Simply Static Review: Turn WordPress Into a Fast Static Site

Why WordPress Is Slow, Insecure, and Time-Consuming

WordPress powers a massive chunk of the web, but it comes with three well-known pain points that frustrate site owners daily. Understanding these problems is key to appreciating what a static site approach actually solves.

First, WordPress is inherently slow. Every time a visitor loads a page, the application has to query the database, assemble the content, and send it back to the browser. Even with caching plugins that take "snapshots" of the database to reduce that back-and-forth, there's still overhead compared to serving pre-built HTML files directly. The faster you need your site, the more expensive your hosting gets — because you're essentially paying for a faster computer to handle all that processing.

Second, WordPress is a security liability. The application layer, the database, plugins, themes — each one is a potential attack surface. Passwords exist at multiple levels and can be compromised. You can do absolutely nothing wrong, miss a single update, and still wake up to a hacked site redirecting your visitors somewhere ugly. Security plugins and firewalls help, but they're treating symptoms rather than eliminating the root cause.

Third, keeping WordPress secure and running smoothly is genuinely time-consuming. You're constantly updating WordPress core, themes, and plugins — then checking that nothing broke in the process. Plugin conflicts that didn't exist yesterday suddenly appear after an update. For someone just trying to run a business, it can feel like an unreasonable amount of maintenance for what should be a simple website.

The Static Site Solution: What It Is and Who It's For

A static website is exactly what it sounds like — pre-built HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files with no database and no application layer processing requests in real time. When a visitor loads your page, the server just hands them the file. No queries, no processing, no waiting. The result is dramatically faster load times, virtually zero security vulnerabilities, and hosting costs that can drop to literally pennies per month.

The catch, of course, is that most people aren't going to hand-code hundreds of HTML files. That's where a static site generator like Simply Static comes in. You keep using WordPress as your content management system — editing posts, uploading images, organizing pages — but instead of serving WordPress to the public, you generate static files and deploy those. WordPress runs locally on your machine (or behind authentication on a subdomain), and your visitors only ever see the static output.

This approach works best for local business websites, portfolios, photography sites, and simple blogs. If your site is essentially a brochure — information, images, maybe a contact form — static is a perfect fit. You'll eliminate the need for caching plugins, security plugins, and expensive hosting in one move.

What won't work well: WooCommerce stores, membership sites, online courses, or anything requiring user login and dynamic content. That said, you can still use third-party SaaS tools for specific features. Need an email popup? Use ConvertBox. Need comments? There are third-party solutions that Simply Static supports. The key question is whether the dynamic feature lives on your server or someone else's.

Setting Up a Local WordPress Site with LocalWP

LocalWP is a free tool from the WP Engine team that lets you spin up a full WordPress installation on your local machine in minutes. No hosting account needed, no domain required — it just runs on your computer. For a Simply Static workflow, this is ideal because your WordPress backend is never exposed to the internet at all.

To get started, download LocalWP from localwp.com, choose your operating system, and install it. Once it's running, click "Create a new site," give it a name, and choose the preferred environment — PHP 8.1 with NGINX works perfectly. One important note: Simply Static does not support OpenLiteSpeed, so make sure you're on Apache or NGINX.

Set up a username and password for your WordPress admin. Even though the site is local, it's still good practice to use a strong password from a password manager — this is the one remaining potential entry point. Within moments you'll have a fully functional WordPress site running at something like `static-demo.local` that you can access in your browser.

From here, build your site exactly as you would on any hosted WordPress installation. Install your favorite theme (GeneratePress is a great lightweight option), add GenerateBlocks for page building, and import a template or build from scratch. The local environment is blazing fast for development since there's no network latency — everything just flies.

Fixing SSL Certificate Issues on Mac

If you're running LocalWP on a modern version of macOS, you'll likely run into an SSL trust issue that Simply Static flags in its diagnostics. The fix is straightforward but involves a couple of steps.

First, select your site in LocalWP and look under the SSL section. If it says "Trust" without a checkmark, click it and enter your system password. After authenticating, it should change to "Trusted" with a checkmark. But you're not done yet.

Next, open Keychain Access (use Spotlight with Command+Space to find it quickly). Navigate to System Certificates, find the certificate matching your local site name, and double-click it. Under the Trust section, expand the disclosure triangle and set it to "Always Trust." The icon should change from red to blue, confirming the change.

Reload your local site using HTTPS to verify everything works without errors. Head back to Simply Static's generate page, and the diagnostic warning should be gone. This is a one-time setup per site — once it's trusted, you won't need to touch it again.

Configuring BunnyCDN for Static Hosting

BunnyCDN is one of the most affordable and reliable options for hosting static files and delivering them through a global CDN. You're looking at roughly one cent per gigabyte for both storage and delivery — for a typical brochure site, your monthly bill might not even hit a dollar.

The setup involves two components inside Bunny: a Storage Zone and a Pull Zone. The Storage Zone is where your static files live. Create one, name it after your website, choose the storage region closest to your audience (e.g., New York for US-based sites), and you're done. You can add replication to other regions later if needed, but it's not necessary to start.

The Pull Zone is what actually serves your files to visitors as a CDN. Create a Pull Zone, point its origin to the Storage Zone you just made, and Bunny gives you a free URL like `your-zone-name.b-cdn.net` with SSL included. You can also add a custom domain by setting up a CNAME record with your DNS provider — a pretty standard process if you've ever pointed a domain somewhere.

Back in Simply Static's settings, switch the deploy method from "Zip Archive" to BunnyCDN. You'll need four pieces of information from your Bunny account: the API key (found under your account settings), the CDN access key (the password under your Storage Zone's FTP & API Access section), the storage host, and the names of your Pull Zone and Storage Zone. Paste everything in, hit save, and Simply Static is ready to deploy directly to Bunny.

Simply Static Settings and Optimization Options

Before hitting the generate button, it's worth taking a quick look at Simply Static's optimization settings. The plugin offers built-in minification for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which can squeeze a bit more performance out of your already-fast static files.

However, for your first deployment, leave all minification turned off. If something doesn't look right on the static version of your site, you want to know whether it's a conversion issue or a minification issue. Once you've confirmed everything works correctly, you can enable minification and test again.

Simply Static also includes options to strip WordPress fingerprints from your site. You can rename directories like `wp-content` to something generic like `content`, hiding the fact that WordPress generated the site. This is more of a cosmetic preference than a security measure — since there's no WordPress installation to hack on the public-facing side, it doesn't matter much. But if you want a cleaner-looking source code, the option is there.

The plugin also supports forms and comments through its pro version, using an iframe approach. Your WordPress installation stays running on a subdomain behind basic authentication, and Simply Static injects the form or comment system into the appropriate pages using frames. It currently works with Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, and Elementor Forms.

Generating and Deploying Your Static Site

With everything configured, generating your static site is as simple as clicking the big purple "Generate Static Files" button in Simply Static. The plugin crawls your entire WordPress site, converts every page into static HTML, grabs all your assets (images, CSS, JavaScript), and pushes everything to your BunnyCDN storage zone.

Once the process completes, visit the URL Bunny provided — either the default `b-cdn.net` address or your custom domain — and your static site is live. Every page loads almost instantly because there's no server-side processing happening. The files are tiny, the CDN distributes them globally, and visitors get a near-instant experience regardless of where they are in the world.

The workflow going forward is simple: make changes in your local WordPress installation, click generate, and Simply Static pushes the updated files to Bunny. It works beautifully as a backend for a blog or any content site where you're making periodic updates. You get all the convenience of WordPress's editor and plugin ecosystem without any of the public-facing downsides.

Final Verdict: Is Simply Static Worth It?

Simply Static earns an 8.7 out of 10. It delivers on its core promise — faster load times, dramatically improved security, and hosting costs that drop from dollars to pennies. For the right use case, it genuinely solves the three biggest WordPress headaches in one move.

The setup process is approachable even for non-technical users. Between LocalWP (free) and BunnyCDN (essentially free for small sites), you can have a production-ready static site running in a weekend without touching a line of code. The Simply Static plugin handles the heavy lifting of converting your WordPress site into clean static files and deploying them.

The limitations are real but predictable. If you need e-commerce, memberships, or heavy dynamic functionality, this isn't the right approach. But for local business sites, portfolios, simple blogs, and brochure-style websites, there's very little reason not to go static. You'll sleep better knowing there's literally nothing to hack on the public side of your site, and your visitors will appreciate the speed.

Watch the Full Video

Prefer watching to reading? Check out the full video on YouTube for a complete walkthrough with live demos and commentary.