What is a static site?

A static site is a website whose pages are generated once, at build time, into plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript files, then served unchanged to every visitor from a content delivery network. No database or server process runs per request, so it is fast, hard to break, and cheap to host: $0 per month on the Cloudflare free tier, the domain being the only bill.

Static versus dynamic, in one paragraph

A dynamic site assembles each page when someone asks for it: a server queries a database, runs code, returns HTML. A static site did that work once, ahead of time; what the visitor receives is a file that already exists. Forms, search and checkout still work: they are handled by small server functions or third parties (this site’s forms post to a tiny edge function; its checkout is a merchant of record), while every page itself stays a file.

Why it matters for cost

Files served by a CDN cost the host almost nothing, so free tiers are generous: on the Cloudflare free plan, wiserstaff.com (53 URLs, live since 2026-06-27) has paid $0 per month for hosting, invoices on record in the ledger. The recurring bill is the domain, at registry cost. The limits that apply are real and dated (as read on 2026-09-05: 500 builds a month, one at a time, 20,000 files, 25 MiB per file) and belong in any honest description of the path.

What a static site is not

It is not “no code”. Someone writes the content and runs a build, or drags a folder to a host. It is not a website builder with a monthly fee, which is precisely the point of choosing one.