Launching today
MakeStatic
Make any website static - forms and search keep working
2 followers
Make any website static - forms and search keep working
2 followers
MakeStatic turns your running website into a static copy that works like the original. Contact forms deliver, search answers, no plugin. Your site stays your editor; the public gets the copy on your own domain. Free in beta.
Hi Product Hunt 👋
Most small business websites are WordPress or something like it: a database and a pile of plugins, so that what is effectively a brochure with a contact form can send enquiries. Those sites are slow, because every visit runs PHP and queries the database, and they need constant updates, because everything that runs for a visitor can be attacked.
This year showed how far that goes. In July, wp2shell: two flaws in WordPress itself, rated 9.8 out of 10, no plugin and no login needed, with attack code out within hours of the fix. In October, PHP2Shell: a flaw in PHP, beneath WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and TYPO3 alike, public before the fix was. No setting closes it; only a PHP update does, and on most hosting that is the host's call. PHP 7.4 to 8.1 get no official releases any more, and 7.3 and older get no fix at all.
A static site doesn't have that problem for its visitors. There is no WordPress and no PHP behind the public address, so neither attack has anything to reach.
MakeStatic keeps your site exactly where it is and makes a static copy of it for the public. Your WordPress (or Ghost, TYPO3, Joomla, Drupal…) becomes the place you edit; when you press Publish, the copy is updated. Visitors never reach the system behind it. That system stays online at its own address and still wants its updates, but your public site no longer depends on whether they happened yet.
The part that usually breaks with static exports is what we care most about: the contact form still delivers and the site search still answers. What can't work without a server, like logins, comments or a checkout, is listed in a report before you publish, so nothing fails silently.
You can try it on one page of your own site without an account: paste the address and compare the original and the copy side by side, with load times for both.
It's free during the beta, no credit card. I'd love to hear which site you tried and anything that worked differently from the original. That is a bug, and it's mine to fix.