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Which setup fits your WordPress site

Six common setups, compared from each vendor’s own docs, and when each one fits.

Start your free trial See when each setup fits

Six ways to run a WordPress site

The first three keep WordPress answering visitors. The last three publish it as static files, so visitors never reach WordPress.

  • Strong here
  • With a catch
  • Weak here
Security plugin or firewall
Wordfence, Patchstack, Sucuri
Managed WordPress host
WP Engine, Kinsta
CDN edge cache
Cloudflare APO
Static export plugin
Simply Static, Simply Static Pro
Static WordPress hosting
Simply Static Studio, HardyPress
Staatic
Self-hosted plugin, Staatic Cloud

Can bots reach WordPress?

Security plugin or firewall
With a catch: Yes, filtered
Managed WordPress host
With a catch: Yes
CDN edge cache
With a catch: Yes, past the cache
Static export plugin
Strong here: No
Static WordPress hosting
Strong here: No
Staatic
Strong here: No

Up when WordPress is down?

Security plugin or firewall
Weak here: Not with a plugin
Managed WordPress host
With a catch: Cached pages only
CDN edge cache
With a catch: Cached pages only
Static export plugin
Strong here: Yes
Static WordPress hosting
Strong here: Yes
Staatic
Strong here: Yes

Logins, carts and checkout?

Security plugin or firewall
Strong here: Work
Managed WordPress host
Strong here: Work
CDN edge cache
Strong here: Work
Static export plugin
Weak here: No
Static WordPress hosting
Weak here: No
Staatic
Weak here: No

Some paths live, the rest static?

Security plugin or firewall
All live
Managed WordPress host
All live
CDN edge cache
All live
Static export plugin
Weak here: No
Static WordPress hosting
Weak here: No
Staatic
Strong here: Yes, with origin rules

Forms and search?

Security plugin or firewall
Strong here: Any plugin
Managed WordPress host
Strong here: Any plugin
CDN edge cache
Strong here: Any plugin
Static export plugin
With a catch: With Pro
Static WordPress hosting
With a catch: Included
Staatic
With a catch: Included (Cloud, Premium)

When do changes go live?

Security plugin or firewall
Strong here: On save
Managed WordPress host
Strong here: On save
CDN edge cache
Strong here: Within 30 seconds
Static export plugin
With a catch: On save with Pro
Static WordPress hosting
With a catch: When you publish
Staatic
With a catch: On save (Cloud, Premium)

Who runs the hosting?

Security plugin or firewall
You
Managed WordPress host
The host
CDN edge cache
You, with Cloudflare
Static export plugin
You, both sides
Static WordPress hosting
The service
Staatic
Staatic Cloud, or you

From each vendor’s own site, read on 30 October 2026. Plans and settings can change an answer.

When each setup fits

Each setup suits some sites. Here is when to pick each one, and when to look elsewhere.

WordPress keeps answering visitors

Security plugin or firewall

Wordfence, Patchstack, Sucuri

Pick it when
Your site must stay fully live, such as a shop or a membership site, and you want protection on top of it.
Look elsewhere when
Your site still feels slow, or you’d rather bots never reached WordPress. A plugin or firewall filters requests, but WordPress still answers what gets through.

Managed WordPress host

WP Engine, Kinsta

Pick it when
A shop or member area must stay live, and you want the host to run the server and caching.
Look elsewhere when
Your site is mostly pages and posts, and you’d rather visitors never reached WordPress. Pages not in the cache are still built by WordPress.

CDN edge cache

Cloudflare APO

Pick it when
You want cached pages in front of your current host, without changing how you work.
Look elsewhere when
You want bots kept away from WordPress, or you run multisite. Pages not in the cache still go to WordPress, and the APO plugin doesn’t support multisite.

WordPress is published as static files

Static export plugin

Simply Static, Simply Static Pro

Pick it when
You only need a ZIP of your site now and then, and you’ll run WordPress and any hosting yourself.
Look elsewhere when
You’d rather not run WordPress and the static hosting yourself, or some paths need to stay live.

Looking at WP2Static? Its last release, 7.2, was in January 2023, and it’s no longer in the WordPress.org plugin directory.

Static WordPress hosting

Simply Static Studio, HardyPress

Pick it when
You want one company to host a paused WordPress and the static site, and no path needs to stay live. Simply Static Studio, HardyPress
Look elsewhere when
You need a hybrid static site, with a few paths live, or delivery from Amazon CloudFront’s 250+ locations.

Staatic

Self-hosted plugin, Staatic Cloud

Pick it when
Your site is mostly pages and posts, such as a company site or a blog. Visitors get finished files while you keep editing in WordPress, on Staatic Cloud or your own hosting. On Cloud, origin rules forward the few paths that must stay live.
Look elsewhere when
Most pages are built per visitor or behind a login.

Why Staatic Cloud for hosted static WordPress

Simply Static Studio, HardyPress and Staatic Cloud all keep WordPress on a private address and serve visitors a static copy from a CDN. Staatic Cloud uses Amazon CloudFront, with 250+ locations (400+ on Enterprise).

Hybrid static sites

Most of the site is served as files. Origin rules (hybrid routing in the plans) send the few paths that must stay live to your WordPress or your own server, under your own domain.

Protect those paths as you would any live site. Paths to WordPress need the always-on add-on. Simply Static doesn’t support a partially static site.

How origin rules work

One site, four paths
  • / Static files Served from CloudFront
  • /blog/* Static files Published from your WordPress
  • /wp-json/* Your WordPress Forms and plugin endpoints
  • /app/* Your own server An app or API under your own domain

  • WordPress stays private

    Your WordPress sits behind a password prompt on its own address. Without an origin rule, visitors and bots only reach files.

  • Publishing follows your edits

    Publish by hand, on each save or on a schedule, and only what changed. Check it on a preview site first if you like.

  • Forms and search included

    Contact Form 7, Divi, Gravity Forms and WPForms connect on their own, with spam filtering.

  • Backups every day

    Daily, weekly and monthly backups, plus your own whenever you want one. Restore or download any of them.

  • No lock-in: host it yourself later

    Move WordPress to your own hosting and the same plugin deploys to your server, Amazon S3, GitHub or Netlify. Forms, search and publishing on save then need Premium. Origin rules stay on Cloud.

Running sites for clients? Each client gets a login for their own site only. Staatic for agencies

When Staatic is not the right choice

A static site suits pages everyone sees the same way. If most of yours aren’t, pick another setup.

Most pages are built per visitor or behind a login
Shops with accounts, membership sites and forums need a live server on every request. Use a managed host. Staatic can still serve the marketing pages.
Content changes by the minute
Prices or stock levels that change by the minute only update when Staatic publishes. Keep those pages live, or load the data in the browser.

Not sure about a plugin? Check the compatibility lookup.

They work together

Staatic changes what visitors reach. The other setups can keep working behind it or next to it.

  • A security plugin on your private WordPress

    Keep login protection and update alerts on the WordPress you edit in. Staatic keeps visitors and bots away from it.

  • A shop or member area on its own server

    Run the shop on a subdomain at a managed host, and publish the rest with Staatic.

The details behind the Staatic column

Mostly pages and posts? Try it on your site.

Publish your own WordPress as a static site on Staatic Cloud, free for 14 days. Not sure it fits? Tell us what your site does.

Start your free trial Ask us first
  • No payment details needed
  • The trial ends automatically
  • You keep editing in WordPress