WordPress offers more than one way to build the front end of a site. Each is a good choice in the right situation.
Classic PHP themes
Templates written in PHP give full control over markup and performance, and work with every plugin. They suit bespoke designs where structured content is edited through custom fields.
Block themes
Block themes let editors change layouts, headers and footers visually in the Site Editor. They are a strong fit when the people running the site want to adjust design without a developer.
Headless WordPress
WordPress manages content and a separate application — often built with React or Next.js — renders it through the REST or GraphQL API. This suits app-like experiences and teams already working in JavaScript, at the cost of more infrastructure.
Questions to ask
- Who edits the site, and how much layout control do they need?
- Which plugins must keep working on the front end?
- Is there a team and budget to run a separate front-end application?
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