WordPress powers blogs, stores and membership sites brilliantly. Many small business sites, though, are a handful of pages that rarely change, running on a database, a theme and a stack of plugins. If you want a static HTML WordPress alternative with zero plugin maintenance, here's how htmlhost compares.
Last updated · Facts checked against WordPress's official pricing and documentation. Sources
Self-hosted WordPress needs PHP 8.3+, MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.11+, and HTTPS, plus updates.
On WordPress, forms usually come from a plugin such as Contact Form 7 or WPForms.
WordPress.com: "Free sites display WordPress.com ads to visitors."
Keep WordPress if you publish posts often with several authors, run WooCommerce or memberships, or depend on plugins that need a server. Move to htmlhost if your site is mostly fixed pages: a verified WordPress site of up to 200 pages converts to static HTML for free, with its URLs, SEO tags and forms carried over, and there's nothing left to patch or update.
The steps a typical person follows on each platform, from a finished HTML file to a live page.
Highlighted cells mark the stronger option for publishing and editing HTML sites. Ties are left plain.
| Feature | htmlhost | WordPress |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Free: 3 sites, 500 MB of storage, 50 form messages a month, 10 AI edits a day, sites that never expire by default. | WordPress.com Free: ads shown to visitors, a WordPress.com subdomain, 1 GB, no plugins, no custom domain. |
| Paid plans | Pro is a $12/month or $120/year pass with no auto-renewal: unlimited sites, 10 GB, unlimited custom domains, password protection, 5,000 form messages a month and 3,000 AI edits a month. | WordPress.com per month: Personal $9 ($4 first year billed yearly, renews at $5), Premium $18 ($8), Business $40 ($25), Commerce $70 ($45). |
| Plugins | Not needed for forms, SEO tags, redirects or analytics; those are built in. | On every WordPress.com paid plan from Personal; always available self-hosted. |
| Maintenance | Nothing to update: no PHP, database, theme or plugins. | Self-hosted: you're responsible for hosting, security and maintenance. WordPress.com manages the platform. |
| Blogging and content | Pages edited visually or in code; no post editor, categories or comments. | Best-in-class posts, categories, authors, scheduling and comments. |
| E-commerce and memberships | Link to a checkout or embed one; no built-in store. | WooCommerce and membership plugins. |
| Forms | Forms deliver to a dashboard inbox and email with a built-in spam trap: 50 form messages a month on Free, 5,000 form messages a month on Pro with file attachments, Google Sheets and webhooks. | Usually via a form plugin. |
| Editing | Visual editor, code editor and AI Edit on the published pages. | The block editor, or a page builder plugin. |
| Custom domains | $5/yr each on Free; unlimited and included on Pro. | WordPress.com paid plans include a free domain for one year. |
| Password protection | Included in Pro ($12/month). | Per-page passwords are a core WordPress feature. |
| Migrating to static | Free WordPress to HTML migration for verified sites, up to 200 pages, forms reconnected. | — |
WordPress details as published on its official pages, checked ; plans change, so check the linked sources before you buy. htmlhost figures are read from the plan limits and pricing the app enforces.
WordPress.com's free plan shows WordPress.com ads to your visitors and gives you a WordPress.com subdomain, 1 GB of storage and no plugins or custom domain. Paid plans, billed monthly, are Personal $9, Premium $18, Business $40 and Commerce $70; billed yearly the first year costs $4, $8, $25 and $45 a month, renewing at $5, $9, $28 and $50 (excluding taxes).
Plugin installation and third-party themes are available on every paid plan from Personal up, and paid plans include a domain free for the first year. SFTP, SSH, WP-CLI and GitHub deployments start at Business.
htmlhost has two plans: Free, and Pro at $12/month or $120/year as a pass with no auto-renewal. Forms, redirects, analytics and SEO tags don't need plugins on either.
WordPress.org is open-source software you install on your own server. It needs PHP 8.3 or greater, MySQL 8.0 or MariaDB 10.11 or greater, and HTTPS, and as WordPress.com puts it, "you are responsible for your own hosting, security, and maintenance." Costs depend entirely on your host and plugins.
For a blog or shop that's worth it. For a five-page brochure site, it means a database query behind every page view and a schedule of core, theme and plugin updates, for content that might change twice a year.
htmlhost's WordPress to HTML tool copies a site you've proved is yours, up to 200 pages at a time, on Free or Pro. Pages keep their addresses, menus, SEO tags and images, and forms built with Contact Form 7, WPForms, Gravity Forms, Elementor Pro, Fluent Forms and others are reconnected to deliver to your htmlhost inbox.
After that you edit the pages in htmlhost's visual editor or with AI, and the WordPress install can be retired.
It depends on the plan. WordPress.com's Personal plan starts at $4/month billed yearly in the first year ($9 monthly). htmlhost Free costs nothing and includes forms; Pro is $12/month or $120/year with unlimited sites and custom domains. Self-hosted WordPress costs depend on your host and any premium plugins.
Yes. htmlhost's WordPress to HTML migration copies a verified site of up to 200 pages for free, keeping URLs, menus, SEO tags and images, and reconnecting forms from Contact Form 7, WPForms, Elementor Pro and other plugins to the htmlhost inbox.
No. Forms, redirects, analytics, SEO tags and search engine visibility are built in. Interactive features can be added with JavaScript or third-party embeds.
No. WordPress.com's free plan doesn't include plugin installation, a custom domain or ad-free browsing for visitors. Plugins are available on every paid plan from Personal up.
Usually not. WordPress's post editor, categories, scheduling and comments are its strengths. htmlhost suits sites made of pages, not frequent posts.
Every WordPress claim on this page comes from these official pages. Last updated . Spotted something that has changed? Email hey@htmlhost.co and we'll correct it.
A delightful, inexpensive builder for one-page sites. You build inside Carrd's editor, so you can't upload your own HTML, and forms, domains and passwords sit on higher Pro tiers.
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A popular upload-and-share host for HTML, PDFs and ZIPs, now with AI creation. Plans are counted in active projects, and custom domains and passwords start at Solo.
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A powerful Git-and-build platform with Netlify Drop for quick uploads. Free usage is metered in credits, and when they run out every project on the account pauses.
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Paste code, or drop a file, folder or ZIP. You get a preview first, and nothing is public until you publish.