On 20 October, PHP, the language WordPress is built with, asked every site owner to "prepare now" for two critical security holes (PHP). If your website is a set of marketing pages, ask a fair question: why does my pricing page need PHP at all?
It does not. Here is the short version of why WordPress works the way it does, and how to move a marketing site to Splitleaf in about an hour.
Why WordPress has a database
WordPress was built for sites where visitors take part. People leave comments. Members log in. Shops change their stock. To handle that, WordPress builds each page when a visitor asks for it. PHP, the code on the server, asks a database for the content, puts the page together and sends it.
That makes sense for a forum or a shop. Most marketing pages are different. A pricing page, an about page and a blog post look the same for weeks. They do not need to be built again on every visit. The longer version is in Does your website need a database?
The cost of a live database
Every part that runs on the server is a door someone can try to open. In the same week as the PHP warning, an update to the Rank Math PRO SEO plugin shipped with malware inside (Rank Math).
WordPress made it possible to publish a website without being a developer. That is its big strength. But when something goes wrong, the fix is often a developer's job. Rank Math's clean-up guide asks you to open the database, find a table called wp_options and delete a hidden entry. Most designers and marketers cannot do that on a Tuesday afternoon.
We wrote about the full week, and how to count the doors on your own site, in Time to reduce your website's attack surface.
Why Splitleaf is the modern WordPress alternative
Splitleaf publishes your site as static web pages: finished HTML, CSS and images.
- Fast pages. The server sends a finished file. Nothing is built and no database is asked on each visit.
- Fewer doors. No PHP, no database, no admin login and no plugins on your live server.
- Build with AI and agents. Ask the built-in agent for a new section, a page or a blog post. Claude Code runs in the Agent panel on the Claude plan you already have. Every change waits for you to keep or undo. Build with agents
- Yours to keep. You pay $129 once. Your site is a folder on your computer, with its history in a GitHub repository you own, and you publish to any host you choose. Host where you want
How to move from WordPress to Splitleaf in an hour
This works best for marketing sites: pages that look the same for every visitor.
Sites with up to 50 pages
- Download Splitleaf and create a new site.
- Open the Agent panel. If you have Claude Code you can use it straight away, or add keys to your AI provider (Open AI, Anthropic or OpenRouter)
- Paste the address of your WordPress site and ask the agent to copy it. For example: "Rebuild https://example.com in Splitleaf. Keep the design, the pages and the images."
- The agent reads each page, downloads the images and rebuilds the layout and the CSS.
- Check each page in the Designer. Fix details by hand, or ask the agent.
- Publish to your host and point your domain to it.
Sites with more than 50 posts
Copying many posts one page at a time is slow. Export them instead.
- In WordPress, install a plugin that exports posts to a CSV file, such as WP All Export.
- Export your posts with title, slug, date, excerpt, featured image and content.
- Drag the CSV file into the Agent panel in Splitleaf. Paste your site's address in the same message, so the agent can copy the design too.
- The agent creates a blog collection, fills it with your posts and builds the post page in your style.
Keep the same slugs, so old links still find your posts. If an address changes, add a redirect.