Static Websites vs WordPress: Why Your Site Is Slow
Core Web Vitals decide whether you rank
Google uses Core Web Vitals — LCP, CLS and INP — as ranking signals, and a WordPress theme dragging in thirty plugins struggles with all three. We do not build themes; we build static assets. Standard builds start at €0 upfront, €50/month — we build your homepage first, so you pay nothing until you approve it.
The Jamstack Advantage
We build with static site generators (Hugo, 11ty, Astro) and serve pre-rendered HTML from a CDN. There is no database query and no server-side rendering between the request and the page, which is what keeps time to first byte low.
Not sure how your current site measures up? Run our free website speed test — it reports your Core Web Vitals and estimates what slow loading costs you each month.
Genuinely Fast
Near-instant first byte — we serve pre-built HTML from the edge, with no database query in the way.
Minimal Attack Surface
No SQL database, no PHP execution, no admin login on the public site. The usual way small sites get breached is not there.
Headless CMS
We couple this raw speed with Sanity or Strapi so your marketing team can still edit content easily.
White Label Partnerships
Tired of fixing hacked WordPress sites? Partner with us. We build the infrastructure; you sell the SEO. See our Industry Solutions for examples.
Why is my WordPress site so slow?
Almost never because of your hosting, which is what you will be told when you ring support. The usual cause is the amount of work your server does before it can send anything at all. A visitor asks for a page; WordPress wakes up, runs PHP, queries a database several times, assembles the page from a theme and whatever plugins have hooked into it, then sends it. All of that happens before the first byte leaves the building.
Then the browser starts downloading what it was sent: the theme's stylesheet, a page-builder's stylesheet, three or four font files, a slider library, an analytics script, a cookie banner, a chat widget, and a jQuery version from years ago that one plugin still depends on. Each of those is a separate request. None of them were chosen by you.
This is why speed plugins produce disappointing results. Caching hides the server-side problem by storing a copy of the finished page — genuinely useful — but it does nothing about forty assets loading in the browser, and it adds another plugin to the stack it is compensating for. You end up maintaining a plugin whose job is to undo the cost of the other plugins.
What does a "static" website actually mean?
It means the pages are built once, when the site is published, rather than assembled every time somebody visits. The result is plain HTML files sitting on a CDN. When a visitor asks for a page, it is already finished — there is no database to query, no PHP to run, nothing to assemble. The server hands over a file.
The word "static" misleads people into thinking the site cannot change or cannot have forms. It can do both. Content still comes from a CMS if you want one, forms still work, and the site rebuilds when you publish an edit. The difference is when the work happens: at build time, once, instead of on every single visit by every single visitor.
The security follows from the same property. There is no database holding your content, no admin login on the public site, and no plugins to fall out of date — so the route by which small business sites are overwhelmingly compromised, an unpatched plugin, is not present. It is not that static sites are impossible to attack. It is that there is far less there to attack, and nothing that needs patching every fortnight.
When is WordPress the better choice?
There are real cases, and we would rather say so than sell you the wrong thing. If you run a large shop with thousands of products and stock changing hourly, WooCommerce and its ecosystem is a mature answer. If your business depends on a specific WordPress plugin — a membership system, a booking tool your staff already know, an integration nobody has rebuilt elsewhere — replacing it is a bigger project than a website.
If you have staff who publish several times a day and are fluent in the WordPress editor, that fluency has value. And if a developer you trust maintains it properly — updates applied, backups tested, a staging site — then a well-run WordPress install is a perfectly reasonable thing to own. The problem was never WordPress. It is unmaintained WordPress, which is what most small business sites become within about eighteen months.
For a five-to-ten page site that presents a business and collects enquiries — which is the great majority of what Irish small businesses need — static wins on speed, on security and on the fact that nothing breaks while you are not looking. We do build WordPress on request, from €1,200 plus €90/month, and we will tell you honestly which side of that line you are on. If you want to keep what you have, see WordPress maintenance and security.
What happens to my rankings if I migrate?
Handled properly, they carry over and usually improve, because speed is a ranking signal and you are about to get faster. Handled carelessly, a migration is the most reliable way to lose traffic you have spent years earning — and it is careless migrations, not static sites, that give this a bad name.
The part that matters is URLs. Every address that currently exists has to either still work or 301-redirect to its replacement, including the ones you have forgotten, the ones with and without a trailing slash, and any old category or feed URLs that still have links pointing at them. We crawl the existing site and map every URL before anything is rebuilt, then keep the redirects in version control rather than in someone's memory.
After that it is mechanical: same page titles and descriptions unless we are deliberately improving them, canonical tags pointing at one address each, a sitemap submitted, and Search Console watched for a few weeks afterwards. Run your current site through our free speed test first — it will tell you whether there is enough on the table to be worth the exercise.
What Our Clients Say
"The entire process was seamless and extremely professional, surpassing my expectations."
Aidan Mangan
Trustpilot
"Transparent in pricing and kept me informed every step of the way. Quality exceeded expectations."
Benjamin Holbrook
Trustpilot
"Their support is fast, reliable, and always helpful. A fantastic team for any web project!"
ICPF Ireland
Trustpilot
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a fast static website cost in Dublin?
Our Starter plan is €0 upfront and €50/month all-inclusive — hosting, domain, SSL, security and one content update a month are all included. Larger builds with a headless CMS or custom integrations are quoted individually, from €1,500 on our Custom plan. Full breakdown on our pricing page.
Why is a static site faster than WordPress?
Static sites serve pre-rendered HTML with no database queries or server-side processing, so there's no page-speed compromise — pages load in under a second and there's no plugin bloat to slow things down.
How fast can my site go live?
We build your homepage design first, so you can see and approve it before you pay anything. Once approved, most sites are live within 2 weeks.
Do you build WordPress websites?
We can, on request — WordPress builds start from €1,200 plus a €90/month care plan. For most projects we recommend a static-first build for the speed and security benefits.
Related guides
- WordPress maintenance & migration
If you are already on WordPress, this covers what a care plan costs against what moving off it costs.
- Free website speed test
Measure your current site before deciding anything — the result usually settles the argument either way.
- WordPress vs static websites
The longer comparison, including the cases where WordPress is genuinely the right answer.