WordPress or a static website: which suits a small business?

WordPress or a static website is a question that comes up for almost every small business planning a new site. The honest answer is that neither is inherently better. The decision depends on how many times a month your content actually changes and who changes it. In this article we look at both options without trying to sell you anything: how they differ, when each makes sense and what each will cost you month to month.

How they differ

WordPress is a content management system. When a visitor opens a page, the server assembles it at the moment of the request: it queries the database for the text, runs the theme and plugin code, and sends the result to the browser. With a static website the HTML file is already finished. The server does not need to calculate anything or query a database. It simply hands over the file.

Almost everything else follows from that single difference. WordPress needs regular maintenance, because the core, theme and plugins all have to be kept up to date. An out of date plugin is a common way in for attackers. A static site has no database and no server side code, so the attack surface is considerably smaller and the maintenance need is minimal.

The other side of it is editing content. In WordPress you can add blog posts, news, product descriptions and campaign pages yourself, without a developer. Editing a static site requires either a developer or a separate content management layer that has been set up technically, such as a headless CMS. That is not an obstacle, but it is a separate decision worth making knowingly. This is where the most important line between the two approaches runs.

When WordPress makes sense

The strength of WordPress is adding content without a developer. If someone in your company writes a blog post every week, adds news items or updates product descriptions, then a content management system is the sensible tool. The same applies to an online shop: a constantly changing catalogue, prices and stock levels need a system that makes them easy to manage.

WordPress is a good fit when:

• the site has a blog or news feed that is updated at least a couple of times a month;
• several people edit the content and they have no technical background;
• an online shop or a multilingual, constantly changing catalogue is planned;
• campaign pages are created often and you want to set them up yourself.

It is only fair to say that WordPress is not slow in itself. Slowness usually comes from too many plugins, a heavy page builder and unoptimised images. A properly built and maintained WordPress site loads quickly. The problem arises when a site has been filled over the years with plugins that nobody remembers installing. If the updates have also been left undone, the culprit is an unmaintained system, not the name of the platform.

When a static site wins

If your site has 5 to 15 pages and the content changes a few times a year, then with WordPress you are most likely paying for capability you never use. In that case a static website is the simpler and cheaper choice: no plugins, no database, no server side code. Simple file hosting or a CDN is enough. Calmer means something very specific here: you never have to wonder each month whether an update was missed.

A common fear is that nothing can be added to a static site later on. That fear is unfounded. Forms, news and bookings can all be handled, they are simply built differently, through an external service or a separate API. Our booking system, for example, works on a static site in exactly the same way and costs 19 € per month plus VAT.

A static site is a good fit when:

• the content changes a few times a year rather than every week;
• the purpose of the site is to present your services and generate enquiries;
• you have neither the time nor the wish to deal with updates and backups;
• the monthly running cost needs to be as low as possible.

Speed, security and cost

Speed and security

A static site generally loads faster, because the server does not have to run code or query a database. The file is ready and reaches the visitor immediately. Speed is not only a matter of comfort: visitors notice when a page is slow and leave before they reach the content. You can measure your own site's actual speed free of charge with Google's PageSpeed Insights tool.

The security side is simple: the fewer moving parts, the fewer places to break in. With WordPress, security means continuous work, that is updates, backups and monitoring. With a static site the attack surface is small by design.

What you are paying for

A WordPress site needs hosting capable of running code. Add to that either your own maintenance time or a maintenance service. Static site hosting costs 0 € with us, because simple file hosting is negligible. Our one off website price is 790 € plus VAT, and that figure is public. It is also worth noting that SEO does not depend on the platform. Search results are influenced by content, structure, speed and technical correctness, not by the name of the platform. Either approach can produce a good or a poor result, and Google Search Console, analytics and structured data work in exactly the same way on both. If search visibility is an important goal for you, our SEO service costs 379 € per month plus VAT and works with either platform.

Three questions before you decide

Start the platform choice from your own work, not from the technology. Three questions usually lead to the right answer:

• How many times a month does your content actually change? If the answer is zero or one, that weighs heavily in favour of a static site.
• Who edits the content? If there are several editors with no technical background, a content management system is more convenient.
• What does the site need to do besides present information? An online shop, customer accounts and a multilingual catalogue point to WordPress or another CMS. A simple enquiry form and bookings can be handled either way.

If the answers leave you between the two options, consider who will maintain the site in future. A WordPress site with nobody looking after it becomes a security risk within a year or two. A static site with nobody looking after it simply sits there and keeps working. For a small business where nobody deals with the website every day, that argument is often decisive. In that case it is cheaper to pay a developer once a year for a small change than to keep up a system that nobody updates. It is a practical argument: an unmaintained system ends up costing more than a system that needs no maintenance.

If you want to see concrete figures before deciding, all our prices are public. And if you want to know which platform actually suits your current site and content, get in touch for a free audit and you will have an answer with no obligation.