# Going static


I've been using WordPress for more than 10 years, both for fun and serious projects - from million-visit websites to custom apps when the WP REST API was still a proof of concept... long before the Gutenberg editor was even a thing.

While my writing cadence is extremely unpredictable, I want to share more about my journey. And I aim to do it with a simple setup, both in terms of writing and hosting.

**Why a "Static Site"?**

I've been hosting [fgilio.com](https://fgilio.com/) on a simple server managed by [Cloudways](https://cloudways.com/) for a very long time. Honestly, I hardly take advantage of any of the possibilities of "owning" the server. It felt like a waste of money and resources. I've been sporadically thinking about migrating to something else for a while. I didn't want to manage a server, and I'd prefer to host it for free. That, of course, limits the options...

I toyed with the idea of using [Statamic](https://statamic.com/), but in the end, I decided to start with another solution and see how it feels.

**Enter Cloudflare Pages**

I decided to host it on [Cloudflare Pages](https://pages.cloudflare.com/) as a static site. Here's how I did it:

**1. Export Everything from Cloudways**

First, I exported the site's data from [Cloudways](https://cloudways.com/).

**2. Install Laravel Herd**

Next, I installed [Laravel Herd](https://herd.laravel.com/), which streamlined the local development environment setup as I don't really want to manage local PHP versions and such. I'd use Docker for more serious things, but this is not one of those things.

**3. Set Up Site's Backup with SQLite**

Following a guide from [Fractolog](https://www.fractolog.com/2024/06/installing-wordpress-on-sqlite/), I set up my site's backup using SQLite. This was a cool thing I wanted to experiment with, and helps a bit in keeping things simple.

**4. Export to Cloudflare Pages Using Simply Static**

Finally, I exported the site to Cloudflare Pages using the [Simply Static](https://simplystatic.com/) plugin, by following this [Cloudflare guide](https://developers.cloudflare.com/pages/how-to/deploy-a-wordpress-site/).

**Current Setup and Next Steps**

This setup isn't 100% what I want yet. I'm still running WordPress locally to author the site and have to manually export and deploy. It's far from ideal, but it's a step in the right direction. I'm excited to work on simplifying it and maybe base it around Markdown... we'll see. I guess the next step will be automating the deployment.

How About You? Do you have a blog or personal site? I no longer have comments enabled here, but you can reach me on [X](https://x.com/fgili0).

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*CTO at [publica.la](http://publica.la/), leading an awesome team and changing the way digital publishing works. Full stack developer passionate about building the web at scale, constantly learning, and always looking for exciting challenges. I love to automate-all-the-things and consider myself a die-hard suprematist. All about code and Open Source, podcasts, blogs, and **lots** of coffee.*

#HappyCoding