Static website or WordPress: the difference in load speed

If you put two websites side by side, identical on the outside, but one built statically and the other on WordPress, how big is the speed difference? Bigger than you’d think.

What WordPress does on every page request

Every time someone requests a WordPress page, the server runs through a fixed sequence of steps:

1. PHP receives the request
2. PHP queries the database for the content
3. WordPress combines content, theme and plugins into HTML
4. That HTML is sent to the browser

This takes time. On a well-configured server with caching that time is limited, but even then overhead remains.

What a static website does

With a static site there is no step one through three. The HTML is already done. A server, or better yet a CDN, sends the file directly. No database, no PHP, no waiting.

The Time to First Byte (TTFB), the time between request and the first byte the browser receives, is often less than fifty milliseconds for a static site. For an average WordPress site without aggressive caching it sits between three hundred and eight hundred milliseconds.

Why that difference matters

Google uses load speed as a ranking factor through Core Web Vitals. Two specific metrics are crucial: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Time to First Byte (TTFB).

A static site scores structurally better here. Not because it’s technically impressive, but simply because less has to happen before the page is visible.

The numbers in practice

On a Lighthouse test, a well-built static site almost always scores 90 to 100 on performance. The same content on an average WordPress installation with a popular theme? Usually 40 to 65, unless extra work has gone into caching and optimisation.

For most business websites that don’t update content daily and don’t run a webshop, a static site delivers better results with less maintenance.

Curious how your website scores on speed? Scan it for free at sitescore.wooning.cz.