Headless Bitrix cart and checkout: five things we didn't see coming
The catalog took nine days in Next.js. The cart integration took a month. Checkout took another seven weeks.
Headless Bitrix and modernization
How to move an e-commerce storefront to Next.js while the catalog, cart and 1C exchange stay on Bitrix. Notes on rewrite versus staged migration, redirects, auth, stock sync and deploying two independent parts.
31 articles
Rewrite or probe: how not to burn the modernization budget
Before a large Bitrix/PHP rewrite, test the risk on a small slice: catalog, search, API, Core Web Vitals, SEO and integrations.
Risk budget before headless: what I count before a rewrite
A rewrite rarely starts with architecture. It usually starts with a sentence: "we cannot keep developing the current site anymore."
Rewrite is not a scope. It is a symptom to unpack
When someone says “we need a rewrite,” they usually aren't describing the work yet.
Should you rewrite Bitrix? Why I map scope before naming a price
When someone asks me, "How much would it cost to rewrite our Bitrix site on a normal stack?", I rarely answer with a number in the first message.
Do not start a rewrite with a six-month estimate. Start with the first work slice
When a project already hurts, the natural request is: "Give us an estimate for the whole rewrite."
Before a Bitrix rewrite, I map the risk before I price the project
When someone comes to me with "we want to rewrite our 1C-Bitrix store on Next.js", I do not start with a price.
TypeScript API contract for Bitrix REST: generate types, stop guessing shapes
We spent two weeks asking "what does this method actually return?" when we moved a 28,000-product catalog to a headless architecture. Open the Bitrix REST docs — they're three months behind the actual version. Open the debugger, call the method, look at the real response, infer the shape, write an interface. Next day, a teammate does the same with another method. Slightly different assumptions.
One Bitrix backend, two Next.js frontends: what actually breaks
One PHP backend. Two Next.js frontends. Two domains. Two brands.
How I pitch headless to a Bitrix client: it's not about technology, it's about money
Every failed headless pitch I've seen used the same line.
Redirects Died on Deploy Day. Bitrix Didn't Warn Us.
We went headless in February. In April, our SEO consultant sent a spreadsheet: 340 broken links. Three years of redirect rules, gone the day we deployed Next.js. No errors in the logs. Next.js had no idea these rules were supposed to exist in the first place.
Headless Bitrix Image Pipeline: What Breaks First in Next.js
We launched headless Bitrix + Next.js. LCP got worse.
Have you actually hit the Bitrix ceiling, or are you just tired of it?
A client messaged me last year. 30,000 SKU store on Bitrix, "everything's slow," ready to migrate to headless. I asked three questions: what percentage of requests take more than two seconds? Is composite mode enabled? When did you last check slow_query_log?
The authorized user sees the login form. Bitrix is up. Next.js is up. They just can't agree on who you are.
We moved a 28,000-product catalog to Next.js. The first two days after deploy were about CSS and performance. On day three, a ticket arrived: "Authenticated users see the login form instead of their account."
Stock Sync in Headless Bitrix: Three Patterns and Why Boring Polling Wins
Three warehouses. 28,000 SKUs. A promise to the client: real-time stock data.
We plan the next Bitrix upgrade before the project launches. Here's the playbook
Bitrix upgrade lifecycle planning isn't something most teams think about at project kickoff. They think about it when a security advisory lands in their inbox on a Friday afternoon.
What 28,000 SKUs taught me about Bitrix
I walked into the project with a bias.
What we kept on Bitrix when going headless: the honest list with reasoning
When a client says "we're going headless," the first question isn't "which framework." It's: what actually stays on Bitrix?
Local Dev for Headless Bitrix: Three Setups, One That Actually Works
The first question I get about headless Bitrix is about architecture. The second is about deployment. The third nobody asks out loud — but everyone runs into it in the first week: how do you actually develop when you don't have Bitrix on your machine?
PHP Earns the Money. Next.js Shows It.
In a headless Bitrix + Next.js architecture, the split is straightforward in theory: Bitrix owns the data and business logic, Next.js owns the rendering. In practice, most teams get this wrong within the first year.
Five things Bitrix REST API doesn't tell you before you go headless
I've spent more time with Bitrix REST API than I expected. Not because the API is broken. Because the documentation covers syntax, not behavior.
Cache Invalidation in Headless: How Next.js Learns When Bitrix Updates a Product
The complaint came on day three after the headless launch. A store manager updated a price in Bitrix at 10:47. A customer added the product to their cart at 11:20 — at the old price. The Next.js page was cached for one hour.
Frontend deploys in 3 minutes, backend takes 40: managing deploy velocity in headless Bitrix
We went headless. The frontend started deploying in 3 minutes. The backend didn't.
Three checks before any headless project
The first question I ask before any proposal: "Who's editing content after we're done, and where?"
Five questions I ask before proposing headless to a client
In the past two years I've turned down headless three times. Not because I don't believe in it — I've built it, I know what it delivers. But each time, five questions made the answer obvious before we touched a wireframe. The fourth client got the full Next.js + Bitrix split. It's one of the best ecommerce projects I've worked on.
When headless is the wrong answer
I build headless sites on Next.js + Bitrix. I've migrated a catalog of 28,000 SKUs. I turned down a $40K contract because rewriting a working monolith made no sense. And when a client walks in asking for headless, my first question is always: "Why headless, exactly?"
My server is 8 years old and I won't rewrite it. Here's why.
A client came to me with a request: "We need to rewrite the backend. It's old." I asked: "What specifically is broken?" Pause. "Well... it's old."
Headless isn't about speed. It's about deploy independence.
Three years ago a client messaged me: we found a critical vulnerability in the payment module. How soon can we update Bitrix?
Bitrix doesn't slow down. The way teams use it does.
Every third conversation about Bitrix starts with "it's slow." I stopped arguing. I ask to see the profiler instead.
I turned down a $40K rewrite contract. The logs told me why.
The call was straightforward. A client wanted their Bitrix shop rewritten from scratch.
Modernizing a 1C-Bitrix Monolith Without a Risky Rewrite
How do you modernize a 28,000-product 1C-Bitrix store without a risky rewrite? In this case study, I break down a Headless migration using Next.js + Elasticsearch that improved performance, preserved SEO, and kept the business running.