Hello Biz to Next.js: Make One Move Instead of Two

The notice, and the two routes out

Elementor's help article on installing Hello Biz and Hello+, updated August 18, 2026, says the theme will be moved into maintenance mode soon, that no new features will be introduced, and that Elementor recommends moving to Hello Themes instead. The article links that phrase to its Hello theme page. Nothing switches off on a date, and no date is given. But the vendor has told you where it would like you to be, and that is a move.

Route three is the expensive one, and it is rarely chosen on purpose. If a growing business can already see a rebuild coming, paying to rearrange the site inside Elementor first buys a year of the same problems. Our Hello Biz vs Next.js comparison weighs the two destinations row by row.

Unpacking a site built by a wizard

Hello Biz sites are assembled, not designed. The owner activated the theme, installed the free Hello+ plugin and clicked Start building my website. Hello+ installed Elementor, offered a business-type kit, and applied it after an Elementor account login. The result looks like one product. Underneath, it is three, and each holds a different part of the site.

The theme row is the funny one. The product being retired is the part of the site that matters least to the migration. The Hello Biz review explains why: Hello Biz is a doorway into Elementor, and the rooms are all Elementor's.

Getting content out of Elementor's JSON

Elementor saves each page as a tree of containers (or older sections and columns) and widgets in a post meta field, with every heading, button label, image ID and link stored as a widget setting. A migration script walks that tree. It does not try to reproduce Elementor's markup, which is where much of a builder page's weight lives. It collects the meaning instead: this section is a hero with this headline, this subhead, this image and a button to the contact page.

• Hero and Flex Hero become a hero component with fields for headline, text, image and button, the same fields every hero on the new site uses.
• ZigZag becomes an alternating image and text list, a pattern that suits a structured content type with one entry per row.
• CTA becomes a reusable call-to-action block the owner edits in one place instead of on every page.
• Contact keeps its buttons, including email and map app links such as Waze, as plain fields.
• Header is rebuilt from its five settings groups: layout, site identity, navigation, contact button and call to action.
• Anything from Elementor Pro or an add-on pack is listed separately and given its own decision.

The general method, including how we handle sites that mix Elementor with block editor pages, is in our Elementor to Next.js guide. Hello Biz sites tend to be simpler than most Elementor sites, because the kit kept them to a small set of widgets.

Forms first, because forms are the business

Most Hello Biz sites exist to make the phone ring or the inbox fill. That makes the Form Lite widget, or whichever form plugin replaced it, the most valuable thing on the site and the easiest thing to break quietly. Before any page is rebuilt we write down every form: its fields, where it sends, who receives the emails, whether entries are stored anywhere, and whether anything connects to a CRM or a booking tool.

In Next.js each form is handled on the server with validation and spam protection written for that form, and the email routing is in code rather than in a settings screen somebody changed in 2025. After launch, Argus in Athena CMS watches for failing forms, which on a lead site is the costliest silent failure there is. If you want form work done properly on its own, our forms and scripts repair service does exactly that.

A broken form does not throw an error. It just stops the phone from ringing.

The Hello Biz to Next.js sequence

1. 1

   Record versions and back up

   Note the Hello Biz, Hello+ and Elementor versions and take a full backup, so any comparison or rollback has a fixed starting point.

2. 2

   Crawl the live site

   List every URL, including kit pages you forgot existed, and pull your top pages from analytics and Search Console.

3. 3

   Export Elementor data and media

   Copy each page's Elementor JSON, the global colors and fonts from Site Settings, and the full uploads folder.

4. 4

   Map widgets to components

   Match every Hello+ and Elementor widget in use to a component, and decide what happens to the rare ones.

5. 5

   Build the design system

   Turn kit colors and fonts into tokens, self-host the fonts with next/font, and build header, footer and section components.

6. 6

   Rebuild every form

   Recreate fields, recipients and integrations, then send a test submission through each one.

7. 7

   Load content into Athena

   Import the extracted text, images and links into plain fields, with alt text written for any image that lacked it.

8. 8

   Write redirects and compare

   Keep slugs where possible, redirect the rest one to one, and check each page beside the original on a preview address.

9. 9

   Launch and watch

   Switch DNS, then watch crawl errors, form submissions and call volume for the first few weeks.

A small kit-based site is a contained project; more service pages, forms and integrations stretch it. Our guides to migration timelines and migration cost explain how those factors turn into a schedule and a fixed quote.

The third option

Athena CMS, with AI agents on staff.

Not a theme and not a blank Next.js repo. The content system we put behind every custom site: plain fields, a real preview, every version kept, and AI agents that handle the chores a plugin only nags you about.

• PPicassoImages
• AApolloSite analysis
• AAresCompetitor watch
• PPrometheusContent holes
• AAtlasPage depth and structure
• DDelphiAI search visibility

ZDAOAand 12 more agents. Two come with Athena; the rest are monthly add-ons.

Meet the agentsTake the Athena tour

PPicassoWeekly · ImagesAApolloWeekly · Site analysis

What the kit's styling and the hamburger menu leave behind

Kit styling does not travel as files. It is a set of Elementor settings, so we carry over the values (colors, fonts, spacing, button shapes) and rebuild the look in code. Owners are often surprised how little is lost, because the kit was doing simple things with a lot of machinery.

Some of what you leave behind you will not miss. The support forum records a critical error after the 1.2.0 update that was cured by rolling back, an official child theme whose stylesheet did not load because of a wrong dependency handle, and mobile hamburger sub-menus that would not expand. If you are fighting one of those today, our guides to Hello Biz header not showing and Hello Biz layout broken help, and the Elementor repair hub covers the wider stack, including Elementor mobile layout problems. In Next.js the header and mobile menu are one component, tested before every deploy.

Your URLs and rankings, carried across

Hello Biz sites are usually small: a homepage, a handful of service pages, about and contact. That makes SEO protection quick. Keep each slug exactly as it is, carry over titles and meta descriptions, and redirect anything that changes to its closest match, never to the homepage. Kit pages you never used may have been indexed anyway; they get redirected or removed on purpose rather than left to return errors.

The detailed playbooks are in WordPress to Next.js redirects, planning a URL structure and migrating without losing SEO. Images uploaded through Elementor sit in the normal WordPress uploads folder and move the same way as any other site's, as explained in moving WordPress images.

When the Hello theme is the smarter next stop

We will say this plainly: for some owners, Elementor's own recommendation is the right one. Hello Elementor has 1,000,000+ active installs, it keeps you in the editor you know, and switching is usually a short project on a staging copy, not a rebuild. If your site is a five-page brochure, you enjoy editing it in Elementor, and the budget is tight, take that route. Read up on Hello Elementor first, and test the header and footer carefully, since those were Hello+ widgets.

If the right column fits, our Next.js development service handles the whole move, and website financing spreads the cost. Owners who later decide to leave Hello can read the sibling guide, Hello Elementor to Next.js.

Editing after the wizard is gone

Hello Biz appealed to owners who wanted the site to build itself. Athena CMS keeps that low-effort feel once the site exists: plain fields for each section, a real preview, every version kept, and nothing for the owner to update. The step-by-step of the switch is at switching from WordPress, and every other theme guide lives in the WordPress to Next.js section.

The agents do what a small business never gets to. Prometheus finds questions customers ask that your site does not answer, and drafts the page. Echo handles reviews. Iris writes search titles and social cards. Apollo reads every page and says what to fix first. Want to see it before deciding? Ask for a free mockup of your homepage on Next.js.