Compared with Simply Static
Simply Static or MakeStatic: an HTML export, or a copy that works.
Both give the public a static version of a WordPress site. Simply Static writes the pages out as HTML, from inside WordPress, as a plugin. MakeStatic keeps everything your pages load, from their address, so the copy behaves like your site — and hosts it. Which one fits depends on what you have access to and where you want the files.
A copy that works, not just its HTML
Writing a site out as static HTML keeps what is in each page and the files it names. What a page asks for once it is open — the data a script fetches, a file another file loads, a redirect from an old address — is not among them, and that is where exported sites quietly stop working.
We keep every answer your site gave while its pages were opened, and give the same answer again: the same content, the same kind of file, the same redirect. That is why the copy behaves like your site instead of only looking like it — and why you can check it yourself, side by side, before you decide anything.
At a glance
| MakeStatic | Simply Static | |
|---|---|---|
| What the copy holds | Every answer your site gave, given again | The pages and the files they link to |
| How it works | Copies your pages from their address | A plugin inside WordPress writes the pages out |
| Installed on your site | Nothing | The plugin |
| Access it needs | The address | An admin who can install plugins |
| Systems | Any: WordPress, TYPO3, Joomla, Drupal, Ghost… | WordPress |
| Hosting | Included | With Simply Static Studio; otherwise yours |
| Files to take away | None — there is no export | A ZIP file, or a push to GitHub, Netlify, S3 and others (Pro) |
| Contact forms | Received and mailed to you | Pro and Studio, for several named form plugins |
| Search | Answered from the text of your pages | Pro and Studio |
What this page says about Simply Static was checked on its own website on 25 September 2026.
Where Simply Static is the better choice
- You want the files themselves — a ZIP, or a push to your own hosting. MakeStatic hosts the copy and has no export.
- You host on your own infrastructure and want to keep it that way.
- You can install and update a plugin, and you are happy to have one more to keep up with.
Where MakeStatic is the better choice
- Nothing can be installed: the installation is managed by someone else, your WordPress.com plan does not allow plugins, or nobody has the login any more.
- Your site is not WordPress — or not only WordPress.
- You want to see the result before you decide. The trial copy of one page takes about twenty seconds, needs no account, and is shown beside your own site.
- You want to be told what will stop working. After the first copy of the whole site, forms, search boxes, logins and comments are listed with the page each is on.
What to know about MakeStatic
Every page of the copy ends with one line of ours, "Made static with MakeStatic". There is no paid plan yet, and there is no way to take the files away.
Questions people ask
- Is MakeStatic a WordPress plugin?
- No. Nothing is installed in WordPress. We read the pages from their address, so it works whatever the site was built with.
- What happens to my Contact Form 7 forms?
- A contact form is received by us when a visitor sends it, mailed to you and listed on your site's page. It looks exactly as it did; nothing of ours is added to it.
See it on your own site
About twenty seconds, and nothing to sign up for. You will have your site and the copy open next to each other before you decide anything.