This decision is usually framed as modern versus legacy. That framing is wrong and leads teams to pick the option that impresses developers rather than the one their editors can actually use.
What headless genuinely gives you
- Content stored as structured data, reusable across a site, an app, and whatever comes next.
- A static or near-static front end, so traffic spikes are a non-event.
- A much smaller attack surface, there is no public admin login on the site itself.
What WordPress genuinely gives you
- An editing experience your team probably already knows.
- An enormous ecosystem, so common requirements rarely need custom code.
- A very large pool of people who can maintain it after you.
The trade-off nobody mentions
Headless moves complexity rather than removing it. Previews, scheduled publishing, and redirects all come free in WordPress and have to be built in a headless setup. Budget for that work, or your editors will discover it missing in month three.
Pick based on who edits the content and how often, not on which architecture reads better in a proposal.
A reasonable default: WordPress when publishing is frequent and self-service matters most; headless when performance, structured reuse, or security dominate, and you can fund the editorial tooling properly.