Normally a website lives on a rented computer, called a server, that runs all day and costs money every month. Exponential can do it differently: it makes a copy of your website as simple pages and puts that copy on GitHub Pages, a service that shows such pages to the world for free.
What you'll have at the end
- Your website online, with an address people can visit.
- No monthly bill for showing it.
- The same way of writing and changing pages as before.
How it works, in three steps
- You write your pages in Exponential, as usual.
- You press Build: Exponential makes a copy of the website as simple pages.
- You press Publish: the copy goes to GitHub Pages, and visitors see it.
If you change your mind, you can go back to an earlier copy with one click.
What someone technical sets up once
- A free account on GitHub, the company that hosts the copy.
- A "target" in Exponential that says which website goes where. A wizard asks the questions.
- If you want your own address like
www.my-name.example, a setting at the place where you bought the name.
After that, you do not need them for daily work.
What such a site cannot do
- Take payments or run a shop.
- Have pages only members can see.
- Let visitors leave comments.
A contact form can still send you messages in some setups. If you need these things, ask whether static is right for your site.
Words you may hear
- Static site: a website made only of ready pages, nothing is computed when someone visits.
- GitHub Pages: the free service that shows the pages.
- Publish: send the newest copy online.
More: What static publishing is and the questions and answers.
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