Static websites, built once and done
A static website is made of finished files instead of a database and a stack of plugins. It loads instantly, costs nothing to host, and there is nothing on it to patch. For most business websites, that is the whole job.
What "static" actually means
When someone visits a static site, the server hands them a page that already exists. That is the entire transaction.
A CMS works differently. There are no finished pages sitting on the server. Every time someone visits, the software runs, queries a database, assembles the page, sends it, and throws it away. That is why a CMS needs caching, more expensive hosting, and constant maintenance. It is doing real work on every single request.
The work of assembling your pages moves to before the visitor arrives, instead of during. Everything else follows from that one change.
"Static" does not mean you cannot change it
You still edit content in one place, navigation still lives in a single file, and publishing is still one action. A build step turns all of that into finished pages before anyone visits, rather than during.
"Static" does not mean plain
Animation, interactivity, search, forms, and dynamic components all work. The difference is in how the page is delivered, not in what it can do once it arrives.
You own the output
Standard HTML, CSS, and text files. No proprietary format, no database export to untangle, no platform holding your content. Moving hosts later is a one-day job.
Static site vs WordPress, side by side
The honest comparison, including where a CMS is the better answer.
| CMS site (WordPress, Drupal, Squarespace) | Static site | |
|---|---|---|
| How a page gets served | Software runs on every visit, queries a database, assembles the page, then discards it | The finished file already exists and gets handed over |
| Monthly hosting | $20 to $100+, more once traffic or caching requirements grow | $0 on Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, or similar at small business scale |
| Maintenance | Core updates, plugin updates, theme updates, on somebody's schedule | None. Changes happen when you want a change |
| Attack surface | Database, admin login, and every plugin written by a stranger | Files. No database to inject, no login exposed, no plugins |
| Speed | Depends on hosting, caching, plugin count, and page builder overhead | Sub-second, because there is no work left to do at request time |
| Editing content | Built-in admin panel | Git-based admin panel that looks like a CMS, or edit text files directly |
| Best suited to | Memberships, live inventory, real-time booking, many authors publishing daily | Sites that are mostly pages, mostly staying put |
When you should keep the CMS
If you run a membership system, a store with real inventory, a job board, a booking engine tied to live availability, a site with a dozen authors publishing daily, or thousands of pages under constant revision, a database-driven CMS is the right tool and I will tell you so.
This is not a case that WordPress is bad software. It runs a large share of the web and does its job. The mismatch is that most business websites are a few dozen pages that change a few times a year, running infrastructure built for something much larger, and paying for it every month.
There is also a case for fixing what you have. If your site is a recent build on a well-maintained theme, you like how it looks, and your only complaint is speed, then a hosting upgrade, image compression, and cutting your plugin count will get you a long way for far less than a rebuild. I would rather talk you out of this now than halfway through.
What changes when the pages already exist
Instant loading
The page already exists before anyone asks for it. No database queries, no server rendering, no cache to warm up. Rebuilds routinely go from Lighthouse scores in the 40s to the high 90s with the same content and the same images.
$0 hosting
Static files are served free at small business scale on production-grade platforms with global CDNs. Not a throttled free tier. If you are currently paying a few hundred a month, most of that line item disappears rather than shrinking.
Nothing to patch
No plugins to update, no core upgrades that break the layout, no security releases to chase. The automated probes keep arriving, because they arrive for every domain on the internet, and they stop finding anything to try.
Your URLs survive
Search rankings are attached to addresses. Every existing URL either resolves to the same content at the same address or redirects to its new home. Nothing is allowed to 404.
Built for AI search
Static generators emit exactly the structured data you specify: Article, FAQPage, HowTo, Organization. Nothing lands in the page that you did not choose to put there, and serving crawler traffic costs nothing.
Design without a theme fighting you
The design gets built properly rather than negotiated with a purchased theme's assumptions about what is possible. This is usually where the visual improvement comes from.
What it costs, published
Flat rates with explicit scope boundaries. You should not have to book a call to find out whether you can afford something.
Conversion
Your site, rebuilt on modern architecture. The same design, the same content, and the same addresses, now faster and secure, with no plugins to maintain.
- ✓ Full site audit and inventory
- ✓ Faithful rebuild of every layout
- ✓ All content and images migrated
- ✓ Existing third-party services reconnected and confirmed firing
- ✓ URL and redirect preservation
- ✓ Pre-launch verification report
- ✓ Client editing for blog and news posts
- ✓ 30 days of post-launch support
Conversion + Refresh
Everything in a Conversion, plus a design pass: typography, spacing, imagery and layout brought current without changing the identity you already have.
- ✓ Everything in Conversion
- ✓ Design refresh across every layout
- ✓ Reworked graphics and imagery
- ✓ Image sourcing, treatment and optimization
- ✓ Accessibility remediation to WCAG 2.2 AA
- ✓ 60 days of post-launch support
New Site
A new site. Positioning, structure, design and copy revisited from first principles, built on the same modern foundation.
- ✓ Everything in Conversion + Refresh
- ✓ Information architecture and sitemap design
- ✓ Original design system
- ✓ Content strategy and page-level copy direction
- ✓ Brand and asset coordination
- ✓ 90 days of post-launch support
The rate card
Pages are priced by what they are, because a privacy policy is not the same amount of work as a homepage. Count your pages, pick a column, add it up. That arithmetic is the whole quote.
| Page type | Conversion | + Refresh | New Site |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homepage The front page. Most design attention, most components. | $300 | $600 | $700 |
| Main page A top-level page, like About or Contact. | $145 | $300 | $350 |
| Section page A page nested under a section, like Services → Wills. | $105 | $215 | $250 |
| Legal page Privacy policy, terms, disclaimers. Long, but pure text. | $35 | $75 | $90 |
| Blog post One template, your content flows into it. | $30 | $65 | $80 |
A real quote
A recent site, exactly as it was quoted. Details changed only to keep the client anonymous.
| Homepage | 1 | $300 | $300 |
| Main pages | 7 | $145 | $1,015 |
| Section pages | 4 | $105 | $420 |
| Legal / policy pages | 2 | $35 | $70 |
| Blog posts | 6 | $30 | $180 |
| Qualifying intake form | 1 | $300 | $300 |
| Newsletter signup | 1 | $100 | $100 |
| Blog linking and categories | 1 | $150 | $150 |
| Search Console and indexing | 1 | $125 | $125 |
| Scheduling links repointed to a new provider | 1 | No charge | $0 |
| Rounded down | −$10 | ||
| Total | $2,650 | ||
Add-ons
Real work that is not a page. Billed only when the project actually contains it.
- Contact or newsletter form $100
Moved to a hosted endpoint, wired to its destination, spam-protected and delivery-tested.
- Form with conditional logic $300
A multi-step or qualifying form whose branching, validation and routing rules have to be reproduced exactly.
- Search Console setup and indexing $125
Property verified, sitemap submitted, indexing requested and coverage monitored after launch.
- Internal linking and category structure $150
Cross-linking related posts, building category and tag structure, fixing metadata gaps found in the audit.
- Content restructuring $150
Reworking or relocating existing copy so information that is currently buried is easy to find.
- Editing interface setup $200
A hosted editing interface for your collections, with your login configured and a walkthrough.
- Repointing a third-party service No charge
Sending an existing link or embed to a different provider during the move.
- Store or booking system Per project
Never estimated from a page count. Scoped on its own.
How it works
- $750 minimum. That floor only covers the fixed cost of setting up, deploying and cutting over a site at all.
- 40% deposit to start, the balance on launch.
- Totals round down to the nearest $50.
- Hosting is $0 and setting it up is included.
- One time. There is no retainer, because a static site does not need one.
What this does not include
- ✗ Writing new copy, on a Conversion. Your existing content comes across as it is
- ✗ Ongoing content writing or marketing
- ✗ E-commerce with inventory management. Shopify is the better tool
- ✗ Membership systems or gated content
- ✗ Real-time booking tied to live availability
- ✗ Monthly retainers, because the site does not need one
What's included in every project
- Custom design tailored to your brand
- Fully responsive across all devices
- SEO foundation with schema markup
- Contact form integration
- Analytics setup
- Hosting and deployment
- Full URL mapping and redirects on rebuilds
- Documentation for content updates
Already on WordPress?
Rebuilding an existing site as a static site is its own process: inventory every URL, export the content, rebuild the design, map the redirects, then cut over the DNS with effectively zero downtime.
See how WordPress migration works →Frequently Asked Questions
Both. A new build starts from your brand and your goals with no existing site to work around, which is usually faster. A rebuild carries an existing site across: content, URLs, and search rankings all come with you. The process differs, the finished result does not.
No. The build is a one-time cost and there is no retainer, because a static site does not need one. There are no plugins to update, no core upgrades, and no security patches to chase, so there is no monthly work to bill you for. Hosting is $0 at small business scale. If you want changes later, you pay for those changes.
Pages are priced by type and the rates are published above. On a conversion, a homepage is $300, a main page $145, a section page $105, a legal page $35, and a blog post $30, with a $750 project minimum. A recent 14-page site with six blog posts and a few add-ons came to $2,650. Count your pages and you can price it yourself.
Because the alternative is asking you to book a call to find out whether you can afford something, and because a per-page rate card is auditable in a way an hourly estimate is not. Every line in your quote is a thing you can point at on your own website. It also means I can't quietly charge two clients differently for the same work.
Astro, a modern static site generator. It produces plain HTML and CSS with JavaScript only where a page genuinely needs it. The output is standard files you own outright, with no proprietary format and no platform holding your content. If you ever want to hand the site to someone else, any competent developer can pick it up.
Static sites can be hosted on Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, or Vercel at no cost. These are production-grade platforms with global CDNs, not throttled free tiers. At small business traffic levels you pay nothing per month, and because you own the files, moving hosts later is a one-day job instead of a migration.
Yes, if you want to. We can set up a git-based admin panel that works like a normal CMS for text and images. Plenty of clients never need it, because their site changes a few times a year and they would rather send an email than log into something. We decide which you are during the project, not after.
Then I will tell you, before you have paid for anything. Memberships, live inventory, real-time booking, and sites with a dozen authors publishing daily are genuinely better served by a CMS. Most of the functionality people worry about losing, including forms, search, and interactive components, works fine. The rest is worth a conversation before anyone reaches for a workaround.
One to three weeks for a typical small business site of 10 to 20 pages. Large content archives and custom functionality take longer and get scoped specifically instead of estimated loosely. You get a realistic timeline before work starts, not after.
Let's build your static website
Send me your URL and I'll tell you honestly what I'd do with it, including when the answer is to keep what you have and fix it.
[email protected]