Live platform upgrades

Audit before code

Web Platform Modernisation

Your platform earns money, yet it has grown slow and hard to change. We measure first, fix the layer at fault, and migrate section by section only when the platform hits its limits.

Start Building Read Brief

BRIEF: MIGRATE-03 MODE: INCREMENTAL

Platforms that cannot stop earning

Founders and technical leads at companies whose content site or online store earns revenue every day, typically a WordPress site that keeps slowing down or carries plugins nobody can explain.

If you are starting from a specification rather than a live system, our Custom Web & Software Development service covers that.

Time to call us when

We added caching and a faster host; nothing changed.
Nobody here can say what half our plugins do.
Our host cannot offer PHP 8, Redis or OPcache.
Editors wait on developers for changes the admin should allow.

What holds a platform back

Rewrites sold as the only fix

A full rebuild moves every URL and template at once, so regressions all land on one day. Most WordPress problems can be fixed in place instead.

Plugins that fight each other

Two caching plugins clash on every purge, and a page builder plus an accordion plugin can put two JavaScript frameworks on one page. Every extra plugin also hooks into each request.

Slow queries hiding behind cache

Bloated autoload options, archive queries on unindexed meta keys and WP-Cron jobs piling up on quiet sites stay invisible until the cache misses and every visitor waits.

Measure first, then move section by section

Most modernisation work we walk into is already mid-fix: a faster host, an object cache, three image plugins and a site that is still slow. So we measure before touching anything and keep the numbers on record. The same numbers rule out fixes that would change nothing, before anyone spends days on them.

Migration is the last resort, chosen only when the audit proves the platform is the bottleneck. The new system then takes over one group of URLs at a time, routed at the CDN or load balancer and crawl-diffed against the old site, until the legacy platform serves no URLs and retires.

6-12 weeks

50k-page WordPress site, parity tested

Incremental

strangler-style migration, section by section

Plugin and query clean-up

Every plugin is judged by what it does for users. Duplicates go, conflicts get one winner, archive meta keys get indexes and WP-Cron moves to system cron.

Caching and images

Cache layers go in order: Redis or Memcached object cache, a server-level page cache, CDN, browser headers. Images get CDN-side WebP or AVIF conversion and explicit dimensions.

Stack and host upgrades

PHP 8.x with OPcache and an object cache, switching host if needed. Bulk changes in framework upgrades run through Cursor or Claude Code, reviewed by an engineer.

Section-by-section migration

Each migrated section sits behind a routing rule at the CDN, and every cut-over has a tested fallback: one rule change returns that section to the old platform.

What stays with you

Audit report with baselines for three page types
Ranked fix list with a fixed-price quote
Plugin map with every plugin's update dates
Rendered-HTML crawl diffs at every major step
Redirects keeping old image URLs live for at least six months

The order we modernise in

Measure, cut, cache, migrate

01

01
Audit

We pull PageSpeed Insights waterfalls for three page types, run Query Monitor while logged in, map every plugin and check the host's PHP, OPcache and object cache.

Duration
Week 1

Result
A baseline for judging every change
- Baseline
- Waterfalls
02

02
Plugins and queries

Plugin cuts and query fixes start before the caching work, so the cache cannot hide what is slow. Each result is compared with the week-one numbers.

Duration
Weeks 2-4

Result
Shorter plugin list, indexed archive queries
- Plugins
- Indexes
03

03
Cache, images, parity

Cache layers, each with one owner, and the image pipeline go in alongside the clean-up; any planned migration starts its parity crawl in the same window.

Duration
From week 3

Result
Ordered cache layers and a parity diff
- Cache
- Parity
04

04
SEO checks, handover

Crawl diffs and redirect checks catch SEO regressions before release. Your team inherits weekly Lighthouse CI on your top thirty pages, quarterly plugin reviews and a query budget.

Duration
Final 2 weeks

Result
Clean handover and three upkeep habits
- SEO
- Handover

Audit and repair tools

Audit: PageSpeed Insights

Query Monitor
Platform: WordPress

PHP 8.x

OPcache
Caching: Redis or Memcached

NGINX FastCGI cache

CDN
Monitoring: Lighthouse CI
Code migration: Cursor

Claude Code

Paying for modernisation

Fixed fee per phase

Once the audit has ranked the fixes, each phase, like plugin cuts or cache layers, carries a fixed price agreed upfront.

Time and materials

Suits migrations where the parity crawl keeps surfacing decisions nobody made. The model is agreed before work begins and then holds.

Retainer after handover

Common in the first quarter after handover: 2-8 hours of our time weekly while your team settles into the upkeep habits.

A 30-minute scoping call gets you a fixed quote.

Live platform questions

Will our search rankings drop during the work?

Not if URLs and structured data stay unchanged. Changed URL patterns get redirects, old image URLs keep 301s for six months or longer, and we diff a rendered-HTML crawl around every major step, so regressions surface before release. See our WordPress performance checklist.

Do we have to leave WordPress?

Almost never for a content site. WordPress with object cache, a server-level page cache, a short plugin list and a current host beats most headless set-ups. We recommend moving only once your editors have outgrown the admin and it blocks them every month.

Why not just add a CDN?

Because a CDN cannot fix a slow origin: first visits get quicker and every cache miss stays slow. We bring the origin under 200 milliseconds with object cache and a server-level page cache, then add the CDN for static assets and distant visitors.

Do you modernise platforms other than WordPress?

Yes. Other legacy stacks get the same order as WordPress: measure, remove what blocks change, then move piece by piece. Bulk pattern translation in framework upgrades runs through Cursor and Claude Code with human review. See our field notes on AI coding assistants.

Do deactivated plugins still slow a site down?

Some do. Certain plugins keep injecting CSS or JavaScript from the database after deactivation, and many leave custom tables behind. So removal is a small migration: we drop the plugin's tables, delete its options and confirm the front end stopped loading its assets.

Client reviews

What clients say about working with Vadim

5.0 75 reviews on Google

All reviews

Chen Mazor 2024 · Google ★★★★★

I came to Vadim after failing to find anyone who would build my site exactly the way I wanted.

Within a short call he understood how I wanted it built, and that is what he did :)
He was professional and available the whole time.

The result was a success and got lots of compliments.

svetlana geiman 2025 · Google ★★★★★

As a painter and spiritual artist I got the complete package: a website that shows my work and its energy, advertising that reaches the right audience, and close guidance step by step. Everything was transparent, professional and fast - a real saving of time and budget. 🔥❤️

קבוצת קואלה שירותי ניקיון 2022 · Google ★★★★★

I warmly recommend Vadim, who programmed my WordPress site. He is very professional and his service really is of a high standard. Highly recommended for anyone who needs help with WordPress sites - he is a true WordPress expert and helped me a lot. Thank you very much.

Yoram Barazani 2023 · Google ★★★★★

Vadim is a real professional with exactly the knowledge and skills you would expect from a professor of websites. He is also fair, honest and fun to work with.

If you have got this far, there is no need to look anywhere else for someone to take care of your site. 👍

בניית אתרים תפנית 2024 · Google ★★★★★

Vadim wrote code that sends and receives data to and from the FedEx API. His work was fast and to my complete satisfaction. He showed high ability and professionalism, followed our instructions precisely and let us use his code on our clients' website.

Alona Gur 2025 · Google ★★★★★

I asked Vadim for help setting up a particular plugin on our site. He handled it with dedication, professionalism and speed, answered every one of our calls and was fully committed. We will of course use his services again. Thank you very much!

Yigal Edrey 2023 · Google ★★★★★

After faults took my website down, I turned to Vadim, who fixed every one of them professionally and courteously in a very short time, and the site is live again.
I warmly recommend Vadim's web services: a professional, courteous and quick. 👍

Svetlana Stgart 2022 · Google ★★★★★

Vadim was very knowledgeable and very pleasant to work with. He was always available throughout the week to make fine adjustments and made a point of my being satisfied with the results. I warmly recommend Vadim for your WordPress adventures.

Start with the numbers

Tell us the platform, the host and the pages that feel slow. After a half-hour scoping call you receive a fixed quote.