What Is A Static Website — And Why Would You Want One?

We’ve talked at length about CMS and platforms like WordPress. But the web is bigger than that, and now it’s time to discuss something else. So what is a static website?

What Is A Static Website — And Why Would You Want One?

The web constantly evolves. First, it consisted of millions of static HTML pages connected via hyperlinks. Next, websites became more dynamic thanks to server-side PHP, Perl, and other languages. That’s when CMS appeared — content management systems that made it possible to create ever-changing websites without ever touching code. WordPress is the most popular CMS out there — we ourselves use it constantly.

But what are static websites?

It might seem like static websites are a thing of the past, entirely replaced by dynamic ones. But not really. A static website — that is, a site that consists of HTML pages that are, well, static, meaning the same every time you load them — has made a comeback. Static websites don’t change depending on your location or action. 

It seems like such sites are much simpler. But why build them at all? First of all, such websites load a lot faster, and load speed, as you well know, is critical. They also tend to look quite different because there are no limits and no CMS fields you have to fill. 

But while true freedom might sound great for some of us, many others will mourn WordPress presets and themes. Static websites usually take more time to build. The process is not welcoming for newbies at all and requires a lot of know-how from the developers. Are the freedom and the performance worth it? This largely depends on the type of site you’re building.