How You Can Save Up To 70% Of Your Website Building Cost

When starting a new website build for an amazing idea, a big early decision is whether to code it from scratch or use a Content Management System (CMS) or best of both worlds. Any approach you choose will have its own tradeoffs in

When starting a new website build for an amazing idea, a big early decision is whether to code it from scratch or use a Content Management System (CMS) or the best of both worlds. Any approach you choose will have its own trade-offs in flexibility, features, and cost. In this article, I have tried to put together a fair comparison of using a hardcoded solution (creating a website from scratch) and using the best of both worlds (CMS + Code = Headless CMS).

To make it simpler I am going to compare creating a website completely with Next JS versus creating the same website completely with Next JS and Garchi CMS. But this does not mean that Garchi CMS is restricted to being used only with Next JS.

Before analysing the comparison, it's important to understand why traditional CMS platforms and website builders are not ideal for many modern websites (based on our experience).

In the early days of our startup, we built sites for clients using WordPress and website builders. The pros were low code and easy content editing for clients.

However, as businesses grew and needed custom solutions, these tools caused major pain points. Maintaining plugins and extensions was a nightmare. And increasingly complex business needs require flexibility beyond their rigid frameworks.

Over time, it became clear traditional CMS and builders fail when businesses demand bespoke solutions built with code. Their one-size-fits-all approach just doesn't work for innovative tech companies, high-growth startups, or unique business models.

That experience led us to use flexible code solutions paired with headless CMS for content management. This empowers fully custom code while still enabling easy content updates.

Now that we've seen the limitations of legacy CMS and builders, let's analyse a detailed comparison of Next.js on its own versus combining it with a headless CMS.

For an equal comparison, we'll consider building the same simple 5-page site which has:

• Home Page
• Contact Page
• About Page
• Services Page
• Case Studies Page

Next.js Only

Using only Next.js and Vercel provides full code flexibility and minimal vendor lock-in. Let's look at the pros and cons:

Pros:

• Complete control over code and architecture
• Low chances of vendor lock-in

Cons:

• Lots of manual work for new pages and content changes
• Need to build own CMS and admin features if needed

In summary, there is a benefit of complete control and customisation as it is coded from scratch, but if a need arises to make any edits to any page, it has to be done through the code.

Costs:

Let's look at the costs roughly involved in GBP (£):

• Next.js developer time: £50/hr, roughly 80 hrs = roughly £4,000
• Vercel hosting: £20/user/month = £240/year
• Content update cost: £50/hr, average 5 hrs/month = £250/month, £2,500 for 10 months
• Total first year cost: £4,000 + £240 + £2,500 = £6,740 (approx.)

Why does 10 months of content update cost? Assuming that initially, it took 2 months to create the website and 80 hours are spread over 2 months.

Note: These costs are very rough estimates and they might significantly differ from project to project.

The pure Next.js approach requires significant development effort and recurring costs for the example website.

Next.js + Garchi CMS

Combining Next.js with Garchi CMS like Garchi provides built-in content management without dictating technology.

Pros:

• Almost all the pros of coding from scratch
• Built-in CMS for managing content
• API-based integration

Cons:

• Need developer time to integrate CMS

Costs:

• Next.js developer time: £50/hr, 20 hrs = £1,000
• Garchi CMS: £19.99/month = roughly £240/year
• Vercel hosting: £20/user/month = £240/year
• Content update cost: £50/hr, average 1 hr/month = £50/month, £500 for 10 months
• Total first year cost: £1,000 + £240 + £240 + £500 = £1,980 (approx.)

Note: These costs are very rough estimates and they might significantly differ from project to project.

By offloading content management to Garchi CMS, development time and costs are cut significantly.

Now let's compare these rough estimates side by side:

Total first-year cost:

• Next.js only (code from scratch solution): £6,740
• Next.js + Garchi CMS: £1,980

Using Garchi CMS saves roughly 70% compared to Next.js alone.

I haven't considered recurring annual costs from year 2 onwards. There are very high chance that these recurring costs will be low for the Garchi CMS + Next JS solution.

Conclusion:

For a website, combining Next.js (code from scratch) with a headless CMS like Garchi CMS provides substantial savings on initial development costs compared to using Next.js alone.

There could be cases where there is an increase in recurring costs to gain a CMS, admin interface, and content infrastructure. But the tradeoff is well worth it for most websites that require regular content updates.

The headless CMS approach provides a built-in content backend that integrates with Next.js or any tech stack, saving around 70% on initial website build costs compared to a pure coding solution.

So if embarking on a new website project, partnering a coding from scratch solution (Next.js) with a headless CMS like Garchi CMS is worth strong consideration, providing modern cost savings and flexibility.