I have a website running on Kirby 2.4.1 since 2017 and I need help/suggestions on figuring out what to do with it. How much of a pain will it be migrating from kirby 2 to 4? Would I be better off migrating to something else like WordPress, static HTML, or plain ol’ php? The site doesn’t make any money, as it’s just a front for a business so I’m looking for a cheap and easy solution with minimal effort.
Any suggestions on what I should do?
I always find this sentence weird. I guess it means you do not sell anything directly via the website, but it wouldn’t be there if its purpose wouldn’t be to attract business and thus make money in the end. Otherwise, you might as well take it down. Just my 2ct.
But regarding the upgrade to Kirby 4: This is a question nobody can answer without knowing the site itself. No (Panel) plugins involved: should be pretty straightforward. The most work will then probably go into building nice blueprints for the Panel.
Panel plugins involved: Depends on type of plugins and if they can be replaced with native functionality.
There are no plugins being used. Is there a big difference between blueprints between kirby 2 and 4?
After digging some more, I might just update to the last 2.5 version since that supports PHP 7.4, the minimum php version my server will support after it gets updated.
That’s definitely an option, at least for the short term.
From a security point of view, I wouldn’t recommend it, both 2.5.x and PHP 7.4 have reached end of live and do not get any security support anymore. But that is of course up to you. In the end, PHP 7.4 will probably disappear from the server after another year or so as well.
I’d like to share my motivation with you:
In just 14 days, after work and in my spare time, I built my own website with over 60 pages (and more than 15 blueprints) using Kirby. Previously, my website was static, so I had to copy all the content from the HTML code and transfer to Kirby, which was the most tedious task. I also completely revamped the design, starting from scratch.
This was my fourth project with Kirby, and I thoroughly enjoyed the process, largely thanks to the exemplary support in the forum. I didn’t study computer science and taught myself programming. That’s why I’m not the fastest and don’t always choose the most efficient way to find a solution.
Depending on your programming expertise, I’d recommend transitioning to version 4 for future server compatibility and security. However, if only minimal changes are needed and cost reduction is a priority, it’s understandable to stick with the current setup.
My experience with Kirby is meant to inspire you. 
Pain-O-Meter for migrating:
Static HTML: X->
Kirby 4: X------>
PHP: X---------->
WordPress: X------------------------>
Where Static HTML is intended as (fingers crossed):
wget -mkEpnp http://example.org
WordPress, you’d pretty much would have to redo all of the website.
So if the choice is between HTML and Kirby, I guess it comes down to how much maintaining the contents of the website costs you in the long run. Having to update the firms address once in the footer of every page might be enough to justify the cost of an upgrade.
Thanks this is great. I don’t have to update anything on the site which is real nice, but it does have a contact form which is always a pain to migrate. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this website getting shut down in a few years so I think I’m going to kick the can down the road and try to update to the last Kirby 2 version so I can at least upgrade my server. This website is the only thing preventing me from upgrading my server which is the main task at hand right now.