Static export or dynamic WordPress on Cloudflare?
A static export is enough when nothing on the site happens per visitor. Plugins like Simply Static and WP2Static turn WordPress into HTML files you can host on Cloudflare Pages for free. They drop everything that runs at request time: comments, forms, search, carts, checkout and logins. HostlessWP runs the dynamic WordPress on Cloudflare Workers instead, with a page cache in front, so logged-out visitors still get cached pages and everything else keeps working.
Side by side
| Static export on Pages | HostlessWP on Workers | |
|---|---|---|
| What visitors get | HTML files from the last export | Live WordPress; cached pages for logged-out visitors |
| Comments, forms, search | No, unless added back with outside services | Yes |
| WooCommerce, memberships, logins | No | Yes; checkout tested end to end |
| After you publish | Run the export and deploy again | Live right away; cached pages refresh |
| Where WordPress itself runs | Still somewhere: your laptop, a server or a host | In the Worker |
| Database | Only for the WordPress you export from | Your MySQL, reached through Hyperdrive |
| Hosting cost | Free on Pages | Free plan for small sites, $5/month above it |
| Can be hacked through WordPress | No, the live site has no PHP | Through WordPress only; no server, read-only code |
When static is enough
If the site is a brochure, a portfolio or documentation that changes a few times a month, and nobody comments, searches or logs in, a static export is simpler and has nothing left to attack. HostlessWP would be more machinery than you need. Keep a WordPress somewhere to edit and export from, and host the result on Pages.
When it is not
Anything per visitor
Carts, checkout, member areas, logins, comments and site search all need PHP at request time. A static copy has none.
Frequent edits
Every change is an export and a deploy. With several editors or daily posts, that step becomes the bottleneck.
Plugins that act on requests
Forms, redirects, SEO sitemaps built on demand, A/B tests and anything using the REST API stop working or need a replacement service.
Static speed for most visitors, dynamic for the rest
Most of a static site's speed comes from not running PHP. HostlessWP gets the same effect for most traffic with a page cache in Workers KV:
- Cached: pages for visitors who are not logged in and have no cart, answered without starting PHP.
- Never cached: logged-in users, commenters, shoppers with a cart, searches, the admin, the REST API, and pages a plugin marks as not cacheable (WooCommerce cart, checkout, account).
- Refreshed automatically: publishing, editing, comments, menu, theme, plugin and stock changes mark cached pages as outdated, as does each deploy. No page is served older than 8 hours.
On the Workers Free plan, KV allows 1,000 writes a day; once they are used, pages are rendered by PHP for the rest of the day. Details in How it works.
Keep the checkout, the comments and the logins
Try HostlessWP on a copy of your site, or click through the demo store first.