Category: web design

Static VS Dynamic Websites

When you decide to create a website, one of the first concepts you should learn to understand is the distinction between static and dynamic sites. Understanding this fundamental difference is key to choosing the right foundation for your online presence, and avoiding costly mistakes, whether you are creating a personal portfolio of your art, promoting your ensemble or launching an e-commerce store.

The Static Website

A static website is the simplest form of website and has only slightly evolved from the earliest websites on the internet. This site is built by an individual with coding skills using (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) that are delivered to the user’s browser exactly as they are stored on the server. While javascript coding might facilitate movement effects (such as button click) there is no processing or database lookup happening on the server before the page is sent.

Why Choose Static?

Static websites offer clear advantages for certain types of users and projects.

Feature	Description	Benefit for the User
Speed	Pages load incredibly fast because they are pre-rendered.	Excellent user experience and better SEO ranking.
Security	No server-side processing or database means fewer vulnerability targets.	Ideal for sites that handle no user input or sensitive data.
Cost	Less complex hosting requirements (simple file storage).	Very low hosting costs.
Maintenance	Files rarely change, leading to minimal maintenance.	Set it and forget it—great for individuals.

Who Should Prefer a Static Website?

Small Businesses and Portfolios: Individuals or companies that need a simple online brochure to display information that doesn’t change often, like contact details, a menu, or a limited professional portfolio.
Documentation Sites: Websites focused purely on providing fixed information.
Landing Pages: Pages designed to capture attention without any complex functionality.
Non-Technically minded individuals who prefer to leave all web site design with experts

The downsides of a static site include:

lack of interactivity
low scalability
limited features stack
difficulties with content updates.

These factors can also cause content stagnation because you need to update the source code and content manually. Frustration or expense can be a problem when site-owners find themselves unable to make the site updates you need. This is why you should weigh your options when making a decision to go with a static website.

The Dynamic Website Explained

A dynamic website, on the other hand, is served up in real-time every time a user visits a page. When a request is made, the server executes scripts (written in languages like PHP, Python, or Node.js), pulls data from a database, and then assembles the final HTML page before sending it to the browser. The elements that it draws on can consist of posted articles, images, event listings, videos and recordings, all that can be added by non-coding site owners using simple data input forms and tools.

Why Choose Dynamic?

The trade-off for the added complexity is unparalleled flexibility and functionality.

Feature	Description	Benefit for the User
Interactivity	Pages change based on user input, time, or other variables.	Enables features like user accounts, comments, and real-time updates.
Scalability	Content can be easily updated and managed through a Content Management System (CMS).	The site can grow easily with your business and content needs.
Personalization	Users can see content tailored to their history or preferences.	Highly engaging and customized user experience.
Functionality	Can handle complex applications like e-commerce, forums, and booking systems.	Necessary for modern web applications.

Who Should Prefer a Dynamic Website?

E-commerce Stores: Require databases for product inventory, user accounts, and payment processing.
Authors, Blogs and News Sites: Need a CMS to easily publish and manage frequently updated content and handle user comments.
Social Networks and Forums: Built entirely around user interaction and personalized data.
Venues and Event Series: Need to frequently update event listings, artist bios/photos, as well as special ticket sales offers.
Organizations, political campaigns, social justice movements: Need to share frequently updated information.
Web Applications: Any site where the user is performing complex actions or retrieving personalized data.

However, dynamic websites also have their drawbacks:

More complex so, while they offer ease of use to add content, they require higher technical expertise to develop the site initially
More costly to build and maintain especially when incorporating proprietary products such as form-builders, shopping carts, order processing, etc.
Can be slower to load due to real-time processing
Pose higher security risks due to being accessible for public input, requiring security software and vigilance
Require more server resources and technical expertise, which means you need to carefully consider these factors when deciding on a dynamic setup.

The Hybrid Approach: WordPress as a Static/Dynamic Blend

For many people, the choice isn’t purely one or the other. This is where Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress (also Drupal, Joomla, etc.) offer a compelling middle ground, or hybrid site.

At Arts Cubed, we’ve specialized in developing WordPress sites as part of a communications strategy for artists, arts organizations, non-profits and social enterprises. At its core, WordPress is a dynamic system. It uses a server (running PHP) and a database (powered by MySQL) to assemble every page. This dynamic structure is what allows an individual with admin privileges to log in on any given day and write a post or create an event notice to share on the website. At the same time, WordPress site development is a complex field and most individuals do not have the time or interest in gaining the skills to design and set up their own WordPress site and that’s where a professional can help you.

WordPress began as a simple blogging platform but today, WordPress implementations often incorporate static elements to gain the performance benefits of a static site:

You can create a hybrid website by combining static and dynamic elements in various ways:

Use a static homepage, and other key pages with professionally designed content and styles for fast loading and jaw-dropping first impressions.
Meanwhile you are able to dynamically contribute blog posts, event listings and media portfolios which will be instantly updated on the established dynamic pages allowing for easy updates and contributing to user engagement
Implement static pages for FAQs or contact information that rarely changes.
Employ dynamic web pages for user accounts, shopping carts, or think about creating support or discussion forums that reflect real-time data from communities.
Enable user-generated content (UGC) through dynamic sections if this is relevant– think comments or reviews.

Through mixing static and dynamic elements, you can optimize performance while maintaining flexibility and engagement.

In addition:

Caching Plugins: Tools like LiteSpeed Cache or WP Rocket create static copies of your dynamic pages after they are first loaded. When the next visitor comes, the server simply delivers the pre-built static HTML file instead of running the PHP and database queries again. This delivers static-level speed for non-logged-in users.
Static Site Generators (SSGs): No article on this topic would be complete without mentioning that advanced users can use tools to convert their entire WordPress database and files into a purely static version of the site (a process called “decoupling” or “headless” WordPress). This provides an ultra-secure, extremely fast website while keeping the familiar WordPress admin dashboard for content management.

For individuals who value ease of content management but also require fast loading times, a well-optimized WordPress site with robust caching offers the best of both worlds—dynamic capabilities behind the scenes with a static front-end experience.

The context for writing this article comes from my history of site creation. I first created websites for my own projects and organizations in the 1990’s when all sites were static sites. Initially self-taught, over the years I invested time in skilling up through courses in both web-design and coding languages. I liked creating and working on static sites but my clients were growing disenchanted with the format. More than 15 years ago the balance tipped towards dynamic sites. This was especially true in the non-profit sector where the pressure for frequent updates was at odds with the difficulty and expense of updating static sites. Now the vast majority of websites on the internet are CMS (dynamic) websites. This is so true that new users frequently come to designers sure that they need a dynamic site. They may not. It is important that they understand the difference between static and dynamic sites and reflect on the way they will actually use their site before making a choice.

Two Event Plugins we Use in Arts Cubed Site Builds

Eventin vs. The Events Calendar: Which WordPress Events Plugin is Right for You?

When planning to host events on your WordPress website, choosing the right events management plugin is crucial. At Arts Cubed, we have used The Events Calendar by Modern Tribe for more than 10 years, but recently we’ve been exploring a new contender, Eventin by ThemeWinter. Both of these popular and powerful plugins stand out as top recommendations. Both offer robust features, but they cater to slightly different needs and offer distinct affordances, and when needs are complex, the price differential can be the deciding factor.

Let’s contrast these two plugins to help you decide which one best suits your personal or organizational goals.

The Events Calendar by Modern Tribe

The Events Calendar is one of the most widely used and well-established event management plugins for WordPress. We can’t argue that it offers a solid, reliable foundation for listing and managing events. We do find it sometimes has a financial and resource burden that is too high to be justified in selected user-cases.

Core Affordances

Robust Stability and Wide Adoption: The plugin is mature, well-tested, and benefits from a massive user base, leading to excellent community support and compatibility with a vast range of WordPress themes and other plugins. Many applications have integration modules to include The Events Calendar.
Intuitive User Interface: The backend is designed for ease of use, making it straightforward for most users to create and manage events.
Scalability via Premium Add-ons: While the free version is functional and a good choice if it meets your needs out of the box, the picture becomes muddy when you need more. Only when you embrace its premium suite are you able to access all the functionality many users require. This includes Events Calendar Pro, which adds recurring events, advanced widgets, and location search, and Ticket Commerce, which allows for ticket sales and RSVP functionality directly through your site. It also requires another premium add-on if you wish to use the Elementor Editor to position and edit event listings throughout your site.
Developer-Friendly: It offers extensive documentation and hooks, making it highly customizable for developers who need to tailor the functionality to specific requirements.

Eventin by ThemeWinter

Eventin is a newer, feature-rich alternative that is a more “all-in-one” solution, as it comes bundled with advanced ticketing and speaker management features that require multiple add-ons in The Events Calendar.

Core Affordances

Integrated Zoom and Ticket Management: A significant affordance of Eventin, that first led to our adopting the plugin on one of our site builds, is its built-in integration with Zoom, and Add-On integration with Google Meet, making it a strong choice for hosting and managing virtual events. The plugin also provides native ticketing and multi-vendor options without requiring separate add-ons.
Focus on Speaker and Schedule Management: Eventin excels in handling complex event structures like conferences or multi-day festivals. As noted in a comprehensive review, the speaker and schedule management features are standout strengths, making it easy to create detailed agendas and speaker profiles. This is ideal for planning and promoting conferences, symposiums or staff training events. A deeper look into Eventin’s features and performance can be found in this review: https://wpsimplehacks.com/eventin-a-comprehensive-review/
Modern and Attractive Front-end Design: The plugin offers several modern design layouts and templates right out of the box, often requiring less custom styling than its competitors. It is notable however at this point in time, the ability to edit some layouts in Elementor is not yet available although the developers tell us that it is coming.
Multi-vendor Capabilities: For event marketplaces or sites where multiple organizers sell tickets, Eventin offers robust multi-vendor support, allowing different users to manage their own events and ticket sales. This is useful for co-productions.

Feature Comparison Table

This table outlines key differences in the core functionality and approach of both plugins:

Feature	The Events Calendar	Eventin
Virtual Events/Webinars	Only available in ProVersion	Native Zoom Integration in free version
Speaker Management	Requires an add-on	Built-in with dedicated speaker profile pages in free version
Ticketing Solution	Requires a separate premium add-on (Ticket Commerce)	Built-in and integrated with various payment gateways
Recurring Events	Requires the premium add-on (Events Calendar Pro)	Built-into free version
RSVP Events	Requires Pro Version plus premium addon	Free Add-on to Premium version
Multi-Vendor Support	Limited or requires a third-party extension	Built-in for creating event marketplaces
Overall Ecosystem	Mature, modular system with many separate add-ons	More “all-in-one” approach with features bundled
Event Location Support	Physical and virtual	Physical and virtual
Elementor Editor Support	Requires Pro Version and Add-on	Built-in to free version

Performance, SEO, and Cost Considerations

Performance (Page Load Speed)

In general, “all-in-one” solutions like Eventin, which bundle many features into a single plugin, can sometimes have a greater initial impact on page load speed compared to a modular setup like The Events Calendar’s free core. However, once The Events Calendar starts adding multiple premium add-ons (like Pro, Tickets Commerce, and Virtual Events) to achieve feature parity, the combined load of these separate plugins can often equal or surpass the load of a single, well-optimized bundled plugin, and this has been our experience. The actual performance impact will depend heavily on your specific server, caching setup, and theme. In our experience at Arts Cubed, unless we restrict The Events Calendar to its’ basic module, Eventin outperforms it on speed tests.

SEO and Google Search Console

Both plugins are generally good at implementing structured data for events, which is crucial for SEO and getting your events listed with rich results in Google Search.

The Events Calendar is highly mature and reliably outputs the necessary schema markup for Google’s Event rich snippets, ensuring good Google Search Console results for events. It has however a long been known for creating SEO challenges, and the solutions are complex for the average user.
Eventin also implements structured data effectively. Because it bundles features, it tends to make complex details (like speaker and venue info) readily available for schema markup. So far we have not seen the same level of Google Console problems we have been forced to troubleshoot with The Events Calendar.

Cost Comparison for Full Feature Parity

We found the price/feature comparison at https://themewinter.com/eventin/eventin-vs-others/ convincing. While prices vary with sales and packages, we were able to meet all of one client’s needs with a single Eventin Pro licence at $79/year as opposed to an approximately $500 cost for the features she required in order to host recurring online Zoom workshops with RSVP registration.

Eventin positions itself as an “all-in-one” solution, bundling features that The Events Calendar often

Making the Choice

While we are more often opting for Eventin, choosing between Eventin and The Events Calendar depends heavily on your specific needs:

Choose The Events Calendar If:

You prioritize stability, compatibility, and a massive support ecosystem.
You are running a simple, standard event listing and only need basic event management.
You are hosting multiple ticketed events where cost is less of an issue to reliability and support.
You prefer a modular approach, where you only purchase the add-ons you absolutely need (e.g., just Pro for recurring events, and skipping ticketing).
You or your developer needs a highly customizable and well-documented API.

Choose Eventin If:

You are running virtual events and need immediate, built-in Zoom integration.

You are running recurring events.

You are organizing conferences, festivals, or complex multi-day events that require detailed speaker and schedule management.
You want a single plugin that handles ticketing, recurring events, and multi-vendor functionality out of the box.
You prefer a modern, pre-designed calendar look with less need for custom CSS and you want Elementor compatibility out of the box.

Both plugins are excellent choices, but Eventin offers a more integrated, feature-packed experience for conference and virtual event organizers, often at a more straightforward code industry standard for sheer architecture. Consider your event type, budget for add-ons, and technical requirements before making your final decision.

Page or Post? Does it make a difference?

WordPress Pages vs. Posts: Choosing the Right Canvas for your content type

WordPress offers two main options for your content: Posts and Pages. Understanding the difference is key to organizing your website effectively, capitalizing on best practices in WordPress and also reducing expense if you are working with a professional designer. Pages and Posts have distinct functions within WordPress, but for those new to site building, the distinction can be confusing.

Choosing the right one ensures your content appears where it should and behaves as expected.

The Core Difference: Dynamic vs. Static Content

The simplest way to think about it is through the lens of time and relevance:

1. Posts are for dynamic and timely content

Posts are the core of a traditional blog. They are dynamic and timely—designed to be read, commented on, and eventually archived. Historically, WordPress only consisted of a single page and multiple posts, the ability to add additional pages came later. The characteristics of posts are:

Timeliness: They are associated with a publication date that is often highly relevant
Organization: They have the ability to be organized and displayed via categories, tags or date archives, enabling your site to serve up new content according to pre-defined organization and styling
Display: displayed on one or more pages via a blog shortcode or post widget. The position of posts in the display will dynamically change as new post content is added.
Interactivity: Can include a comment section and share buttons.
Types of content usually made in a post: News Articles, Blog/Opinion Posts, Event Listings, Tutorials, Products.

Posts are how you keep your site fresh and engage with your audience regularly.

2. Pages: The Static, Evergreen Content

Pages are for static, evergreen content. They are the fixed points of your website’s structure and are not tied to a continuous, chronological flow. In some cases they have been professionally designed with elements such as sliders or video backgrounds or animated effects that are not easily editable by website beginners. The characteristics of WordPress pages are:

Timeliness: Generally pages are not associated with a date.
Organization: Pages are organized via WordPress’ menu function
Display: Most pages will be linked from the sites main navigation and their position will be fixed.
Interactivity: Commenting is generally disabled on pages, however pages can contain interactive elements such as forms and buttons.
Examples of Common Pages: About, Content, Services, FAQ’s

Pages form the foundational structure of your site. One way we think about it at Arts Cubed is that pages are the gilded frames and galleries that are made to display your posts which are the art and jewels in the display cases.

A Practical Guide to Content Contribution

For many site owners, particularly those working with a professionally designed or business-oriented site, your content contribution strategy can be simplified:

Focus your efforts on Posts, Events and other Custom Post Types.

A well-designed website often features sophisticated, custom-built Pages that serve as the main landing points—the homepage, key product pages, or service descriptions. These Pages have typically been carefully structured by a designer to manage branding, conversion, and user experience.

If you are a contributor who is not the primary site architect or an experienced web designer, it is strongly recommended to use Posts for all new, dynamic content. Your site will be designed to have all the posts and custom post types you need to share your day to day content. This can include video and image portfolios and other special content that your site may be customized to display.

This approach allows you to:

Maintain Site Integrity: By creating Posts, you contribute fresh content without accidentally disrupting the delicate structure, layout, or navigation of core Pages, which may be complex and use advanced features from builders like Elementor.
Contribute Dynamically: Posts are perfect for news, updates, or upcoming events. Use the category and tag features to organize your topics. For example, if you are announcing an upcoming seminar, create a new Post titled “Seminar on Topic X – Date” and categorize it as “Events.”
Leverage Automatic Feeds: New Posts will automatically populate on your site’s blog feed, ensuring your audience sees your latest information without you having to manually update navigation menus or static page content.

Leave the professionally designed Pages for the site’s fundamental, “set-it-and-forget-it” structure. If you need to create a new key navigational Page—for instance, a completely new product offering—it is best to consult with your site’s administrator or designer first.

If you have a site with 200 pages and 10 posts, (we’ve seen those!) you’ve gotten it backwards but all is not lost there are several plugins available that make it easy for you to convert pages to post and the reverse. We use The Post Type Switcher. Once you see the utility and affordances of sharing dynamic content, you’ll never make the same mistake again.

If you are unsure where to place your content, consider if it has a date that makes it temporary or archival. If the answer is yes, use a Post.

Setting Up and Editing WordPress Menu

Your website’s navigation is the backbone of your user experience. It is the pathway and signposts your users follow to explore the content on your site.

At Arts Cubed, we build modern WordPress sites, most often using the powerful Jupiter X theme and combining the flexible Elementor page builder which leaves you, the user, with an easy and efficient way to manage your menus from the basic WordPress interface.

However, unlike the classic WordPress approach, Jupiter X and Elementor combine to give you precise visual control over where your menu appears and how it looks. This guide will walk you through the two main steps: creating the menu in WordPress and then displaying and styling it with Elementor.

1. Creating the Menu (The WordPress Way)

In Jupiter X, the actual menu structure (which links go where) is managed in the standard WordPress dashboard.

Log in to your WordPress admin area.
In the left-hand sidebar, hover over Appearance and click on Menus.
If you don’t have a menu, click the Create a new menu link.
Give your menu a clear name (e.g., “Primary Navigation”) and click Create Menu.
In the Add menu items box on the left, select and add the pages, posts, custom links, or categories you want to include.
Use the drag-and-drop interface in the Menu Structure section to reorder items and create sub-menus (dropdowns) by dragging items slightly to the right of their parent.
Click Save Menu.

Note: With Jupiter X and Elementor, you do not need to assign a “Display location” in the Menu Settings section. Elementor will handle placement.

2. Displaying the Menu (The Elementor Way)

In Jupiter X, your header and footer are typically built using Elementor templates. To add or edit your menu, you’ll need to create or edit the relevant template.

A. Editing the Header Template

From your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Elementor > Templates.
Find the template used for your site’s header (it might be named “Header,” “Primary Header,” or similar) and click Edit with Elementor.
If you do not yet have a header template, you can create a new one and the easiest is to start with a pre-built template
Once the Elementor editor loads, you’ll see your starting header design.

B. Adding or Modifying the Navigation Menu Widget

To edit and style the menu, Jupiter X and Elementor provide dedicated widgets for your header design including

Logo
Navigation menu
Search form
Social tools

To add the menu:

In the Elementor panel, search for the Navigation Menu widget.
Drag and drop the widget into the desired location in your header.
In the widget settings under Content > Menu, select the menu you created in Step 1 (e.g., “Primary Navigation”) from the dropdown list.

C. Styling the Menu

This is where Elementor’s power shines. Once the widget is in place, use the Style tab to customize every aspect of your menu’s appearance from fonts to backgrounds including hover and active modes:

Typography: Set the font, size, weight, and style for the menu text.
Text Color: Define colors for the normal, hover, and active states of the links.
Pointers: Add and style hover effects like underlines, frames, or backgrounds.
Dropdown: Separately style the background, text, and divider lines for sub-menus.

A screenshot of the Elementor ‘Style’ tab for the Navigation Menu widget, showing options for typography and color.

3. Saving and Going Live

After making your changes in Elementor:

Click the Publish button at the top of the Elementor panel to save the template.
Your new or edited menu is now ready to go live on all pages using that header template.
If you are using Simplicity Mode in Jupiter X, your heading is now live on all, or chosen, pages on your site
If you are using Jupiter X’s native theme styling panel, navigate to Jupiter X, styles and Header. From the dropdown menu in Custom Header select your newly created header template.

By combining the structural simplicity of the WordPress Menus screen with the visual flexibility of Elementor in Jupiter X, you have complete control over your website’s navigation.