The main comparison page, covering speed, security, editing, costs, and which option fits different types of organisations.
Knowledge hub
Static website guides and patterns
Static sites are the boring, reliable option, which is why they win. If you mainly need an online presence for social media, signage, vehicle livery, and credibility, static is often the cheapest way to get a fast site that does not demand constant attention.
This section collects practical static site patterns, including navigation and footer partials, sitemap hygiene, redirects, and the small choices that stop a simple site turning into a mess. It sits under the static vs WordPress comparison and focuses on what matters when you're running a static site in the real world.
Low maintenance
Fast by default
Security friendly
On this page
Quick truth
Static is usually cheaper than WordPress over time because there is less to patch, fewer plugins to license, and fewer surprise fixes.
The trade off is that changes are more deliberate. For most small organisations, that's a feature.
Who should use static
Static is a strong fit when
- You want a clean, credible site that loads fast and always works.
- You mainly need key pages, such as services, about, pricing, contact, and FAQs.
- You update content occasionally, not every day.
- You care about security and uptime, and you do not want a public admin login.
- You want predictable costs and fewer subscriptions.
Trades, local services, small charities, community projects, and SMEs often fit this profile.
Static is less ideal when
- You have multiple staff publishing content daily inside a dashboard.
- You rely on heavy CMS features, such as complex memberships or booking flows.
- You need a full editorial workflow with drafts, revisions, and role based publishing.
- You want to experiment constantly without any process around changes.
In those cases, WordPress can be the smoother day to day experience, as long as maintenance is owned.
Static advantages
Speed that stays fast
Static sites serve files directly. With a CDN in front, most requests never touch your origin server. That keeps performance consistent over time, without plugin drift.
Smaller attack surface
No public login page, no database, no PHP runtime, no plugin ecosystem to patch every week. It is easier to keep clean and protected.
Lower running cost
Hosting can be very cheap and reliable. You avoid many plugin licences and the recurring maintenance that comes with a CMS. Most spend goes into improvements, not firefighting.
Predictability
The site you deploy is the site visitors get. That makes it easier to troubleshoot, easier to cache, and easier to keep stable.
Static limits and trade offs
Editing is more deliberate
You do not usually log in and edit pages directly on the live site. Changes happen through a build workflow, or through a trusted person. For most SMEs, that's fine, but it is different from WordPress.
Dynamic features need a plan
Forms, bookings, and payments still work, but they usually rely on external services or serverless functions. That can be cleaner than plugins, but you need to choose providers carefully.
Content scaling needs structure
Static can handle a lot of pages, but you need a tidy structure: sensible URLs, consistent navigation, a sitemap that stays accurate, and a way to prevent duplicates appearing.
Governance still matters
Static does not magically fix messy content decisions. You still need a clear page structure and a content owner. Static reduces the technical mess.
Free tools that make static less tedious
Static sites are fast and low maintenance, but a few admin tasks can feel annoying, especially during migrations or tidy ups. Ki-Ki publishes free tools that help you generate key files without installing anything.
Nav and footer generator
Build nav.html and footer.html partials from your site structure, so navigation stays consistent across every page.
This cuts duplication and makes future edits much quicker.
Sitemap and robots generator
Generate sitemap.xml and robots.txt from a local folder or pasted URL list. Useful for migrations, redirects,
and keeping SEO hygiene tight without crawling your site.
Privacy note
These tools run locally in your browser. Your file list stays on your device, your site files are not uploaded, and no data is transmitted.
Porkbun users, the quick workflow
You can connect by FTP using a client like FileZilla, download your website folder, then feed that folder or file list into the generators. It is a quick way to rebuild navigation and sitemap files after a restructure.
Patterns and pages
These are practical pages and tools that help static sites stay tidy, especially during migrations and growth.
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Static websites vs WordPress, practical comparison
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robots.txt and sitemap.xml generator
Generate a clean sitemap and robots file for static hosting without crawling. Useful for migrations, redirects, and SEO housekeeping.
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Nav and footer generator
Build shared partials like nav.html and footer.html from your structure, so you can update menus once and apply changes everywhere.
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Static build and Cloudflare security
If you want a static build done properly, this covers the typical approach, what you get, and how it stays maintainable.
One thing that keeps static SEO clean
Static sites often pick up duplicates during migrations, such as /page, /page/, and /page/index.html.
If you keep your sitemap accurate and your redirects deliberate, you avoid a lot of slow, boring SEO damage.
Next steps
If you are considering static, the best first step is to clarify what you need your site to do. Most organisations do not need a complex platform. They need a clear site that loads fast, looks credible, and makes it easy for people to contact them.