An old website
Keep an old website online. Switch its software off.
A site that's finished, a past project, a closed business, an event that's over, still gets visitors, and links still point at it. A static copy keeps every page working at its address, while the system that built it can finally retire.
Your whole site, on your own domain.
Free while we're in beta. No credit card.
Test it on one of your pages
About twenty seconds, no account. You see your page and the copy side by side and click through it yourself.
A copy that works like your site
A plain HTML export saves each page with the files it links to. Anything a page loads only after it opens, like images that appear as you scroll, a menu that fills in, content a script fetches or a link that redirects, often goes missing. And you hear about it from a visitor.
A MakeStatic copy works like your site, it doesn't just look like it. You test it yourself, side by side with your site, before deciding anything. And if a page of the copy ever behaves differently from yours, write to [email protected] and we'll fix it.
- Images that load as you scroll, in every size your site has for phones and big screens.
- Fonts, icons and everything your theme or page builder brings along.
- Content a script loads after the page opens, and menus that fill in on hover.
- Links that redirect to another address still redirect.
- Videos that play and let you skip ahead.
- Contact forms that deliver and a search box that answers.
Why not just leave it running?
An old WordPress, Joomla or Drupal that nobody updates is how sites get hacked: the pages are fine, the software underneath isn't. Switching it off breaks every link to it. A copy in between is the third way.
What the copy keeps
- Every page, looking and working as it does now, at the address it has now.
- The images and files the site itself holds.
- A search box that answers from the text of the copy's pages.
- A contact form, if you want messages to keep coming in: they reach us and we email them to you.
Switching the original off
The copy runs without the original. Once your domain points at the copy, you can switch the old system off, or keep it somewhere safe in case you ever want to change a page. Without it, the copy stays exactly as it is: to change a page, you need something to change it in.
A large site
If a site is very large, the copy tells you which pages it doesn't include, so nothing goes missing without you knowing.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this the same as the Wayback Machine?
- No. The Internet Archive keeps a record of your pages at its own address. Here your pages keep working at yours, as your site, and search engines keep finding them there.
- What does it cost?
- Nothing while MakeStatic is in beta: your whole site, no credit card, no commitment. Trying a single page doesn't even need an account. At some point it will cost something, and when there's a price, you'll see it before anything about your site changes.
Free while we're in beta
MakeStatic is new, and while it's in beta you get all of it for free: your whole site, on your own domain. No credit card, no commitment.
At some point it will cost something. When there's a price, you'll see it before anything about your site changes.