Compared with Wordfence
Wordfence or MakeStatic: guard WordPress, or take it out of reach.
Wordfence is a security plugin for WordPress: a firewall that checks each request, a malware scanner and login protection, all running on your site. MakeStatic gives the public a copy that works like your site, served without WordPress, so nothing a visitor sends reaches WordPress or its plugins. The two do different jobs — and the WordPress you keep for editing can still use Wordfence.
A copy that works like your site
An HTML export writes each page out with the files it names. What a page only loads once it is open — a picture that appears as you scroll, a menu that fills in, content a script fetches, a link that forwards to another address — is often missing, and you find out from a visitor.
A copy from MakeStatic works like your site, not only looks like it. You try it yourself, side by side with your site, before you decide anything — and if a page of the copy ever works differently from yours, write to [email protected] and we fix it.
- Pictures that load as you scroll, in every size your site has for phones and large screens.
- Fonts, icons and everything your theme or page builder brings along.
- Content a script loads once the page is open, and menus that fill in as you move over them.
- Links on your pages that forward to another address still forward.
- Videos that play and let you skip ahead.
- Contact forms that deliver, and a search box that answers.
At a glance
| MakeStatic | Wordfence | |
|---|---|---|
| What it protects | The site your visitors see, by keeping WordPress out of it | The WordPress it is installed in |
| How | Visitors get files; nothing they send reaches WordPress | A firewall checks requests to WordPress and blocks those its rules match |
| A newly found attack | Nothing to reach, whether a rule exists yet or not | New firewall rules in real time with Premium, 30 days later in the free version |
| Malware scanning | No | Yes |
| Two-factor sign-in | No | Yes |
| Installed on your site | Nothing | The plugin |
| Systems | Any: WordPress, TYPO3, Joomla, Drupal, Ghost… | WordPress |
| Free version | Free, with no paid plan yet | Yes, beside paid plans |
What this page says about Wordfence was checked on its own website on 28 September 2026.
Where Wordfence is the better choice
- Your WordPress has to answer visitors: a shop, a members' area, comments.
- You want the installation itself scanned for malware and its logins protected with two-factor sign-in. That includes the WordPress you keep for editing, which MakeStatic does not protect.
Where MakeStatic is the better choice
- You want attacks gone rather than filtered. A firewall blocks what its rules know; a public site WordPress does not answer leaves a new attack nothing to reach, rule or no rule. wp2shell, in July 2026, was the latest example.
- You do not want another plugin to keep up to date on the side the public sees.
- Your site is not WordPress — or not only WordPress.
- 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.
Using both
They do not exclude each other. The copy keeps visitors away from WordPress; Wordfence can guard the WordPress you edit in, which stays online at its own address.
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 download or export of the files.
Questions people ask
- Do I still need Wordfence with a static copy?
- Not for your visitors: the copy leaves it nothing to guard. For the WordPress you edit in, it can still be worth having, since that one stays online.
- Does a firewall stop attacks nobody knows about yet?
- Only those that look like something its rules already cover. Wordfence's new rules reach Premium sites in real time and free sites 30 days later. A public site WordPress does not answer does not wait for a rule.
- 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.
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, and can try the copy yourself before you decide anything.