# calternatives.org — Case Study

> The Centre for Alternatives is an independent research and policy forum established in 2003, publishing under the line "Ideas begin here". Its output — publications, the Bangladesh Peace Observatory, events, a fellowship programme — needed a site the researchers could run themselves.

Canonical page: https://portfolio-shafin580s-projects.vercel.app/projects/calternatives
Author: Shafin Ahmed, Full-Stack Software Engineer (https://portfolio-shafin580s-projects.vercel.app)
Client: Centre for Alternatives
Timeline: 2025
Role: Frontend Engineer
Published: 2026-08-04 · Updated: 2026-08-04
Live site: https://www.calternatives.org

## Key takeaways
- Moving calternatives.org to headless WordPress with GraphQL and ACF produced a 65% improvement in search visibility and 70% faster development on subsequent content work.
- Keeping WordPress as the editing surface meant the Centre's researchers needed no retraining, while Next.js took over delivery entirely.
- Each route picks static generation or server rendering by how often its content actually changes, so crawlers get complete HTML on the first request rather than a hydration shell.

## Key figures
- 65% — improvement in search visibility
- 70% — faster development speed
- 2003 — the forum's founding year

## The problem
A research organisation publishes constantly and cannot file a ticket for every post. But the people publishing are researchers, not developers, so the editing surface had to be WordPress-familiar. Meanwhile the whole point of publishing research is being found, and the previous site was not: search visibility was the actual deliverable, not a nice-to-have.

## The approach
WordPress stays as the editing surface — familiar to the team, no retraining — but only as a headless content source queried over GraphQL, with Advanced Custom Fields giving each content type a real shape instead of a soup of post meta. Next.js renders it, choosing per route between static generation for stable pages and server rendering for anything that changes, so crawlers get complete HTML on first request rather than a hydration shell.

## What it does
- Headless WordPress with GraphQL and ACF — familiar editing, decoupled delivery
- Per-route SSG/SSR strategy chosen by how often the content actually changes
- Structured content types for publications, projects, events, and the fellowship programme
- Bangladesh Peace Observatory section with its own content model
- Idea submission flow for community contributions
- Dockerised build and deploy

## Stack
Next.js 14, Headless WordPress, GraphQL, ACF, SSG/SSR, Docker

## Outcome
- 65% improvement in search visibility
- 70% faster development speed on subsequent content work
- Researchers publish directly, with no developer in the loop

## Frequently asked questions
### What is the Centre for Alternatives?
The Centre for Alternatives is an independent, non-governmental research, deliberative, and policy forum established in 2003, promoting alternative thinking on society, the state, and the world. Its work spans publications, the Bangladesh Peace Observatory, events, and a fellowship programme.

### Why headless WordPress rather than a rebuild on a different CMS?
The people publishing are researchers, not developers. Keeping WordPress as the editing surface meant no retraining, while querying it over GraphQL with Advanced Custom Fields let Next.js own delivery and gave every content type a real shape instead of a soup of post meta.

### What results did the calternatives.org rebuild produce?
A 65% improvement in search visibility and a 70% increase in development speed on subsequent content work, with researchers able to publish directly and no developer in the loop.

## Organisations named
- Centre for Alternatives (Client) — https://www.calternatives.org
- ARITS Limited (Employer) — https://arits.tech

## Sources
- Centre for Alternatives — Centre for Alternatives — https://www.calternatives.org

---
Full project index: https://portfolio-shafin580s-projects.vercel.app/llms.txt