Static Vs Dynamic Websites: Which Do You Need?

"Static" and "dynamic" get thrown around a lot in web development conversations, often without much explanation. Here's what the distinction actually means and why it matters for your project.

Static Websites

A static website serves the same HTML to every visitor — nothing is generated on the fly. That makes static sites fast, simple to host, and hard to break, which suits brochure sites, portfolios and landing pages where content doesn't change often.

Dynamic Websites

A dynamic website generates pages on the server (or in the browser) based on data — user accounts, a database, form submissions. This is what powers anything with logins, e-commerce, or content that changes based on who's viewing it.

Where WordPress Fits

WordPress is dynamic by default — every page is generated from the database on each request — though caching can make it behave much like a static site for most visitors, which is exactly what WordPress-optimised hosting is built around.

How To Decide

Ask whether your site needs to do anything based on who's viewing it, or whether content changes frequently enough that a content management system makes sense. If the answer is no to both, a static site is simpler, faster and cheaper to run. If the answer is yes, you need a dynamic setup — the question then becomes which platform fits best.