Migrating Funding HQ from AEM to WordPress + Headless API Case Study

FHQ Overview

Funding HQ is Vertical’s internal platform built to help Canadian entrepreneurs, small businesses, and startups discover funding sources, including grants, loans, wage subsidies, and investment programs. Initially launched on Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) to support a large relational database of funding opportunities, Funding HQ quickly grew, both in traffic and operational complexity.

This case study focuses on the full migration process, the technical challenges, and the performance gains achieved with the new architecture.

The AEM Barrier

AEM is a powerful enterprise CMS, but for Funding HQ, it became a barrier: Very high ongoing licensing and hosting costs, Long development cycles, Difficult integrations, Limited flexibility, Complex data structures that slowed down performance, High-security overhead to manage multiple input systems. Verdict: For a scaling startup, AEM’s footprint was too heavy, too costly, and too slow.

Our Vision

As the platform expanded to thousands of users across Canada, AEM became increasingly expensive, slow to evolve, and difficult to customize, especially for a lean startup environment. Vertical decided to migrate Funding HQ to a WordPress + Headless API architecture, creating a faster, more flexible, cost-effective, and scalable version of the platform. Vertical needed a platform that was agile, affordable, editable, and fast, without sacrificing performance or security.

Migration Objectives

Vertical’s core objectives were:

Reduce operational and development costs
Accelerate implementation of new features
Improve UX, speed, and SEO
Simplify backend publishing for non-technical editors
Enable custom integrations (HubSpot, AI response system, scraping scripts)
Implement a modern headless API architecture
Assure full data integrity during the migration
Improve scalability for future expansion

Scope of Migration

The AEM to WordPress migration was extensive, involving:

500+ funding sources (grants, loans, wage subsidies)
Dozens of custom fields (funding amount, eligibility, duration, provider info)
Complex taxonomy structures (industry, demographic, province, business stage, funding objective, etc.)
Filtering data including funding amounts, availability, scope, difficulty
All attachments and required paperwork files
Full re-creation of the granular filtering system

During migration, Vertical also:

Merged and simplified categories
Added new crucial taxonomies (provincial/federal classification, venture capital, application difficulty)
Removed expired or irrelevant funding sources

Challenges & Solutions

Extracting Data From AEM’s Deeply Nested Structure
Solution:
Custom Python scripts, multi-stage exports, manual adjustments, and automated mapping ensured data accuracy.
Maintaining SEO & Link Integrity
Solution:
We rebuilt metadata structures, added optimized tags, configured redirects, and improved internal linking.
Preserving Structured Relationships
Solution:
We created scripts to preserve file associations, funding relationships, and category mappings during re-import.
Performance Optimization After Migration
Solution:
We implemented database indexing, API optimization, caching layers, and an optimized schema.

Proven Migration Process

Data Extraction & Transformation
Exported data from AEM using APIs
Used custom Python scripts to extract unexportable fields such as categories, relationships, metadata, and key-value pairs
Recompiled data into JSON and CSV for WordPress ingestion
Performed extensive data cleanup, including merging categories, restructuring taxonomies, and removing unused fields
Data Integrity Assurance
Ran AI-assisted audits alongside manual checks
Verified relationships between funding sources, categories, and associated files
Ensured internal linking and metadata were accurately migrated
Content Reorganization
Reclassified several funding categories
Standardized naming conventions
Added missing taxonomies to improve UX filtering
Structured all data for a clean WordPress schema
Custom Database & WordPress Schema
Custom post types
Custom taxonomies
Optimized relational structures for fast queries

Key Takeaways

Funding HQ is now faster, smarter, easier to maintain, and far more affordable, a platform truly built for long-term growth. This migration highlights Vertical’s capabilities:

Deep enterprise CMS migration expertise
Advanced WordPress engineering
Skilled headless API architecture design
Ability to handle large structured datasets
Precision in data integrity and content mapping
Rapid development with thoughtful UX strategy
Long-term commitment to scalable digital products

Migrating Funding HQ from AEM to WordPress was a strategic turning point for the platform. We not only reduced operational costs dramatically, but also unlocked the flexibility and speed we needed to evolve the product. The new headless architecture has allowed us to innovate faster, scale confidently, and deliver a far better experience to Canadian entrepreneurs.

Sebastian G.

Senior Dev

The Outcome

Compared to AEM, the WordPress + Headless version brings a new level of flexibility and potential:

Much faster load times and filtering
Cleaner and more intuitive UI
Improved mobile responsiveness
Reusable front-end templates
Enhanced SEO and higher rankings
Editable content structures for non-technical staff
Rapid design adaptability for new funding categories or landing pages
Modern look & feel that reflects user behavior and feedback
Admins can now add/edit content easily, without needing specialized developers

About Vertical

Vertical is a Toronto-based WordPress development agency with 15+ years of experience delivering high-performance websites and scalable digital platforms. From complex enterprise migrations to innovative internal products like Funding HQ, we blend deep technical expertise, strategic insight, and user-centered design to create digital solutions that drive meaningful results.

[email protected]
verticalhq.ca