# Static site vs WordPress: which should you build? > WordPress is not the default answer. How to choose by what the site has to do, and what each choice costs you every month. Source: https://cwp.sg/compare/static-vs-wordpress/ Author: Ben Johnson Last verified: 2026-09-21 **In short:** - A static site is a folder of HTML files that loads instantly and needs no maintenance, but requires a computer and text editor to update. - WordPress lets you publish from a browser and add features with plugins, but demands regular updates and security work. - Static sites are faster and safer on shared hosting because they skip the database and PHP processes. - Pick static for rarely-changed sites like portfolios; pick WordPress for frequent updates or non-technical users. Start with a blog, a portfolio, a brochure site for a small business. You reach for WordPress because that is what people do. It works. But it is not the only option, and for many sites it is not the best one. The real choice is between a dynamic CMS and a static site. One needs a server that builds pages on every visit. The other builds pages once, ahead of time, and serves flat files. That difference decides everything about speed, security and how much time you spend on maintenance. ## What a static site actually is A static site is a folder of HTML, CSS and JavaScript files. No database. No server-side code. When someone visits, the web server just sends the file. That is it. You build the site on your own computer using a generator like Hugo, Jekyll or Eleventy. You write in Markdown, pick a theme, run a build command, and upload the result. Our [guide to hosting a static website](/guides/how-to-host-a-website/static-website/) walks through the full process. The result is fast. There is no PHP process to wait for, no database query, no plugin loading. The server just reads a file from disk. On CWP free hosting, where you share 25% of a CPU core and 256 MB of memory, that matters. A static page uses almost no resources. Security is simpler too. There is no admin panel to attack, no database to inject, no plugin with a known vulnerability. You upload files and that is all. The trade-off is that publishing requires a computer, a text editor and a build step. If you want to write from a phone or hand the site to someone who does not know what a text editor is, static is a hard sell. ## When WordPress makes sense WordPress is a content management system. It stores everything in MySQL and builds pages on the fly. You log in through a browser, write in a visual editor, and click publish. That is the killer feature. If you need to let a non-technical person update the site regularly, WordPress is the right tool. The editor is familiar. Plugins add features without writing code. Our [guide to hosting WordPress](/guides/how-to-host-a-website/wordpress/) covers the setup. The plugin ecosystem is genuinely useful. You can add a contact form, an image gallery, an SEO checker, an e-commerce cart. A static site needs third-party services or custom code for those. WordPress also wins if you want to change themes often. A static site rebuilds the whole design when you switch. WordPress swaps the theme and keeps the content. ## The honest cost of WordPress WordPress is not free in time. It demands attention. Every week or two you need to update the core, the themes and the plugins. Skip this and your site becomes a target. A compromised plugin can inject spam, redirect visitors or take the whole site down. The [white screen of death](/errors/white-screen-of-death/) is what happens when a plugin update goes wrong and the site stops loading entirely. Plugins also slow things down. Each one adds PHP code that runs on every page load. On shared hosting with a 10-process limit, a heavy plugin stack can trigger the [508 resource limit](/errors/508-resource-limit-is-reached/) and take the site offline. You also need to manage the database. Over time it collects post revisions, spam comments and transients. If you do not clean it, the database grows and queries slow down. A static site has none of this. No updates. No database. No plugin conflicts. You build it once and it works until you change the content. ## Speed and the resource ceiling Static sites are faster because they skip the entire application layer. The server sends a file. That is a single system call. WordPress has to boot PHP, load the theme, run the plugins, query the database, and render the page. On CWP free hosting, that uses one of your 10 concurrent PHP processes. If you get enough visitors at once, those processes fill up and later visitors see a 508 error. A static site does not use PHP processes for page views. It only uses them during the build step, which happens on your computer. The hosted files consume almost nothing. Caching plugins help WordPress, but they add complexity. You need to configure them, clear the cache after updates, and hope they do not conflict with other plugins. A static site is already cached by design. ## Security surface area A static site has almost no attack surface. There is no login page, no database, no file upload handler, no PHP execution. The only way to change the site is through FTP or the file manager, which you can lock down with a strong password. WordPress has a login page that bots probe constantly. A default install is attacked within hours. You need strong passwords, limited login attempts, two-factor authentication, and a security plugin. Even then, a vulnerability in a plugin you installed three years ago can compromise the whole site. If you only update the site once a month, static is safer. If you need to publish daily from a browser, WordPress is worth the security work. ## Which one should you build Choose static if your site is a few pages that change rarely. A personal portfolio, a documentation site, a landing page for a business that updates quarterly. You get speed, security and zero maintenance for free. Choose WordPress if you need to publish regularly, hand the site to a non-technical client, or rely on plugins for features like e-commerce or membership areas. Accept that you will spend time on updates, backups and security monitoring. You can also start static and move to WordPress later. The content in Markdown is easy to migrate. Starting with WordPress and moving to static is harder because you have to extract content from the database. Both work on CWP free hosting. One will sit quietly and never cause trouble. The other will ask for your attention every week. Pick the one that matches how much time you want to spend. --- Content Website Platform (cwp.sg) operates the free hosting it writes about; see https://cwp.sg/about/ for the methodology and the commercial disclosure.