What Is A Static Website?

A static website is made of ready-made files - HTML, CSS, JavaScript and images - that are delivered to every visitor exactly as they were uploaded. No code runs on a server when someone opens the page. That is what makes static sites fast to load, hard to hack and cheap to host.

A dynamic website, by contrast, builds each page on a server when it is requested. WordPress, PHP applications and anything that talks to a database on the server side are dynamic. They will not run on OxyPages.

What Works On A Static Site

Anything that runs in the visitor's browser works:

• HTML, CSS and JavaScript, including animations and interactive widgets
• Sites exported from tools like Webflow or Figma
• Sites written by an AI assistant such as ChatGPT or Claude
• Output from static site generators like Hugo, Jekyll, Astro or Eleventy
• JavaScript that calls external APIs from the browser

What Does Not Work

Anything that needs code to run on the server does not work: PHP, Python or Node running server-side, databases, WordPress, Laravel and similar applications.

But My Site Needs A Contact Form

Forms are the classic reason people think they need a server. On OxyPages they work without one: OxyPages receives the submissions for you, stores them in your dashboard and can email you when one arrives. See the article on adding a form for how to set this up.