I used to use zola hosted on Github Pages, but I wanted to improve the publishing workflow, and WordPress was a good fit for that. (Notes on the migration here: https://blog.joewoods.dev/technology/technical-notes-on-migr...)

I run a few big sites on WordPress, and would totally recommend you use the simply static plugin, and configure nginx to serve those cached files directly so it never hits php. I also usually put cloudflare in front as well, but you can have a screaming fast wordpress site that scales really far by itself without it just with that trick.

If you need some dynamism, w3 total cache is also a great choice.

If you're not an nginx hacker, there are some great examples around the internet. This page is pretty helpful: https://wordpress.org/support/article/nginx/

Check out this thread for recommendations on static site generator plugins on top of Wordpress. Best of both worlds for folks who want high-level publishing.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31396961

you don't even need those

a cache with long-enough TTL will do the magic for you

https://mish.co/posts/always-cache-your-website/

A (local) cache is mostly useful for repeat visitors, not for thousands of unique visitors unless you use a CDN.

Putting the Cloudflare CDN free plan in front should solve the hug of death problem.

https://www.cloudflare.com/performance/ensure-application-av...

funny to hear that

i actually migrated from Wordpress to Zola

Even DO has their free tier for static hosting with global CDN and DDoS mitigation:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-depl...

Looks like the free one has only 1GB outbound transfer which wouldn't be enough for a single hug, but the $5/month one has 40GB which might be enough for a hug with text only content.