8 ms·

Show HN: HardyPress, zero-maintenance, “static” Wordpress hosting service

41 points by steffoz 9y ago

steffoz 9y ago
There are lots of WordPress maintenance services [1] out there, but they're quite expensive. We remove the maintenance/upgrade problem altogether staticizing your WordPress sites and putting them on a CDN. The real WordPress installation lives on a separate domain and only runs when an editor needs to make some changes to the content. And it's totally seamless for visitors and your editors. [1]: https://underconstructionpage.com/wordpress-maintenance-services/ https://underconstructionpage.com/wordpress-maintenance-serv...
- seanwilson 9y ago
  Brilliant idea. I'm really surprised there aren't more services like this as it seems such a logical idea that the admin/editor functionality of your site should be completely locked down and separate to the site serving the content. When making static sites, I've been looking for something with the flexibility of WordPress but there really isn't much out there. Good luck! Do you allow custom plugins and templates? For the static generation part, how do you stop sites being too big or computationally expensive to generate?
  - steffoz 9y ago
    Thanks! As long as plugins don't have any front-facing dynamic components, you're good to go! Templates are freely editable just like regular hosting services. For the static generation, it's really fast also for medium-sized Worpress sites. We are also trying make the process differential (partially, at least) :)
mat_jack1 9y ago
Just a curiosity, which CDN are you using?
- steffoz 9y ago
  BunnyCDN [1], they're one of the few CDN with one-click SSL setup and instant cache purge [1]: https://bunnycdn.com/ https://bunnycdn.com/
spleenteo 9y ago
I wonder if it could really work as advertized... how many problems could be found making a static website, even on a medium size WP? And what about dynamic content such as comments, search, filters or other specific plugins?
- steffoz 9y ago
  That's an great question. Most WordPress websites are just "brochure websites": they don't expose anything dynamic to their visitors excluding comments, contact forms and search functionality. We already handle these scenarios out-of-the box. Also, every plugin you use that does not have any front-facing components, it's perfectly fine. It's not a hosting solution for every possible WordPress website out there, but it can handle a huge slice of the market, with big benefits for agencies/freelances.
stephenr 9y ago
Having supported (from an infra/ops point of view) several places that insisted on using Wordpress, I don't understand why Varnish in front of <choose your web server[1]> isn't the standard 'recommended' way of hosting it. 1: it isn't going to matter. When the WP PHP is doing 30 different SQL queries just to load the front page of the site, your web server is no longer the bottleneck, even if it's Pre-Fork Apache with mod_php.
- zener79 9y ago
  Using Varnishis a huge boost in performance for sure, but it doesn't solve vulnerability and maintenance problems
  - stephenr 9y ago
    While a 'static' export of the site does solve the vulnerability issue (assuming it is a static export, and not just exporting to something else which could be vulnerable), I imagine lots of organisations would choose not to use it, specifically because some dynamic functionality won't work then. For those who aren't able/willing to use a fully static version of the site, Varnish (or Apache Traffic Server, Squid, or Apache or Nginx's Cache mode) can provide a huge improvement in performance, and (definitely with Varnish and a custom VCL, possibly not as easy with others) can even handle stuff like grace mode (i.e. return cached, expired results if the origin is offline) and purging cached objects when they're updated in the WP DB (via a plugin which communicates with Varnish). Im not sure what you mean about maintenance problems?
    - zener79 9y ago
      As Steffoz said below: "Most WordPress websites are just "brochure websites": they don't expose anything dynamic to their visitors excluding comments, contact forms and search functionality. We already handle these scenarios out-of-the box. Also, every plugin you use that does not have any front-facing components, it's perfectly fine. It's not a hosting solution for every possible WordPress website out there, but it can handle a huge slice of the market, with big benefits for agencies/freelances." Maintenance problems are those you have when you need to update your installation but you can not because the update break stuff around. I had lots of these :-)
quickthrower2 9y ago
This is a great idea. WordPress had a fantastic ecosystem and frankly a hell of a lot easier to use than Jekyll and friends. But it's security vulnerabilities are it's downfall do this is a nice solution. Another cool service you could offer would be a "CloudFlare" type thing over and existing WP site, where you cache all the content.
alesordi 9y ago
Very useful and simple tool!. Good job.
patrickfl 9y ago
fascinating - can you still use the backend wp-admin? I've experimented with generating static HTML files with WordPress in the past, but the code has always came out a tad sloppy. This looks really cool, I might be interested in a trial. edit: nevermind, found this: https://www.hardypress.com/how-it-works/ https://www.hardypress.com/how-it-works/ again, really fascinating. has it been shown to reduce load times? Can I still minify my own CSS and JS, and "combine external resources?" is their a public facing demo available?
- zener79 9y ago
  Hi Patrick, I just saw you comment :-) You can try the service for free, all you have to to is signup here: https://app.hardypress.com/register https://app.hardypress.com/register

41 points by steffoz 9y ago

There are lots of WordPress maintenance services [1] out there, but they're quite expensive. We remove the maintenance/upgrade problem altogether staticizing your WordPress sites and putting them on a CDN. The real WordPress installation lives on a separate domain and only runs when an editor needs to make some changes to the content. And it's totally seamless for visitors and your editors. [1]: https://underconstructionpage.com/wordpress-maintenance-services/ https://underconstructionpage.com/wordpress-maintenance-serv...

seanwilson 9y ago
Brilliant idea. I'm really surprised there aren't more services like this as it seems such a logical idea that the admin/editor functionality of your site should be completely locked down and separate to the site serving the content. When making static sites, I've been looking for something with the flexibility of WordPress but there really isn't much out there. Good luck! Do you allow custom plugins and templates? For the static generation part, how do you stop sites being too big or computationally expensive to generate?
- steffoz 9y ago
  Thanks! As long as plugins don't have any front-facing dynamic components, you're good to go! Templates are freely editable just like regular hosting services. For the static generation, it's really fast also for medium-sized Worpress sites. We are also trying make the process differential (partially, at least) :)

mat_jack1 9y ago

Just a curiosity, which CDN are you using?

steffoz 9y ago
BunnyCDN [1], they're one of the few CDN with one-click SSL setup and instant cache purge [1]: https://bunnycdn.com/ https://bunnycdn.com/

spleenteo 9y ago

I wonder if it could really work as advertized... how many problems could be found making a static website, even on a medium size WP? And what about dynamic content such as comments, search, filters or other specific plugins?

steffoz 9y ago
That's an great question. Most WordPress websites are just "brochure websites": they don't expose anything dynamic to their visitors excluding comments, contact forms and search functionality. We already handle these scenarios out-of-the box. Also, every plugin you use that does not have any front-facing components, it's perfectly fine. It's not a hosting solution for every possible WordPress website out there, but it can handle a huge slice of the market, with big benefits for agencies/freelances.

stephenr 9y ago

Having supported (from an infra/ops point of view) several places that insisted on using Wordpress, I don't understand why Varnish in front of <choose your web server[1]> isn't the standard 'recommended' way of hosting it. 1: it isn't going to matter. When the WP PHP is doing 30 different SQL queries just to load the front page of the site, your web server is no longer the bottleneck, even if it's Pre-Fork Apache with mod_php.

zener79 9y ago
Using Varnishis a huge boost in performance for sure, but it doesn't solve vulnerability and maintenance problems
- stephenr 9y ago
  While a 'static' export of the site does solve the vulnerability issue (assuming it is a static export, and not just exporting to something else which could be vulnerable), I imagine lots of organisations would choose not to use it, specifically because some dynamic functionality won't work then. For those who aren't able/willing to use a fully static version of the site, Varnish (or Apache Traffic Server, Squid, or Apache or Nginx's Cache mode) can provide a huge improvement in performance, and (definitely with Varnish and a custom VCL, possibly not as easy with others) can even handle stuff like grace mode (i.e. return cached, expired results if the origin is offline) and purging cached objects when they're updated in the WP DB (via a plugin which communicates with Varnish). Im not sure what you mean about maintenance problems?
  - zener79 9y ago
    As Steffoz said below: "Most WordPress websites are just "brochure websites": they don't expose anything dynamic to their visitors excluding comments, contact forms and search functionality. We already handle these scenarios out-of-the box. Also, every plugin you use that does not have any front-facing components, it's perfectly fine. It's not a hosting solution for every possible WordPress website out there, but it can handle a huge slice of the market, with big benefits for agencies/freelances." Maintenance problems are those you have when you need to update your installation but you can not because the update break stuff around. I had lots of these :-)

quickthrower2 9y ago

This is a great idea. WordPress had a fantastic ecosystem and frankly a hell of a lot easier to use than Jekyll and friends. But it's security vulnerabilities are it's downfall do this is a nice solution. Another cool service you could offer would be a "CloudFlare" type thing over and existing WP site, where you cache all the content.

alesordi 9y ago

Very useful and simple tool!. Good job.

patrickfl 9y ago

fascinating - can you still use the backend wp-admin? I've experimented with generating static HTML files with WordPress in the past, but the code has always came out a tad sloppy. This looks really cool, I might be interested in a trial. edit: nevermind, found this: https://www.hardypress.com/how-it-works/ https://www.hardypress.com/how-it-works/ again, really fascinating. has it been shown to reduce load times? Can I still minify my own CSS and JS, and "combine external resources?" is their a public facing demo available?

zener79 9y ago
Hi Patrick, I just saw you comment :-) You can try the service for free, all you have to to is signup here: https://app.hardypress.com/register https://app.hardypress.com/register