Frequently Asked Questions

Stelae is a static WordPress hosting service. You get a private WordPress editor in an isolated Docker container, use it to build your site, then export the site as static HTML/CSS/JS files. You host the static files wherever you like: free EU hosting, Cloudflare, or any git host. The WordPress container sleeps when you’re not editing.

Regular WordPress hosting runs PHP and a database on every page visit. Stelae only runs WordPress while you’re editing. Visitors see static HTML files: no PHP, no database, no login page, no attack surface. This means better security, better performance, and lower hosting costs.

Simply Static and WP2Static are WordPress plugins that generate static exports from an existing WordPress installation. To use them, you need WordPress running somewhere, either locally (which means a database, PHP, and something like MAMP on your machine) or on a hosted server (which already costs more than Stelae per year). Stelae handles all of that: you get a managed WordPress container in the cloud that exists only for editing, accessible from any device, with the export pipeline built into the platform. Nothing to install locally, nothing to maintain, and you don’t need to expose WordPress to the internet.

The architecture. Most managed-WordPress hosts run a public-facing WordPress instance for every site, 24/7: PHP, MariaDB, the full attack surface, each one getting probed by every WordPress vulnerability scanner on the internet. That means constant patching, hardening, monitoring, and incident response. Stelae only runs your WordPress while you’re editing. The rest of the time it’s a stopped container using zero resources, and visitors only ever see static HTML on your chosen host. No public PHP means no PHP exploits, no botnet probing, no overnight CVE response. The ops cost goes way down, and the savings go into the price.

€19.90 per year per site. One plan. No tiers, no upsells, no usage-based pricing. The same deal for everyone.

During public beta, sites are free and no card is required. When the beta ends, sites convert to the paid plan with at least 30 days’ notice and a clear opt-out (see below).

No. The €19.90 covers your WordPress container, the export pipeline, and auto-deploy to statichost.eu (recommended), via git push, or to Cloudflare Workers. Your static hosting costs depend on where you deploy. Statichost.eu, GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Workers, and Netlify all have generous free tiers that cover most personal and small-business sites.

Yes. During public beta there’s nothing to charge, so cancellation just deletes the subscription and stops the editor. Once paid plans begin, when you cancel a paid subscription your site stays active until the end of the paid period; after that, the WordPress container is suspended. Your static site continues to run wherever you deployed it. It doesn’t depend on Stelae. You can download both the static export and a full WordPress backup before your subscription ends.

Your WordPress container is suspended (editor becomes inaccessible). Your WordPress files and database are kept for 365 days in case you want to resubscribe. After 365 days of inactivity, they’re deleted. Your static site continues to work on whatever host you deployed it to.

Your dashboard has an Invoices tab that lists all your invoices with dates and amounts. Each invoice can be downloaded as a PDF. Invoices are generated automatically after each payment is confirmed.

Yes, at first. Stelae runs on a single machine, operated by one person, so sign-ups are limited at launch to keep operations smooth while the system proves itself in production. WordPress containers idle most of the time, so the host has more headroom than the limit implies; as the data confirms what’s sustainable, the limit goes up. There’s no fixed long-term ceiling. What stays fixed is “one person can comfortably run this”. That constraint, not any specific number, is what makes €19.90/year sustainable indefinitely without VC funding, auto-scaling infrastructure, or a support team. If you hit the limit when you try to register, the registration page shows a waitlist form. When slots open (either because someone leaves or because I’ve raised the limit), I email you to invite you in. The address isn’t used for anything else.

The free public beta runs at least until 27 July 2026. When it ends, sites convert to the paid plan (€19.90/year). Free beta sites are not grandfathered. At this price, the economics don’t allow it. Before the conversion you’ll get:

• At least 30 days’ notice by email and an in-dashboard banner.
• A clear opt-out: download your static archive and your full WordPress backup, cancel your account, and you owe nothing. The static site you’ve already deployed keeps running on its host.
• The same data-retention guarantees as paid sites. Nothing gets deleted earlier than it would otherwise.

The free beta is a real free beta, not a 30-day-trial-then-charge. But it does end. Being upfront about that now seemed more honest than the alternative.

Yes. Your WordPress container is a full WordPress installation. You can install any theme from the WordPress repository or upload premium themes, and install any plugin. However, only features that produce HTML/CSS/JS output will be visible on your static site. See the compatibility guide for details.

WordPress form plugins (Contact Form 7, WPForms, etc.) won’t work because there’s no PHP to process submissions on the static site. Instead, use a third-party form service like Formspree, Basin, or Netlify Forms. These work by adding a simple HTML attribute or JavaScript snippet to your form. No server required.

No, by design. Stelae doesn’t provide outbound SMTP for hosted WordPress sites. Email that your site would normally send (password resets, new-user notifications, form submissions during editing) is captured in an outbox on the Stelae server, not relayed to the recipient.

When your site generates mail, you’ll get a brief notification to your Stelae account email saying how many messages are queued. You can download the captured messages as a zip from your Stelae dashboard and open them in your mail client.

Why not? Running a shared SMTP relay for customer WordPress sites is a reputation and abuse nightmare. One compromised site sending spam can get the whole platform blocklisted. Keeping Stelae out of the mail path entirely is safer for every tenant.

If you need real outbound email (reliable form submissions, transactional mail on your published static site), install the WP Mail SMTP plugin and connect your own provider. Mailgun, SES, Postmark, Brevo, Resend, SendGrid, etc. all work and typically have free tiers. WP Mail SMTP overrides PHP’s mail path, so the outbox capture no longer applies once it’s configured.

Note that email is only relevant during editing (the published static site has no server to send from). For forms on the published site, see the contact-forms answer above.

Yes, using a client-side search library. We recommend Pagefind. It runs entirely in the browser, indexes your static HTML after export, and requires no server. Run npx pagefind --site ./your-exported-site after exporting and before deploying. The search index is included with your static files.

You can use WooCommerce to build product catalog pages, and they export perfectly as static HTML. But the cart, checkout, payment processing, and account features require server-side logic and won’t work on a static site. For simple e-commerce on static sites, consider Snipcart or Ecwid, which overlay e-commerce via JavaScript.

Your WordPress container has a disk quota for files and uploads. Within that quota, there’s no hard limit on the number of pages. Sites with hundreds of pages and normal media libraries export without issues. Very large sites (thousands of pages, large image galleries) will work but take longer to export.

Yes, but custom domains are configured at your hosting target (Cloudflare, Netlify, etc.), not in Stelae. Stelae produces the static files; your host serves them. All major static hosts support custom domains with free automatic HTTPS.

Your WordPress runs in an isolated Docker container on its own network. It’s not directly accessible from the internet. All access goes through Stelae’s reverse proxy with authenticated editor links and session cookies. Containers can’t communicate with each other. And the static site itself has zero attack surface: no PHP, no database, no login page.

Download your static site archive (your published site) and your WordPress backup (database + uploads + themes + plugins) from the dashboard. Cancel your subscription. Your static site keeps running on your hosting provider, with no dependency on Stelae. To continue editing in WordPress, import the backup into any standard WordPress installation (local, shared hosting, or managed hosting).

Your published static site is unaffected. It runs on your hosting provider, not on Stelae’s servers. If I discontinue the service, you’ll get at least 90 days’ notice (per the Terms of Service). During that period, all your data (static exports, WordPress content, database, and uploaded files) will remain available for download so you can migrate away. Stelae will not shut down without notice.

Yes. Your dashboard offers two downloads: the static site archive (the HTML/CSS/JS files deployed to your host) and a full WordPress backup (database dump, themes, plugins, uploads). To get a backup, click the Backup button on your site card, wait for it to generate, then download. Backups are always generated fresh so you get the current state of your site. Available while your subscription is active or within the retention period after cancellation.

Download a backup before making risky changes, then use Restore from backup in the site card overflow menu if something goes wrong. The restore replaces your database and wp-content directory with the archive contents and rolls back on failure, so you won’t end up with a half-restored site. See the restore guide for details.

Use Reset to fresh WordPress in the site card overflow menu. This wipes the WordPress database, uploaded media, installed plugins and themes, and all posts and pages, and lands you on the WordPress installation wizard again. Your subdomain, deploy configuration, subscription, and existing backups are all kept, so you don’t have to cancel and re-subscribe (and pay twice for the overlap period) just to start over.

Because this can’t be undone, create a backup first if you’re unsure. Reset is a good fit when you’ve made a mess you can’t easily untangle, when you want to switch to a completely different site concept, or when you just want to see what the default WordPress experience looks like again.

Yes. Stelae is available to anyone, regardless of location. Here’s what non-EU users should know:

• Payments: Mollie supports all major international credit and debit cards. Pricing is in euros.
• Editor latency: The WordPress editor runs on EU infrastructure. If you’re editing from North America or Asia, you’ll notice slightly higher latency compared to a local install. It’s perfectly usable, just not instant. This only affects the editor, not your published site.
• Your static site: The exported files deploy wherever you choose. Use Cloudflare Workers, a CDN near your audience, or any host. No EU constraint on the output.
• Data location: Your WordPress content and database are stored on EU infrastructure. This is a feature for privacy-conscious users, not a limitation. Your data is subject to EU data protection laws (GDPR) regardless of where you’re located.

The EU positioning is about where our infrastructure runs, not about who can use the service.

Stelae covers everything that’s part of the platform: the export pipeline, container lifecycle (starting, stopping, waking up), auto-deploy, billing, and any bugs in the infrastructure. If Stelae breaks something, I’ll fix it. What’s not covered is WordPress consulting: choosing themes, configuring plugins, learning WordPress, or building your site is your responsibility. That’s how the price stays at €19.90/year.

Not sure if it’s a Stelae bug or a plugin issue? If your site looks right in the WordPress editor but something is broken or missing after export, please get in touch anyway. It could be a bug in the export pipeline, and I’d rather investigate than have you stuck. I’ll tell you honestly whether it’s something I can fix or a limitation of static export.

Email support@stelae.eu with what you were doing, what happened, and your site’s subdomain. Platform issues (export failures, container won’t start, deploy errors, billing problems) are always in scope.

The WordPress documentation, WordPress support forums, and communities like r/wordpress are excellent resources. Most WordPress knowledge applies directly to Stelae, which is a standard WordPress installation.