For a price for your own situation, request a quote.
What is a static website?
A static website is a website on which every page is ready before a visitor arrives. The pages sit on a server as ordinary files, and the server only hands them out. Nothing is assembled per visit, there is no database to read from and no program that has to run while the page loads.
The opposite is a dynamic website, such as a site on WordPress. There a program builds the page at the moment someone arrives: it fetches the text from a database, puts the design around it and sends the result. That is handy if many people enter content, and it is also why such a website needs more maintenance.
A comparison: a static website is a printed leaflet that is ready on the table, and a dynamic website is a kitchen that cooks the dish for every order. For most business websites, which show text, photos and a contact form, the leaflet is enough. A static website is also called a website of plain files.
Take, for example, the website of a law firm with six pages and a contact form, the same as in the cost breakdown.
How does a static website work?
A static website comes about in three steps. First it is made: the text and images are in files, and a program puts the design around them and writes one HTML file for each page. That happens once per change, not per visitor. Then it is put in place: the files go to a hosting service, which for a website of plain files is simple and cheap because the server has nothing to calculate. Finally it is delivered: a visitor asks for a page, the server gives the file and the browser shows it.
What a website of plain files does not do itself, it fetches from elsewhere. A contact form sends its data to a service that processes it, and a map or a calendar comes from a service you add to it. That is possible, and it is where the trade-off begins: every service is something you have to manage and that belongs in the privacy statement.
What are the advantages of a static website?
A static website has six advantages:
- Speed: there is nothing to calculate, so the page appears at once. Google names the loading experience of a page explicitly as something that counts in ranking, next to relevance, which weighs more. Google says nothing about how a website is built: it judges the page, not the technology.
- Little that can break or be attacked: a website with no database and no admin login page has no keyhole to rattle. A static website can still go wrong, for example through a service from another party, but there is less a visitor can misuse.
- Low hosting cost: for a small website from free to about €240 a year.
- Little maintenance: there are no plug-ins to update and no content management system that needs a patch.
- Portable: they are files, and you can move them to another host without having to rebuild anything.
- A history of changes: if the files are kept in version control, you see every change and can undo a mistake in a minute.
What are the disadvantages?
A static website has four disadvantages. Changing it is less obvious: there is no admin screen where you edit a sentence, so you have the builder do it, edit a text file yourself or attach a content management system to the website. Everything visitors enter needs an extra service, such as forms, search, comments, signing in and ordering. Many pages that change every day become awkward: a news site with a hundred articles a week does not suit it. And there are no plug-ins: what a content management system adds with a click becomes a job here, although what is not there you do not have to maintain either.
Static, dynamic or web application?
A static website, a website on a content management system and a web application differ on six points:
| Static website | Website on a content management system | Web application | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How a page comes about | Made in advance | Assembled per visit | Per visitor, with their data |
| Who changes it | The builder, or you in files | You, in an admin screen | The builder, through new features |
| Speed | High without effort | Depends on the setup | Depends on the design |
| What can be attacked | Little | The system and every plug-in | Everything people sign in with |
| Hosting per year | €0 – €240 | €120 – €600 | More, by use |
| Suits | Informing, showing, getting in touch | Many people who enter text regularly | Signing in, booking, ordering, managing |
For a sign-in, a booking or an order you need a web application, which is a different kind of build. For a website that informs, the choice is between the first two columns. How that works out for WordPress is in WordPress or a custom website.
How do you change something on a static website?
Changing is where people drop out, and rightly so. There are four ways:
- You ask the builder. A change of text is a quarter of an hour to an hour of work, and with few changes a year this is the cheapest way.
- You edit a text file. The text is in ordinary files, and anyone willing to follow a short instruction changes a sentence without help.
- A content management system that makes the files. You sign in on a screen, change the text and the website is rebuilt. It can be done, and it adds a service that has to be managed.
- A maintenance subscription. The builder does changes and updates for a fixed amount a month; see what maintenance costs.
If you want to change things yourself every day, choose way 3 or another solution. If you change something a few times a year, way 1 or 2 is enough.
What does a static website cost?
A simple static website of five pages on a ready base design costs from €995 to have built, excluding VAT. A design of its own, more pages or text you edit yourself make it cost more. The build is counted in hours, and for a website of plain files there are no fewer than for any other website: design, text, forms, accessibility and testing take the same work. What differs is the cost that runs afterwards.
Count with the hours from the cost breakdown, at about €100 an hour. The law firm’s website there, with six pages and a design of its own, is 69 hours, €6,900.
| Per year, for that website | Website of plain files | Website on plug-ins |
|---|---|---|
| Maintenance | €300 – €700 (3 – 7 hours) | €800 – €1,600 (8 – 16 hours) |
| Hosting | €0 – €240 | €120 – €600 |
| Domain name | €10 – €25 | €10 – €25 |
| Plug-in licences | – | €0 – €300 |
| Total | €310 – €965 | €930 – €2,525 |
Over three years, with the same build cost of €6,900, a website of plain files comes to €6,900 + 3 × €310 = €7,830 up to €6,900 + 3 × €965 = €9,795, and a website on plug-ins to €6,900 + 3 × €930 = €9,690 up to €6,900 + 3 × €2,525 = €14,475.
The difference is about €1,900 (low end with low end) to €4,700 (high end with high end) over three years. That is no reason to choose a static website if you want to change a lot yourself: then the changing costs you more than the difference. If there is little to change, you save that amount without giving anything up.
Want to know what your own website would cost as plain files, to build and per year? Ask for a quote and say how often you expect to change something.
Does a static website rank well in Google?
Yes, and not because of the technology. A search engine sees a page with text, headings and links and reads it without having to run anything. The speed helps. What brings a page higher in the results is the same as for any website: that it answers the question better than the other pages.
When would you not choose a static website?
You do not choose a static website in four situations:
- Visitors sign in, book or pay. That is a web application.
- Many people without technical knowledge change pages every day. Choose a content management system, or a website of files with a content management system in front, and count what that costs to manage.
- You have a web shop with a large catalogue. A large number of products, stock and payments belong on a platform made for it.
- You need one thing, fast, and you will do it yourself. A website builder is then simpler than a builder you hire.
Five questions to choose
Five questions show what suits you:
- Does the website inform, or do visitors do something on it? Informing: static. Signing in, booking, ordering: a web application.
- How often does the content change? A few times a year: static. Daily: a content management system.
- Who changes it? The builder, or you with a short instruction: static. Several colleagues without technical knowledge: a content management system.
- How many pages are there? Up to a few dozen: static without effort. Hundreds that change often: a content management system.
- Do you want to be able to take the website with you? Yes: files are that on their own.
Do most of your answers point to static? Ask for a free example of your homepage, with no obligation, and see how fast it loads.
Who suits a static website?
A static website suits businesses whose website mainly shows who they are and what they do. Examples are a freelancer or small service provider with a few pages and a contact form, a consultancy, practice or office with a fixed set of services, a portfolio, an event or a campaign page, and a business that needs a public website that is fast and simple next to a web application. It suits less well a business that adds new products, articles or offers every day with a team that wants to do that itself.
What do you ask a builder?
Five questions, for every builder:
Five questions for the builder
- How do I change a text, and what does that cost? You want a concrete answer: who does it, how long it takes and for what amount.
- Whose are the domain, the hosting and the files? For a website of plain files they should be your company’s.
- Which services from other parties does the website need, for a form, statistics or a map? Every service is a third party that can get data about your visitors, and belongs in the privacy statement.
- What happens if the builder stops? Can you take the files with you, and can another builder take them over in an hour?
- How much maintenance is there? A few hours a year, and what is not included.
Frequently asked questions
Is a static website the same as an HTML website?
Both have HTML files as the end result. The difference is in how they come about. A website you write page by page by hand is static and hard to keep up. A website built from text and a design gives the same files with far less manual work.
Can a static website have a contact form?
Yes. The form sends its data to a service that processes it, or to a small function the builder adds alongside. Say in your privacy statement where the data ends up.
Can I have a blog on a static website?
Yes, up to a few hundred articles without problems, because every article is a text file. If you write every day with several people, a content management system is handier.
Can I have a web shop on a static website?
A few products with a payment link, yes. A full shop with stock, shipping costs and customer accounts, no: use a shop platform for that.
Is a static website secure?
A static website is more secure than a website with a content management system, because there is less to attack. Nothing is entirely secure: the services you link to it, the accounts for hosting and domain and their passwords remain your responsibility.
Can I switch to a content management system later?
Yes. The text and images go with you, and a builder builds the design again in the new system.
Having a static website built with us
If you want to change things yourself and the website is simple, you do not need us: choose a website builder. If you want a website that is fast, needs little maintenance and whose domain name, account and source code are in your company’s name, we build it as a website of plain files, from €995 for five pages. Ask for a quote and tell us who will keep the text up to date. You then get a quote with the hours, the schedule, the price and what the website will keep costing each year.
See an example website quote first.
Want this built, or want to talk it through?
Write to us with what it is for, who will use it and when you need it. We reply within one working day.
Read next
- How much does a website cost? From €995 in 2026What to expect for each type of website, where the money goes and how to work out the amount for your own website.
- WordPress or a custom website: which is right for you?When WordPress is the right choice, when a custom website is, and what each costs you over three years.
- Website maintenance cost per year: what is includedWhat website maintenance is, how many hours it takes a year and how to decide whether you need a maintenance contract.
