Hardypress

Webcraft
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HardyPress is a hosted and managed service that creates static web sites from WordPress instances. They create virtual machines to run the WordPress instance, and then generate the static HTML documents from its output.

Judy started a discussion about it, based on an observation from Asheesh. Surprisingly, we attracted the attention of Claudio Benvenuti, the creator of HardyPress.

My hot take on the service contained a bunch of random points, but I want to create an easier to process list here:

  • HardyPress should not discourage upgrading; countered by a lot of people don’t upgrade anyhow.
  • HardyPress supports a single contact form, I suggested some others,. Contact Form 7 is the MVP, they are planning more.
  • HardyPress encourages Disqus, better to discourage comments altogether, or have other options available/encouraged/tutorial’d. After your precise previous feedback we totally removed Disqus from the new website. We are still looking for a good (possibily free/opensource) alternative easy to integrate in a static site.
  • [W]ith HardyPress you can create or edit a website, or import an existing legacy site, publish it online as static, and totally forget about its existence, until next change. Not a use case I encounter often, but it definitely exists.
  • [N]ot all sites are suitable to be hosted on HardyPress, but since there are so many “legacy” or very simple/single-page website where there is no dynamic features on frontend-side except contact forms and native search (that we try to support seamlessly), I am convinced that there is some room for a product like HardyPress in the market I agree, that seems like a good use. Of course, we really want old sites to be refreshed and maintained, but of course that is a different disussion…

Search is done when they scrape the website and index the content (even more reason to build a solid document to be read by machines).

The pricing tiers have different limits on storage, transfer and contact form submissions. When a limit is hit one retains access to their WordPress instance, but can not deploy a new static version online.

Questions

  • How do the “deploy user roles” interact with WordPress users and roles?
  • HardyPress no longer encourages Disqus. What are the comment options for static sites?
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://interi.org/notes/hardypress/
1 Like
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Hi maiki, and thanks for your post. I’ll try to answer to all your points and questions as better as I can with my poor English :slight_smile:

Hardypress should not discourage upgrading; countered by a lot of people don’t upgrade anyhow.

You are perfectly right. Upgrade is a good practice that should be always done, no matter what. But in case you do not can/want to upgrade, because you are legacy or for any other reason, with HardyPress you don’t need to. It is not mandatory. With a static copy online you are safe anyway. In my use case this was a lifesaver several times.

Hardypress supports a single contact form, I suggested some others.

We are working hard to extend the support for other plugins. This is just an MVP.

Hardypress encourages Disqus, better to discourage comments altogether, or have other options available/encouraged/tutorial’d.

After your precise previous feedback we totally removed Disqus from the new website. We are still looking for a good (possibily free/opensource) alternative easy to integrate in a static site.

How does the search feature work? Both curiosity, and for client services, I’d like to know.

When we create the static copy, we scrape the website and index the content. As simple as that :slight_smile:

What happens when storage, transfer and contact form email limits are hit, for a given price tier?

You still can access your wordpress, but you simply can’t deploy a new static version online.

How do the “deploy user roles” interact with WordPress users and roles?

It does not. HardyPress allow WordPress editors to enter the WordPress admin area even if WordPress it is turned off, so they don’t need to enter the HardyPress dashboard to bring WP to life. In the same way, the “deploy user roles” allow selected users to deploy a new static version through the WordPress admin area without access the HardyPress dashboard.

If you have some other questions, feel free to ask :slight_smile:

Claudio

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Thanks so much for the answers! I’ve updated the note, reflecting our discussion. :slight_smile:

I intend to try out the service, so I will probably figure it out, but this has me really curious: do you spin up the WP instance just in time, or does it take a while for a user to log in to the instance? It sounds like you are running it, but that doesn’t seem likely.

Oh, so you must use an mu-plugin or something to set that up in the wp-admin?

That is great to hear! And let me tell you, I am also interested in comments for static sites. This thread is actually attached to my website, a static site. It uses Discourse, but it can be a bit overkill for a single blog. I’ve tested quite a few systems, but nothing I’d recommend at this point. We’ll keep searching.

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:+1: spot on. And great pricing.

Most small businesses have very limited needs, are on a super tight budget. They represent 99% of the market. Most of them don’t need a dynamic website. WordPress in that respect is only useful - and great - for setting up a decent looking website, using a decent premium theme, in no time.

Contact 7 support seems more than enough. Ninja forms don’t provide more value, only a sexier ajax driven user interface. Gravity forms advanced features are overkill for such targets.

On top of that, none of them will set up nor manage their own website - they have a business to run already. The thing is, many agencies / independent web developers don’t get such facts, don’t have the proper market offering - and don’t have a future, not on that market. Volume sales are key - it is a state of mind and a strategy very few have.

Prepare yourself for lots of off target remarks and geeky requests :grin:

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Which market is that? It isn’t clear if you are talking about the “web”, or Hardypress’ customers.

My experience disagrees with this observation. Most of the websites I build for small businesses use Gravity Forms to update external systems, though otherwise they have simple and primarily “static” content.

Again, disagree. I host websites for a variety of orgs and individuals, and volume would undermine my work; not everyone is building so websites they can ignore existing partners; maybe I just have more interesting clients. :slight_smile:

That part really sticks out to me:

I’d say a lot of folks have that strategy in mind. And it doesn’t work, except to potentially introduce folks new to operating a website to poor business practices. I can’t speak to it directly unless you define the “market” you are referring to, but generally a capitalistic approach to rent-seeking hasn’t enhanced or enriched the web, it’s just made it barely tolerable for most of us.

Hardypress, as it stands, fits a specific need. I don’t know what percentage of WordPress users need it, but I do know that very few attributes fit 99% of websites or WordPress sites. So we can agree, it will be useful to some folks. Maybe you are one of them! But there is a much larger WordPress community of site operators that do not need it. :slight_smile: