From WordPress to a faster, safer headless website
DreamApply needed a website that puts focus on data security, while ensuring custom-made pages that match the marketing team’s needs, without creating friction for ops, security, or future growth. Naturaily helped replatform their marketing site from WordPress to a modern stack built for performance, flexibility, and long-term scalability.
Results at a glance
Headless
Built on Payload CMS, Next.js, and Vercel.
Self-owned
Code in DreamApply's private GitHub, hosting under their control.
Form-aware
Custom lead capture with UTM tracking, validation, and spam protection.
Multilingual
Structured for translation and regional content from launch.
What DreamApply needed from the new website
DreamApply already had a capable marketing team and a product trusted by educational institutions. But their website setup was starting to work against them.
WordPress wasn't broken - most of what the marketing team does today was originally built on it. The push to move came from elsewhere: DreamApply's ISO 27001 certification and GDPR compliance work, which made a more secure marketing site setup the natural next step.
In addition, the marketing team was ready to invest time and money into custom-made pages that would showcase its brand and content in a new light.
They needed a new website that would help them:
reduce security and compliance concerns around WordPress
make marketing work even easier without further vetting from ops
create and update pages in a way that feels safer for non-technical editors
support multilingual content and future localization workflows
keep the site fast, even with richer content like video
prepare stronger foundations for analytics, A/B testing, SEO, and AI search visibility
avoid vendor lock-in and make content more portable over time
Why the old setup was becoming a blocker
DreamApply’s previous setup had reached the point where it continuously delayed progress. Each new idea required a plugin, and each plugin required security vetting.
Marko Delić
Head of Marketing, DreamApply
We didn’t want to keep patching around the limits of our old setup. We needed a website foundation that would let marketing expand its ideas steadily, while giving ops and security fewer reasons to worry.
Plugins required scrutiny where some tools felt risky from a compliance perspective, and simple marketing ideas such as popups or more tailored landing-page experiences became harder than they should have been.
On top of that, the website needed to support more ambitious goals:
better analytics and privacy-aware experimentation
stronger visibility in AI-driven search experiences
region-specific and multilingual content workflows
faster, safer publishing with preview-based editing
better separation between DreamApply’s own brand presence and traffic from customer subdomains
The team also wanted a solution they would not outgrow in two years. Content portability, self-hosting options, and a cleaner technical foundation mattered just as much as the visual front end.
How Naturaily approached the replatforming
Naturaily worked with DreamApply to define a practical replatforming path: move away from WordPress and rebuild the marketing site on a modern, more maintainable setup centered around Payload CMS, Next.js, and Vercel.
Marko Delić
Head of Marketing, DreamApply
Enablement is the key word in our cooperation with Naturaily. Sure enough, from start to finish, they accommodated our schedule, dealt with changes that came up along the way, and provided guidance whenever needed.
The work focused on much more than a CMS swap.
A safer, more future-proof architecture
The new setup reduced reliance on fragile plugins and gave DreamApply a cleaner, more scalable foundation. Moving to a headless architecture replaced WordPress-era compromises with a setup built for growth.
It also matched DreamApply’s need for ownership and flexibility. The site uses a static frontend with Payload CMS in headless mode, with code hosted in DreamApply’s private GitHub and client-managed infrastructure. This gave DreamApply more long-term control, while Naturaily handled the architecture, implementation, and ongoing improvements.
A better editing experience for the marketing team
One of the main goals was to make editing safer and more comfortable for non-technical team members. A preview-friendly CMS setup gives editors more control, more confidence, and less fear of “breaking something” while publishing changes.
Better foundations for performance and search visibility
The new website direction emphasized speed, clean code structure, and SEO-friendly rendering. That created a stronger base for discoverability in both traditional search and emerging AI-driven search experiences.
Room for experimentation and smarter marketing
DreamApply wanted to run marketing initiatives without a “vendor management dance.” The new setup creates better conditions for future A/B testing, analytics, personalization, and more flexible landing-page creation.
Editor enablement and content migration
A big part of the delivery was not just building the new website, but making sure the DreamApply team could actually work on it before and after launch. Naturaily provided early access to the CMS, supported content transfer, and organized feedback through Jira so DreamApply’s team could review, refine, and publish content without duplicating work.
That editor enablement mattered because the project was meant to reduce dependency on developers in day-to-day marketing operations, not simply replace one technical stack with another.
Forms, lead capture, and post-launch refinement
The project also covered a critical lead-generation layer: forms. During implementation and post-launch refinement, DreamApply and Naturaily worked through form UX, attribution, UTM tracking, submission visibility, spam protection, email validation, and source tracking.
That matters because the website was built not just to look better, but to capture better leads more reliably.
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Business outcome of the DreamApply website replatform
This project gave DreamApply a more stable digital foundation for lead generation. Instead of relying on a setup that made security, experimentation, and scaling harder, the team now has a website direction built for modern marketing operations.
Marko Delić
Head of Marketing, DreamApply
Much like how our partner institutions see us… we looked for a long-term partner, not a three-month consultant. We’ll continue to custom-build new features with Naturaily to meet our goals and the needs of our daily visitors.
The new platform helps DreamApply:
reduce friction between marketing and ops
publish with more confidence
prepare for more structured experimentation
support future multilingual expansion
keep performance strong while expanding richer content
build cleaner foundations for search, technical SEO, and AI visibility
improve form operations and lead handling through better tracking, submission workflows, and anti-spam protection
The project also evolved into an ongoing optimization partnership rather than a one-off migration. After launch, DreamApply and Naturaily continued refining forms, structured data, redirects, content behavior, translations, and deployment workflows.
Outcome
We helped DreamApply move from a limiting WordPress setup to a website foundation built for safer scaling.
Before
DreamApply’s website could support basic publishing, but it created growing friction around security, experimentation, and long-term maintainability.
After
With a headless setup built around Payload CMS, Next.js, and Vercel, DreamApply now has a faster, more flexible, and more future-ready website foundation that better supports lead generation and marketing operations.
What this work unlocked for DreamApply
A cleaner, safer website foundation
The replatforming reduced dependence on risky plugin-based workflows and created a setup better aligned with DreamApply’s operational and compliance expectations.
Better editor confidence and content control
The move toward a preview-friendly headless CMS made it easier to manage pages and content in a more structured way.
Stronger performance potential
The website direction prioritized speed, leaner front-end delivery, and better handling of richer media content.
Better conditions for CRO and experimentation
The new setup creates space for future A/B testing, personalization, and analytics improvements without the same operational friction.
Multilingual growth readiness
DreamApply now has a more scalable foundation for translating and adapting content across markets.
Early signal of lead-quality improvement
DreamApply is seeing higher-quality form submissions, less spam, and fewer irrelevant leads, while also crediting both stronger content and the new website setup for helping make that possible.
What the new setup delivers
Plugin-free
Fewer tools to vet, fewer attack surfaces, less ops drag on marketing.
Editor-first
Marketers preview and publish without filing a developer ticket.
Compliance-aligned
Built to fit DreamApply's ISO 27001 and GDPR posture.
Performance-conscious
Designed to handle richer media (including video) without slowdown.
Most valuable features of the solution
Editor experience
Preview-friendly content editing
Editors can manage content with more confidence and less developer dependency, which makes publishing smoother and safer.
Platform ownership
DreamApply-owned infrastructure with headless delivery
The solution was structured so DreamApply could keep ownership of the repository and hosting while using Payload CMS in headless mode with a modern frontend. This is a subtle but valuable point for prospects who want flexibility without losing control of their platform.
Growth readiness
Better foundations for experimentation
The new website direction supports richer analytics, and more flexible landing-page operations.
Multilingual scale
Localization-ready structure
Templates, portable content, and structured editing help DreamApply scale content more effectively across markets and languages.
Performance focus
Performance-conscious media handling
The project was designed to support richer content, including video, without sacrificing speed.
About DreamApply
DreamApply is an Estonian-founded admissions management platform that helps educational institutions streamline and simplify application processes for students and admissions teams worldwide.
Project
Headless web development
Industry
EdTech / Higher education admissions software
Web
DreamApply
Since 2011, more than 300 institutions across 40+ countries have used DreamApply to improve admissions workflows, reduce manual work, and support international student recruitment. Its customizable software integrates with commonly used systems and helps teams process applications more efficiently, with reported results including higher international student enrollment and shorter processing times.
The real value of this project was creating a website foundation we can keep building on. We now have a setup that is better for performance overall.
Marko Delić
Head of Marketing, DreamApply
Working through a similar replatform?
We can walk you through how we'd approach yours.
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FAQ
Questions teams ask before replatforming
When plugin vetting, security compliance, or experimentation friction starts blocking marketing work. WordPress handles simple publishing well, but headless setups like Payload CMS with Next.js make more sense when teams need stronger compliance posture, custom landing-page experiences, multilingual workflows, or more control over performance and lead capture.
DreamApply needed a stack that supported ISO 27001 and GDPR compliance, gave non-technical editors a preview-friendly editing experience, and avoided vendor lock-in. Payload CMS allows self-hosting and full ownership of content, Next.js delivers a fast static frontend, and Vercel provides deployment infrastructure under client control.
A headless setup reduces the plugin surface area that WordPress sites typically rely on - each plugin is a third-party dependency that needs security vetting. With Payload CMS and a custom Next.js frontend, the team controls what tools are integrated, who has access, and where data lives, which simplifies compliance reviews.
DreamApply does. The code lives in their private GitHub repository, and hosting runs on infrastructure they control. Naturaily handled the build and ongoing improvements, but ownership of the platform, content, and deployment stays with DreamApply, which matters for long-term portability and avoiding vendor lock-in.
Naturaily gave DreamApply early CMS access and tracked the migration through Jira, so the marketing team could review, refine, and publish content during the transition rather than after launch. Content was transferred to fit the new content model, not simply exported and dropped in, which avoided duplicated work.
It depends on the friction. Teams that publish occasionally and don't run experiments may not need it. Teams that hit security review on every plugin, want to run A/B tests, manage multiple languages, or carry compliance obligations like ISO 27001 or GDPR usually find the investment pays off in reduced ops drag over time.