We tell small businesses every week that a slow, fragile website costs them customers. So it was only fair to look hard at our own.
hixfi.com ran on WordPress for years, with a page builder, a stack of plugins, and the usual layers of caching on top to keep it quick. It worked, mostly. But "mostly" included a caching plugin that crashed the site after a server update, and a memory cache that served blank error pages until we switched it off. Each time, the fix was another setting, another plugin, another thing to watch.
On October 22, 2026, we moved it. Same pages, same content, same addresses, rebuilt on modern hosting. Here is what happened.
The numbers
We tested the home page with Google Lighthouse, the same tool behind Google's PageSpeed score, in its mobile mode, three times each, and took the middle result.
| Before (WordPress) | After | |
|---|---|---|
| Google speed score on mobile | 71 | 100 |
| Time until the main content shows | 5.3 seconds | 1.1 seconds |
| Files loaded per visit | 54 | 22 |
| Page weight | 960 KB | 704 KB |
| Server response | about 1.9 seconds | about 0.2 seconds |
The one that matters most is the second line. Google's own research found that as load time grows from 1 to 5 seconds, the chance a phone visitor leaves goes up by about 90%. Our home page used to sit right at that 5-second mark. Now it's done in about a second.
What we actually changed
We kept everything that was working. Every page kept its exact address, so links from Google, social posts and old emails still land in the right place. Titles, descriptions and the data Google reads stayed the same. Forms, analytics and the chat all came along.
We removed what was slowing it down. A page builder adds a lot of code to every page, whether the page uses it or not. Plugins each load their own files. We rebuilt each page so it loads only what it needs: 22 files instead of 54.
We moved to faster hosting. The new site is served from a global network, close to whoever is visiting. Pages are ready before anyone asks for them, so the server answers in a fifth of a second instead of nearly two.
There was no downtime. The old site stayed live until the new one was ready, and the switch took minutes. We kept the old site running for two weeks as a backup, just in case.
What it changed for us day to day
Fewer moving parts means fewer things to break. There are no plugin updates to test, no caching layers to tune, and no PHP version upgrades to plan around. The time we used to spend keeping the site running now goes into improving it.
Is this right for every website?
No, and we'll say so up front. WordPress is still the right tool for some sites:
- Online stores with products, carts and payments
- Course and membership sites with student or member accounts
- Sites built on custom plugins that a business depends on
Those need a careful migration plan of their own, or are better off staying where they are with good maintenance.
But most small business websites are a handful of pages: what you do, where you are, how to reach you. For those, the move is quick, and the speed gain is large.
Want the same for your site?
When you join any HiXFi website care plan, we'll redesign your site and move it to the same fast hosting for free. That covers up to 8 pages, your content moved over, the speed setup, and no downtime. Plans run month to month.
Not sure where your site stands? Run the free website audit first. It takes about a minute.
