Getting Started
From zero to a live static site in about ten minutes. This guide walks you through account creation, building your first site, exporting it, and deploying the result.
How Stelae Works
Stelae gives you a private WordPress installation running in an isolated Docker container. You use the full WordPress editor — themes, plugins, page builders, everything — to build and design your site. When you’re happy with it, you export the site as static HTML/CSS/JS files. The static files are what your visitors see. The WordPress container goes to sleep when you’re not using it, and wakes up automatically when you need to make edits.
The key insight: WordPress is a powerful editor that people already know how to use. But running WordPress live on the internet means dealing with security patches, database attacks, brute-force login attempts, and performance tuning. Stelae turns WordPress into a private authoring tool and publishes only the output. Your visitors get a fast, secure, static site. Attackers get nothing to attack.
Create Your Account
Go to stelae.eu/register and create an account with your email address and a password.
Check your inbox for a verification email and click the link. If it doesn’t arrive within a few minutes, check your spam folder.
Log in at stelae.eu/login. You’ll land on your dashboard, which is empty for now.
Create Your First Site
From your dashboard, click the create button. You’ll be asked to choose a name for your site. This is just a label for your dashboard — it doesn’t affect URLs.
You’ll be redirected to our payment provider (Mollie) to complete a €19.90 payment for one year. After payment, your site is automatically provisioned — this takes a few seconds.
Once provisioned, your site card appears on the dashboard. Click “Open Editor” to access your WordPress installation. Your WordPress credentials are shown on the site card — save them somewhere safe.
Your WordPress container goes to sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity. When you click “Open Editor” again, it wakes up automatically — you’ll see a brief splash page while it starts (about 5 seconds). This is normal.
What’s Next
Now that your site is running, you can:
- Use the editor to install themes, add content, and build your site.
- Export your site as static HTML when you’re ready to publish.
- Deploy your site to statichost.eu, via git push, Cloudflare Workers, or download the archive.
- Check compatibility to understand what works in static export.