Simply Static – The Static Site Generator vs W3 Total Cache

Simply Static turns your WordPress site into secure, lightning-fast static HTML files. Stop worrying about WordPress security patches, performance plugins, and expensive hosting. Simply Static converts your entire WordPress site into static HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files that load instantly and can’t be hacked. Perfect for blogs, marketing sites, documentation, portfolios, and any content-driven WordPress site. Why Go Static? ⚡ Blazing Fast Performance Static sites load 3-5x faster than traditional WordPress. No database queries. No server-side processing. Just instant page loads from a global CDN. 🔒 Unhackable Security No database. No login page. No PHP vulnerabilities. Static HTML can’t be hacked the way traditional WordPress can. 💰 Dramatically Lower Hosting Costs Host your static site for free on platforms like Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, or GitHub Pages. Or deploy to any server for pennies per month. 🎯 Zero Maintenance No more WordPress updates. No plugin conflicts. No security patches. Focus on content, not server management. How Simply Static Works Generate: Click one button to convert your entire WordPress site to static HTML Export: Download as ZIP or deploy to a local directory Deploy: Upload to any hosting provider, CDN, or static hosting platform Your WordPress site stays private and secure. Your static site is what visitors see. What You Can Do with the Free Version One-click static site generation Export as ZIP file Deploy to local directory Replace URLs (absolute, relative, or offline use) Works with any WordPress theme Compatible with popular page builders (Elementor, Bricks, Gutenberg) SEO plugin support (Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO) Ready for More? The free version is perfect for simple static exports, but if you need advanced deployment, automation, and powerful features, check out our premium solutions. Simply Static Pro – For Developers & Agencies $99/year per site Deploy to any platform. Automate everything. Keep 100% of your profit margins. Deploy to GitHub, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, AWS S3, BunnyCDN, SFTP Incremental exports (update only changed pages) Single-page exports (instant publishing) WP-CLI support for complete automation Forms integration (Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, WPForms, Fluent Forms) Static-friendly search (Fuse.js or Algolia) Multilingual support (WPML, Polylang, TranslatePress) Performance optimization (minification, image optimization) Comments integration Email support Perfect for developers self-hosting client sites, agencies managing infrastructure, and technical users who want complete control. Get Simply Static Pro Simply Static Studio – For Businesses & Content Creators $19/month per site All-in-one managed WordPress hosting. Zero maintenance. Maximum security. Fully managed WordPress hosting Static site hosting on global CDN (120+ locations) Automated backups & SSL certificates One-click WordPress login Free white-glove migration Team management & access control Everything from Pro, pre-configured Priority support Perfect for businesses running 1-5 websites, content creators who want simplicity, and anyone who values convenience over control. Try Studio Free for 14 Days Trusted by 40,000+ Users Worldwide 1,400,000+ plugin downloads 4.5/5 star rating Active development & support Used by Microsoft, HP, Postman, UNICEF Learning Resources Documentation Comprehensive guides covering every aspect of Simply Static. Video Course Watch our free YouTube course covering static WordPress from basics to advanced. Weekly Tutorials New tutorials published every other week on our blog. Community Support Get help from the community in the WordPress.org forums. Use Cases Perfect For: Blogs & content sites Marketing websites & landing pages Documentation sites Portfolio sites Company websites Product launch pages Event sites Not Suitable For: E-commerce sites Membership sites Sites requiring user logins Real-time data updates Heavy AJAX functionality Note: Forms, search, and comments ARE possible with Simply Static Pro or Studio. Plugins & Features That Don’t Work with Static Sites Static sites are perfect for public content, but some WordPress plugins require server-side processing and won’t work on static sites: E-commerce: WooCommerce Easy Digital Downloads Other shopping cart plugins Static sites can’t process payments or manage user accounts. Consider headless WordPress solutions for e-commerce. Membership & Authentication: MemberPress Restrict Content Pro User registration plugins Login-required content Static sites don’t support user authentication or member-only areas. Real-Time Dynamic Content: Forum plugins (bbPress, BuddyPress) Live chat widgets (unless using external services) Real-time data feeds Heavy AJAX functionality What DOES Work (with Pro/Studio): Forms (Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, WPForms, Fluent Forms) Search functionality (Fuse.js or Algolia) Comments (special integration) Newsletter signups (via external services) If your site relies heavily on the plugins listed above, Simply Static may not be the right solution. For questions about specific plugin compatibility, check our compatibility database or ask in our support forum.

W3 Total Cache (W3TC) improves the SEO, Core Web Vitals and overall user experience of your site by increasing website performance and reducing load times by leveraging features like content delivery network (CDN) integration and the latest best practices. W3TC is the only web host agnostic Web Performance Optimization (WPO) framework for WordPress trusted by millions of publishers, web developers, and web hosts worldwide for more than a decade. It is the total performance solution for optimizing WordPress Websites. BENEFITS Improvements in search engine result page rankings, especially for mobile-friendly websites and sites that use SSL At least 10x improvement in overall site performance (Grade A in WebPagetest or significant Google PageSpeed improvements) when fully configured Improved conversion rates and “site performance” which affect your site’s rank on Google.com “Instant” repeat page views: browser caching Optimized progressive render: pages start rendering quickly and can be interacted with more quickly Reduced page load time: increased visitor time on site; visitors view more pages Improved web server performance; sustain high traffic periods Up to 80% bandwidth savings when you minify HTML, minify CSS and minify JS files. KEY FEATURES Compatible with shared hosting, virtual private / dedicated servers and dedicated servers / clusters Transparent content delivery network (CDN) management with Media Library, theme files and WordPress itself Mobile support: respective caching of pages by referrer or groups of user agents including theme switching for groups of referrers or user agents Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) support Secure Socket Layer (SSL/TLS) support Caching of (minified and compressed) pages and posts in memory or on disk or on (FSD) CDN (by user agent group) Caching of (minified and compressed) CSS and JavaScript in memory, on disk or on CDN Caching of feeds (site, categories, tags, comments, search results) in memory or on disk or on CDN Caching of search results pages (i.e., URIs with query string variables) in memory or on disk Caching of database objects in memory or on disk Caching of objects in memory or on disk Caching of fragments in memory or on disk Caching methods include local Disk, Redis, Memcached, APC, APCu, eAccelerator, XCache, and WinCache Minify CSS, Minify JavaScript and Minify HTML with granular control Minification of posts and pages and RSS feeds Minification of inline, embedded or 3rd party JavaScript with automated updates to assets Minification of inline, embedded or 3rd party CSS with automated updates to assets Defer non-critical CSS and JavaScript for rendering pages faster than ever before Defer offscreen images using Lazy Load to improve the user experience Browser caching using cache-control, future expire headers and entity tags (ETag) with “cache-busting” JavaScript grouping by template (home page, post page etc) with embed location control Non-blocking JavaScript embedding Import post attachments directly into the Media Library (and CDN) Leverage our multiple CDN integrations to optimize images WP-CLI support for cache purging, query string updating and more Various security features to help ensure website safety Caching statistics for performance insights of any enabled feature Extension framework for customization or extensibility for Cloudflare, WPML and much more Reverse proxy integration via Nginx or Varnish Image Converter extension provides modern image format conversion (e.g., WebP, AVIF) from common image formats (on upload and on demand) W3 Total Cache Pro Features With over a million active installs, W3 Total Cache is the most comprehensive WordPress caching plugin available and has robust premium features that help deliver an exceptional user experience. Full Site Delivery: Serve your entire site from a Content Delivery Network (CDN), ensuring faster load times worldwide. Fragment Cache: Optimize the caching of dynamic content while still improving performance. REST API Caching: Speed up your headless WordPress site by caching REST API calls. Eliminate Render-Blocking CSS: Ensure your CSS doesn’t hold up page loading, providing faster initial paint. Delay Scripts: Improve performance by delaying the loading of non-essential scripts until they are needed. Preload Requests: Boost page performance by preloading critical resources before they’re requested. Remove CSS/JS: Clean up unnecessary CSS and JavaScript files that slow down your pages. Lazy Load Google Maps: Load Google Maps only when it’s visible, reducing unnecessary requests. WPML Extension: Optimize performance on multilingual sites powered by WPML. Caching Statistics: Get detailed insights on cache usage and performance improvements. Purge Logs: Keep your site clean by automatically purging unnecessary cache logs. 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee Try W3 Total Cache Pro risk-free with our 30-day money-back guarantee. If you’re not satisfied, we will refund your purchase. PAGESPEED SCORE IMPROVEMENTS To help you understand the impact of individual features on your website’s performance, we’ve tested each feature separately to see its effect on Google PageSpeed scores. While optimal results come from configuring several different caching tools together, the following individual features also show significant improvements on their own: Remove Unused CSS/JS This feature removes CSS and JavaScript files that are not needed for the current page, reducing the load time. Added over 27 points to the Google PageSpeed score (Before: 57.2 / After: 86.7) Reduced the Potential Savings From Unused JavaScript from 127.5 KiB to 84 KiB View the test results Full Site Delivery Full Site Delivery optimizes the delivery of your entire site, enhancing the server response time. Added a 99% performance enhancement to the Average Server Response Time (Before: 3413 ms / After: 34 ms) View the test results Eliminate Render Blocking CSS This feature eliminates CSS that blocks the rendering of your page, speeding up the initial load time. Added over 17 points to the Google PageSpeed score (Before: 53.75 / After: 71) Reduced the Potential Savings From Render-Blocking Resources by over 94% (Before: 2432.5 ms / After: 125 ms) Improved the Largest Contentful Paint time by over 56% (Before: 7s / After: 3.04s) View the test results Delay Scripts Delay Scripts postpones the loading of certain scripts until they are needed, reducing initial load times. Added 14 points to the Google PageSpeed Performance score (Before: 54.25 / After: 68.5) Reduced the Time Third-Party Code Blocked The Main Thread For by 62% (Before: 825 ms / After: 197.5 ms) View the test results Rest API Caching This feature caches API responses, reducing server load and speeding up API interactions. Reduced the Average Server Load by 40% (Before: 0.62 / After: 0.37) Sped up API Responses by 84.5% (Before: 968ms / After: 150ms) Reduced the Average Server Load by 24% under during a major traffic spike (Before: 34.55 / After: 26.19) View the test results Modern Image Formats Converts images to modern formats like WebP or AVIF, which are more efficient and faster to load. Added over 9 points to the Google PageSpeed score (Before: 84.67 / After: 93.83) View the test results Lazy Load Google Maps Delays the loading of Google Maps until the user interacts with them, reducing initial load time. Added 10 points to the Google PageSpeed score (Before: 66 / After: 76) Reduced the Total Blocking Time Performance score by 72% (Before: 287.5 ms / After: 80 ms) View the test results Speed up your site tremendously, improve core web vitals and the overall user experience for your visitors without having to change your WordPress host, theme, plugins or your content production workflow. What users have to say: Read testimonials from W3TC users. Who do I thank for all of this? It’s quite difficult to recall all of the innovators that have shared their thoughts, code and experiences in the blogosphere over the years, but here are some names to get you started: Steve Souders Steve Clay Ryan Grove Nicholas Zakas Ryan Dean Andrei Zmievski George Schlossnagle Daniel Cowgill Rasmus Lerdorf Gopal Vijayaraghavan Bart Vanbraban mOo [villu164] (https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/researchers/villu164) Please reach out to all of these people and support their projects if you’re so inclined.