International Realtime
She asked for a few fixes. We rebuilt the whole thing.
Visit
intlrealtime.org
- Full website rebuild (vanilla stack)
- Brand redesign
- Content migration (12 pages, 7 blog posts)
- Wall of Achievement (270+ graduates)
- Performance optimization
- Accessibility audit (WCAG AA)
Outcomes
39 → 97
Lighthouse performance score, from failing to near-perfect
100
Perfect accessibility score
20 days
From first commit to launch
26
Security vulnerabilities eliminated
Overview
International Realtime Court Reporting Institute was a hosting-only client. They came to us asking for foundational fixes: update some colors, replace a broken video, clean up a few pages. Spread the cost at $100 a month added to their hosting bill.
When we audited the site, we found something worse than cosmetic problems. The WordPress installation was running PHP 7.4, which had been end-of-life for over three years. Six plugins carried a combined 26 known security vulnerabilities. Gravity Forms was five major versions behind. And the site scored a 39 out of 100 on Google’s Lighthouse performance test.
Patching that foundation would have been the easy thing to do. It also would have been the wrong thing. We proposed a ground-up rebuild on a vanilla stack: pure HTML, CSS, and JavaScript on Cloudflare, with zero framework dependencies and zero plugin vulnerabilities. Twenty days later, the site was live.
“The right thing to do and the easy thing to do were not the same. We chose the right thing.”
iProv team, on the IRC rebuild
01.
The audit that changed the conversation
What They Asked For
Small fixes. The site looked “drab and muted.” They wanted brighter colors, updated photos, and a broken testimonial video replaced. A few hours of work, spread over monthly billing.
What We Found
A Lighthouse performance score of 39. PHP 7.4, three and a half years past end-of-life. Twenty-six known security vulnerabilities across six plugins. Gravity Forms five major versions behind. A “Slide Anything” popup page accidentally indexed by Google. Fourteen images missing alt text. The site wasn’t just dated. It was a liability.
02.
Rebuild, don’t patch
The Decision
Rather than spend hours patching a foundation that couldn’t hold, we proposed a ground-up rebuild on a vanilla stack: pure HTML, CSS, and JavaScript hosted on Cloudflare. No WordPress. No plugins. No framework dependencies. Just clean code that loads fast and stays secure.
The Build
Five build slices. Sixty-two commits. Twenty days from first commit to launch. A full brand redesign with new colors and typography. All content migrated, including a Wall of Achievement with 270-plus graduates organized by year. Seven blog posts carried over. Contact forms rebuilt on Cloudflare Workers. An accessibility audit to WCAG AA standards. Every image given proper alt text.
03.
The numbers speak
Before
Performance 39. Twenty-six vulnerabilities. Broken content. Missing videos. A junk page indexed by Google.
After
Performance 97. Accessibility 100. SEO 100. Zero framework dependencies. Zero plugin vulnerabilities. Sub-second first paint. A site that loads in under a second and scores near-perfect on every measure Google uses to rank websites.
Ready for results like these?
Let’s talk