If you’re looking for a CMS for static site projects in 2025, this guide will help you find the best option.
Content management systems (CMSs) make it easy for you to create and update content on your static site. For this reason, choosing the best CMS for your static site is what truly makes static site generation work for you.
But, this isn’t easy as there are so many options on the market, including API-first, Git-based, traditional CMSs, etc. It is perfectly normal that you would struggle with this choice.
We’re here to help. In this guide, we’ll break down different options to help you decide which CMS you should use for static site generation.
We’ll cover:
- What static site generation is.
- Why you should build a static website.
- What you should look for in a CMS for static site projects.
- The best CMS options for static sites.
To begin, let’s first understand what static site generation is and why you should build a static site.
TL;DR: Which CMS is best for static site generation?
- There are many CMSs you can use to manage content on your static site.
- The best static site CMSs combine performance optimization, security, and ease of use.
- With Simply Static Studio and WordPress, you get all three plus so much more.
Run fast, secure, and maintenance-free WordPress with Static Studio.
What is a static site generator (SSG)?
A static site generator (SSG) is a software tool used to create static websites. You give it source files such as templates, content, and data, and it generates a static website, ready to be hosted.
But what exactly is a static website? This is a type of website made up of fixed HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. These files are prebuilt and stored on a web server. When a user clicks to view a static website, these files will be retrieved and delivered to the user’s browser as they are.
The direct opposite of static sites is a dynamic website. Unlike static sites, dynamic sites aren’t pre-built. They’re generated in real time (‘on the fly’) when a user clicks to view the web page.
That’s what static websites are, and SSGs are the tools used to create these types of websites. So now, what is static site generation?
What is static site generation?
This is the process by which SSGs create static websites. It involves the static site generator taking the content and design you’ve specified for a website and converting it into ready-made static pages.
To summarize:
- Static websites are a type of website made up of fixed, prebuilt files stored on a server.
- SSGs are tools used to create static sites.
- Static site generation is the process by which SSGs create static sites.
Now that we know what static sites, SSGs, and static site generation are, let’s look at why you might want to build a static site.
Why build a static website?
Static websites have become a popular choice for various web development projects, including blog websites, landing pages, documentation pages, etc. This is because they have advantages that address some of the biggest challenges in web development.
These advantages include:
Static sites are faster
Because static sites are pre-built, they’re fundamentally faster than dynamic websites. When a user clicks to view a web page, the server doesn’t have to assemble it on the fly. It only fetches what is pre-built and delivers it to the user’s browser.
As a bonus, if a static site also uses a Content Delivery Network (CDN). This stores the site’s content on servers located all over the world, and the content will be delivered from the server closest to the user. On top of being static, this is a huge boost to speed.
Better security
Static sites are more secure because they eliminate common attack surfaces. They don’t have a database, and there’s no server-side code like PHP being executed when a user clicks them. This means that common backend-targeting attacks, such as SQL injections (which might work against dynamic sites), don’t work against them.
They’re highly scalable
These types of websites can handle traffic spikes without slowing down. This is because they don’t rely on databases or server-side processing, reducing the risk of servers slowing down under high traffic.
They’re cheaper to host
Static sites don’t need expensive, powerful servers to run them. A simple, low-cost static hosting solution is all you need to make them live.
That’s what static sites are and how you can benefit from building one. Now let’s shift our attention back to our main focus, which is identifying the best CMS for static sites.
But get this, CMSs are typically designed to power dynamic websites. So, why might static websites need a CMS?
Why might you want to use a CMS for your static site?
You can build your entire site using SSGs like Hugo, Jekyll, or Gatsby only (with the help of a developer, of course). But building your site this way makes creating new content or updating its content extremely difficult.
For example, with something like Hugo, you’ll need a developer to:
- Retrieve and edit Markdown files manually, just to update a blog post or page.
- Run Hugo to rebuild the entire site.
This is a technical process. Non-technical users, such as the SEO and marketing teams, will find it difficult to create and edit content on the site. They’ll have to rely on developers to do this each time.
Static site CMSs simplify user interface and website content updates
Static site CMSs provide non-technical users with things like drag-and-drop user interfaces, or easy-to-use editors where they can easily create website content. They integrate with the SSG (static site generator), which will handle creating static HTML files once you’re done with the update.
Apart from the marketing team, you (as the website owner) will be able to update the user interface easily when you need to. You won’t have to go through the hassle of hiring a developer each time you need an update.
Now we know how important CMSs are to your static site. The next step is to figure out what makes one a good fit. To do this, you’ll need to understand what to look for in a CMS for static projects.
What should you look for in a CMS for static site projects?
There are so many great CMS options available. However, not all of them are built with static sites in mind. To make your choice easier, look for a CMS with the following features.
Ease of use in content creation and editing
The whole point of using a CMS with your static site is to have a simple way for non-technical users to create and edit content on your site.
Because of this, the CMS you choose should:
- Have a visual editor. The editor should allow users to create and edit content on a live preview of the website.
- Allow media management. It should be easy for you to upload and manage media files such as images and videos. Features like image optimization are a huge plus.
- Allow content modeling. This means it should allow you to define custom content structures. For example, a blog post content model with fields for the title, author, body, and publish date.
Collaboration and workflow features
Because content departments work in teams, the best CMS for your static sites should have collaboration and workflow features built in. You should be able to add different users (and user roles) to different static site projects and manage their access.
Security features
The CMS shouldn’t just rely on the security benefits that come with building a static site. It should have its own security features to provide added security for your dashboard and static sites themselves.
These include:
- Built-in SSL to keep your data secure.
- Audit logs, which allow you to keep tabs on what’s happening in the platform.
- Automated backups for your sites. These should be stored elsewhere in a secure location.
- Strong access control to prevent unauthorized access to the dashboard.
SEO support (natively or through plugins)
To ensure your static sites rank highly in search engine result pages, your CMS should have built-in
SEO features such as:
- Metadata management. Because metadata gives search engines context about your web pages.
- Sitemap and Robots.txt. These two guide search engines as they crawl through your site.
- And many more.
If the CMS platform doesn’t offer these features by default, it should allow you to install plugins that add these functionalities.
CDN support
It should allow you to host your static site in a CDN to boost site speed further. Most of these tools will have a third-party CDN integration. But if you can find one that also offers its own CDN, that would be the ideal choice.
Note: The CDN should have Points of Presence (PoP) close to your target audience. PoP are physical or virtual data centers located all over the world. This reduces the distance content has to travel to reach your users, resulting in fast page load times.
To summarize, here’s what you should look for in a CMS for your static site:
| Feature | Importance |
| Ease of use in content creation and editing | Allows non-technical users (like marketers or editors) to manage content without relying on developers. Keeps workflows efficient and user-friendly. |
| Collaboration and workflow features | Supports teams by enabling role-based permissions—essential for larger projects with multiple contributors. |
| Security features | Protects content and user access through authentication, role management, and minimal attack surface—important since one goal of static sites is stronger security. |
| SEO support | Ensures content is discoverable with features like metadata control, image optimization, and sitemap generation. |
| CDN support | Maximizes the scalability and performance benefits of static sites by making it easy to integrate with global content delivery networks. |
So, this is what you should look for in a CMS for your static site. Based on this criteria, what are the best static site CMS options to consider? Let’s go over them in the next section.
What are the best CMS options for static websites?
If you want a CMS for your static website, here are the best options to consider.
WordPress and Simply Static Studio
Together, WordPress and Simply Static Studio present the best CMS option for static sites. Simply Static Studio is a fully managed platform for creating and managing static WordPress sites. It is an all-in-one solution that combines static site generation, hosting, performance optimization, and security.
Simply Static Studio allows you to create and edit websites using the familiar WordPress CMS. Then convert it into a static website in a single click with the help of its static site generator plugin, Simply Static.
It provides you with a dashboard where you can create, edit, or delete sites, deploy sites, collaborate with teams, etc. In short, you get all your static WordPress needs (plus more) met under one roof.
Run fast, secure, and maintenance-free WordPress with Static Studio.
Pros of Simply Static Studio
Here’s what makes Simply Static Studio with WordPress the best CMS option for static sites.
It strongly focuses on security
WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world. Unfortunately, this also means that it gets targeted a lot by attackers.
Research by Patchstack revealed over 7900 new vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem in 2024, a 34% increase over 2023.
To ensure you never have to worry about security, Simply Static Studio applies and offers several security controls, including:
- It locks WordPress down completely, so that you can only access it from its control panel through secure login.
- It has a control panel for access management to prevent unauthorized access.
- Fully automated backups (plus recovery support) and SSL certificates for your static sites.
- Permanent monitoring to identify security threats early.
Other pros of using WordPress and Simply Static Studio
Secure static sites aside, here are other benefits of using WordPress and Simply Static Studio:
- It allows you to keep the familiar, user-friendly WordPress for content creation and editing. Non-technical users will have an easy time creating content on your site.
- To add to its user-friendliness, you only worry about creating content. Simply Static Studio will take care of static site generation.
- You can still use your favorite form plugins, because it supports forms in your static site.
- Your users will experience fast-loading pages globally. This is because it allows you to host your static sites in its powerful CDN with over 120 PoP.
- It supports ecommerce with Ecwid if you want to sell products and still have a static site.
Simply Static Studio thrives in making complex things simple. All you have to do is create sites and pages or write blog posts in WordPress and leave the complex stuff to the platform.
Cons of Simply Static Studio
The only major downside of Simply Static Studio with WordPress is that if you haven’t used WordPress before, you’ll have to learn how to.
Who is it best for?
It is great for developers, agencies, and content creators. It relieves them from the complexities of creating and maintaining static sites, allowing them to focus on content.
Decap CMS (formerly Netlify CMS)
Decap CMS is an open-source, Git-based CMS for building static sites. It is designed to work with popular SSGs like Hugo and Jekyll, and frameworks that support static site generation, such as Next.js.
Decap allows you to create content (web pages, posts, etc.) and save it in Markdown or JSON files in your Git repository (whether in GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket). The SSG then pulls the content stored in these files and converts it to a static site to be deployed on Netlify, Vercel, or GitHub Pages.
Pros of Decap CMS
Here are the advantages that come with Decap as the CMS for your static site:
- Its content editor is relatively easy to use, and your SEO/Marketing teams can manage content without touching code.
- It stores code and content versions in the same repository. This way, collaboration between developers and non-technical teams will be easier.
- It is open-source, meaning free to use.
- It is compatible with several SSGs, allowing you to use your preferred tool.
What about the downsides?
Cons of Decap CMS
There are a few reasons why Decap CMS might not be the ideal choice for you. They include:
- It depends on Git, so you need Git knowledge to use it.
- It’s not an all-in-one solution as you have to host projects elsewhere (Netlify, GitHub Pages, or Vercel).
- The setup isn’t as user-friendly. It needs some configuration before content editors can use it smoothly.
- Developers with knowledge of SSGs like Hugo are needed to make it work.
Who is Decap CMS best for?
Small to medium teams that include developers. Or developers building with the SSGs mentioned.
Headless CMSs
In a headless CMS setup, the front-end (where the content is displayed) and the backend (where content is managed) are separated. The front-end is removed, leaving the backend.
In this type of CMS, you can log into the CMS platform, create, edit, or delete content. But content display is handled separately using an SSG like Hugo. After creating content, an API delivers it to an SSG, which converts it to static web pages to be displayed to site visitors.
Examples of headless CMSs include Contentful, Strapi, Sanity, and Prismic.
Pros of headless CMSs
Headless CMSs have several benefits, including:
- Developers are free to use any static site generator to build the front-end. You can pair the CMS with any SSG; there are no exclusions or limitations.
- It is a team-friendly option, allowing teams to focus on what they do best. Developers will focus on content display, while non-technical users can focus on content management.
- It is future-proof. If a new, better SSG pops up, you can switch to it without affecting your content.
Cons of headless CMSs
You could face the following challenges when headless CMSs power your static site’s content:
- Most headless CMSs, such as Contentful, offer a limited free tier that is only suitable for small projects. For advanced features, you’ll have to purchase paid plans.
- They’re unsuitable for simple projects like a portfolio site or a blog. All this setup for a project of that scale is overkill.
- They rely heavily on APIs, which can be difficult to secure.
- The setup is more complex, and it needs developers who understand the CMS’s API and the SSG of choice to work.
What is a headless CMS suitable for?
Large projects with developer teams who can make this setup work.
Traditional CMSs with static export tools
You can still use traditional CMSs like Joomla and Drupal as static site CMSs. These two are designed primarily to power dynamic websites. But they have static export tools that you can use to convert dynamic websites created in these platforms to their static site versions.
These tools include:
- Joom2Static for Joomla.
- Tome for Drupal.
These tools usually come with additional features, for example, image optimization for Joom2Static and syncing content to a Git repository for Tome.
Pros of traditional CMSs with static exports
Here are some reasons why you might choose traditional CMSs as your static site CMS:
- If you’ve been using these platforms to build dynamic websites, you don’t have to switch to a new tool. You can retain the familiar interface you’re used to, but still manage content for static sites.
- These platforms have a rich ecosystem. You’ll have tons of plugins for adding various functionalities at your disposal.
Cons of using traditional CMSs with static exports
The challenges you’ll face with traditional CMSs as your CMS for static sites include:
- They’re built for dynamic sites, so the setup for static websites is less streamlined. In other words, they aren’t suitable for static websites.
- The setup is usually complex and not worth the trouble, especially for simpler projects.
- Your sites could face performance issues because static site generation is an afterthought in traditional CMSs.
- This setup is completely dependent on the static export tool. So you’ll be limited to what it offers.
Who is this setup suitable for?
Organizations that are already invested in these platforms don’t want to switch to new, more specialized CMSs for static sites.
That’s it, the different CMS options you can use for your static site. To summarize, here’s how they compare.
| CMS Solution | Pros | Cons | Best for |
| Simply Static Studio + WordPress | Highly secure static sites.- You can retain WordPress as your CMS.- Fast-loading pages, thanks to its CDN.- Support for forms in your static site. | You need to understand how to use WordPress. | Developers, agencies, and content creators who want a simple way to create, maintain, and secure static sites. |
| Decap CMS | User-friendly content editor.- Free to use.- Easier collaboration with content and code in the same repo. | You need Git knowledge to use it.- Not user-friendly as it needs some configuration.- Developers are needed to make it work. | Small to medium teams that include developers. |
| Headless CMS (Contentful, Strapi, etc.) | Developer flexibility to use an SSG of their choosing.- Secure static sites.- Team-friendly, allowing teams to focus on what they do best.- Future-proof, developers can change to a new SSG. | Free tier from headless CMS providers is insufficient.- Unsuitable for small projects.- Complex setup. | Large projects with developers that can make it work. |
| Traditional CMS + static exports | You don’t have to switch to a new CMS.- Traditional CMSs have rich ecosystems. | Unsuitable for static websites.- Could face performance issues.- Complex setup. | Organizations using traditional CMSs don’t want to switch. |
CMS for static site FAQs (people also ask)
What is a static site generator?
A static site generator (SSG) is a software tool used to create static websites. When it works with a CMS, it takes the content created in the CMS (web pages, posts, etc.) and converts it to static HTML pages.
Who are static websites for?
Anyone who wants fast-loading, scalable, secure websites whose content doesn’t change regularly. This includes businesses, developers, freelancers, or agencies that want to build docs sites, portfolios, landing pages for marketing campaigns, and so on.
Is a static HTML website better than WordPress for SEO?
Not necessarily. Both static HTML sites and WordPress sites can rank well on search engines. What matters is how the site is built, optimized, and maintained. Static sites have the SEO edge on speed, while WordPress has the edge on SEO plugins.
You can enjoy the best of both worlds with Simply Static Studio.
What’s the difference between static and dynamic websites?
The difference between static and dynamic websites comes down to how the web pages are built and delivered to the user. In a static website, the pages are pre-built and stored on a server, and served to the user as they are. With dynamic sites, web pages are created in real time and then delivered to the user.
What are the best CMS options for static sites?
There are several options, such as Simply Static Studio with WordPress, headless CMSs like Contentful, Decap CMS, etc. Your choice will depend on the project’s needs and your technical level.
Can I use WordPress as a static CMS?
Yes. With the help of Simply Static Studio, you can use WordPress as your CMS to manage content on a static site.
Pick your CMS for static sites today
Picking a CMS for your static site isn’t easy. But knowing what to look for in your ideal static site CMS makes this choice easier. There are several CMS options to pick from, including headless CMSs, traditional CMSs with static exports, and Simply Static Studio.
Generally, the best CMS for static sites balances performance, security, and ease of use. Simply Static Studio gives you all three. It has several security controls to secure your static site, a powerful CDN to boost performance, and it allows you to retain WordPress as your CMS.
Pick WordPress with Simply Static Studio as your CMS and enjoy fast, secure, and fully managed static WordPress sites.
Run fast, secure, and maintenance-free WordPress with Static Studio.
