Australian small business websites: 6 built on WordPress (with typical setups — Elementor page builder, WP Rocket caching, managed hosting) and 6 built on Next.js deployed to Vercel. All sites had similar content weight. We ran each through Google PageSpeed Insights three times on mobile and averaged the scores.

The results were consistent. WordPress mobile scores ranged from 38 to 71. Next.js scores ranged from 88 to 98. Average gap: 35 points on mobile PageSpeed.

Average mobile PageSpeed score comparison — WordPress (48) vs Next.js (94)

Why WordPress sites score lower on mobile

• Page builder CSS. Elementor, Divi, and WPBakery load their entire stylesheet on every page — including styles for elements not on that page. A 500KB CSS file for a page that uses 30KB of it is common.
• Plugin JavaScript. The average WordPress site has 20+ plugins. Each one can add render-blocking JavaScript that delays the page becoming interactive.
• Shared hosting latency. Most small business WordPress sites are on shared hosting. Time to First Byte is typically 400–800ms. Vercel's edge network delivers in under 100ms to Australian users.
• Unoptimised images. WordPress serves images in the format uploaded unless you install another plugin. Next.js has a built-in Image component that auto-converts to WebP and lazy-loads.

Why Next.js scores higher

• No unused CSS. A Next.js build ships only the CSS required for the page being rendered.
• No plugins. Every feature is written as code. No third-party JavaScript runs on the page unless you put it there deliberately.
• Edge delivery. Vercel's free tier delivers pages from edge nodes close to the user — Australian visitors hit Sydney or Melbourne nodes, not a US data centre.
• Static generation. Most pages are pre-built as static HTML at deploy time. The server sends a complete page immediately — no PHP execution, no database query.

Does the PageSpeed gap actually affect Google rankings?

Google has used Core Web Vitals as a ranking factor since May 2021. The three metrics — Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), and Interaction to Next Paint (INP) — are directly measured by PageSpeed Insights. A site failing Core Web Vitals is flagged in Google Search Console under "Page Experience."

For local search — the main battlefield for Australian service businesses — Google uses mobile-first indexing. The mobile version of your site determines your ranking, not the desktop version. A score of 42 on mobile is not an aesthetic problem. It is a ranking problem.

Can you fix a WordPress site to score 90+?

Yes — with significant effort. The path: switch to a lightweight theme (GeneratePress, Astra), remove the page builder, add a caching plugin, move to a faster host (Kinsta, Cloudways), and optimise all images. Done properly, a WordPress site can reach 80–90+ on mobile.

The problem is this process often costs more than rebuilding from scratch — and the underlying WordPress overhead never fully disappears. A performance-optimised WordPress site at 88 is an achievement. A stock Next.js build at 94 is the starting point.

For the full platform comparison, see: WordPress vs custom website Australia (2026).

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