Distan turns WordPress into a build environment for static HTML deliverables. You author in WordPress, then export clean, self-contained HTML that runs anywhere. No WordPress, no PHP, and no database are required on the production server.
Unlike static export plugins that mirror a live WordPress site, Distan is built for the case where the HTML files themselves are the deliverable. WordPress stays on the developer’s side and is never published. When an update is needed, you edit in WordPress, regenerate, and hand over the difference.
This suits agencies that deliver HTML files rather than a CMS — for example recruitment sites placed under a subdirectory of an existing corporate site, where adding a WordPress install is not an option.
What it does
- Generates every published page, the posts archive with pagination, category archives with pagination, and a 404 page.
- Rewrites internal links as document-relative paths, so the output can be opened directly and placed in any directory.
- Flattens WordPress paths: theme files move to
assets/, uploads move tomedia/. Thewp-contentdirectory disappears from the deliverable. - Cleans the HTML: removes the generator tag, REST API links, oEmbed, emoji scripts, speculative loading rules, and the development
noindex. - Keeps cache-busting query strings on assets, so file names stay stable and can be overwritten over FTP.
- Reports a diff after each run: which files were added, and which need to be removed from production.
- Audits links and reports any whose target was not generated.
- Downloads the result as a ZIP.
Requirements
The only hard requirement is loopback HTTP (the site being able to request itself). No direct SQL, no exec(), no external binaries, no external APIs. It runs on Local, MAMP, XAMPP, DDEV, Docker, or shared hosting, and works offline.
Not for every case
Distan is not suitable when the client updates the site themselves, when forms, search, comments, or membership are required, or for sites of only a few pages.