Technology
No WordPress. Plain HTML, served from the edge.
Every Monograph site is delivered as plain HTML from a global edge network. No WordPress, no page builder, no plugins, and no database standing between a patient and the page.
Why not WordPress
We do not build on WordPress. The usual case for it, answered.
Website proposals for practices often say the same thing: the site will run on WordPress, the world's most popular content management system, and it is flexible, scalable, easy to use and affordable. Each word describes WordPress fairly. None of them describes what a pharmacy or clinic site needs. Here is each promise, what it means for a practice site, and what we do instead.
| What is promised | What it means for a practice site | What we do instead |
|---|---|---|
| The world's most popular content management system | WordPress runs 40.1 percent of all websites (W3Techs, 8 October 2026). That reach is what makes it worth attacking: one weakness in a widely used plugin exposes every site that runs it. Patchstack, a WordPress security company, recorded 11,334 new vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem in 2025; 91 percent were in plugins, and 46 percent had no fix from the developer when they were made public. | No plugins, no theme, no login page on the public site, and no database behind the pages. Those figures are about plugins, themes and the WordPress application, and a Monograph site runs none of them. |
| Flexible | The flexibility comes from installing themes and plugins written by separate authors. Each one brings its own code, its own update schedule, and often its own scripts and styles on every page, whether the page uses them or not. Two can conflict, and one can be abandoned by its author. | We write what the practice needs, such as the refill and transfer forms, the booking link and the staff panel, into the site itself. One codebase, one team responsible for it, in a repository in the practice's name. |
| Scalable | WordPress builds each page on request, running PHP and querying a database on every visit. Handling more visitors means caching layers, a bigger server, or both, and more plugins to manage them. | Every page is made in advance and served as plain HTML from Cloudflare's global network. Nothing has to run when a patient opens a page, so a busy flu shot season does not need a bigger server. |
| Easy to use | The dashboard makes it easy to edit anything, including a claim your College's advertising standard governs, a heading that breaks the layout, or a plugin update that stops the booking form. Nobody reviews the change before patients see it. | Your team edits what changes weekly (hours, closures, availability, a notice bar, staff listings) in a small staff panel, without a ticket. Everything else is changed by us under Care within two business days, so a reviewed page stays reviewed. |
| Keeps things affordable | The software is free. Running it is not: a server with PHP and a database, premium themes and plugins that are often sold as yearly licences, security and backup plugins, updates every month, and the cost of cleaning up after a compromise. | Care covers hosting management, security and dependency updates, uptime monitoring, backups, and changes to your existing pages, for $150 to $250 per month. There are no plugin licences to renew. |
WordPress builds a page on request: a PHP application runs, queries a MySQL database, assembles the theme, and runs whichever plugins are installed, on every visit. That is the right design for a large site that changes by the minute. A practice site does not.
A well tuned WordPress site can be made fast, with caching layers and careful plugin choices. It takes ongoing work to keep it that way, and the work is usually the first thing to lapse when nobody is paid to do it.
This is not a criticism of WordPress for what it is. It is a judgement about what a practice site needs: a handful of pages that must load quickly on a phone, say only what the College allows, and stay up when nobody is watching.
Measured, not claimed
What the difference looks like
Four pages of this site against the median mobile page on the web. Same instrument, dated, method below.
| Page | Weight | Requests | JavaScript | Third parties | Largest paint | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home page (twelve site screenshots) | 450 KB | 20 | 3 KB | 0 | 2.8 s | 95 |
| An industry page (pharmacies) | 145 KB | 7 | 3 KB | 0 | 1.8 s | 100 |
| A feature page (refill requests) | 143 KB | 7 | 3 KB | 0 | 1.8 s | 100 |
| The folio (12 chapters, 103 leaves) | 346 KB | 11 | 5 KB | 0 | 3.2 s | 93 |
| Median mobile page on the web | 2,164 KB | 72 | 646 KB | not reported | not reported | not reported |
What we use
Seven parts, each doing one thing
- Astro
- Turns the content into plain HTML and CSS at build time. There is no application running when a patient opens a page.
- Cloudflare Pages
- Serves that HTML from Cloudflare's network, so the copy a patient in Kelowna receives comes from near Kelowna rather than from one server somewhere.
- Cloudflare Pages Functions
- Small endpoints for the things that need code: forms, the lead pipeline, first party event counters. They run only when called.
- Cloudflare D1
- A database for leads and anonymous first party events. Never on the path of a page load.
- Resend
- Sends the email when a form is submitted. The lead is stored first, so a mail failure never loses an enquiry.
- Cloudflare Access
- Puts the staff panel and the admin dashboard behind a login with a one time code, with the founders on the allow list.
- GitHub
- Holds the code, in a repository that belongs to the practice. Every change is recorded and every push deploys.
What we do not use
And why
- WordPress, or any content management system
- A practice site with twenty pages does not need a database and a programming runtime to show them.
- Page builders and themes
- They add their own scripts and styles to every page, whether the page uses them or not.
- Plugins
- The commonest way a small site is kept up to date, and the commonest way one is compromised.
- Third party analytics by default
- Enquiries are counted on your own domain. GA4 can be added through Tag Manager if you want it, and only then.
- Hosted fonts
- Two typefaces, served from your own domain. No request to a font network on every visit.
What it means for a practice
Five things you notice, and one you never will
Speed on a phone
The page is already made. Nothing has to run before it can be sent, and there is far less to download when it arrives.
Fewer things to update
No plugin queue, no core updates, no theme patches. Security and dependency updates are ours to do under Care, and there are fewer of them.
Less exposure
There is no admin login on the public site to attack and no database behind the pages to reach. The staff panel sits behind a separate login.
It stays up
A static page has nothing to crash. Cloudflare's network keeps serving it if one location has a bad day.
You own it, and you can take it
The site is a folder of HTML in a repository in your name. Any competent host can serve it. Nothing is locked to us.
What it does not do
- Content changes go through the staff panel for the things that change weekly, and through Care for everything else. There is no WordPress style editor, on purpose.
- If you want a plugin marketplace, a membership system, or an online store with a thousand products, this is the wrong tool and we will say so at the first call.
- Speed figures are measured, dated, and will change as the site does. The method is stated so you can repeat it.
Questions about the technology
Why do you not use WordPress?
Because what makes WordPress attractive in a proposal works against a practice site. Popular means targeted: Patchstack recorded 11,334 new WordPress vulnerabilities in 2025, 91 percent of them in plugins. Flexible means plugins from separate authors, scalable means a bigger server, and easy to use means anyone with a login can change a reviewed claim. A Monograph site is plain HTML made in advance and served from a global network, with no plugins, no public login and no database behind the pages.
How fast is a Monograph site?
A typical industry page on this site weighs about 145 KB, makes 7 requests, ships 3 KB of JavaScript, and calls no third party. The median mobile web page measured by the HTTP Archive in July 2025 was 2,164 KB and 72 requests. Figures are measured with Lighthouse, dated, and will vary by device and connection.
Can we edit the site ourselves?
The things that change weekly, hours, closures, availability, a notice bar and staff listings, are edited by your team in a small staff panel. Page structure and reviewed claims are changed under Care, so nothing that was reviewed drifts.
What happens if we leave?
You keep everything. The domain, the code, the content and the accounts are in your name from the first day, and the site is plain HTML that any host can serve.
Is it accessible and does it work without JavaScript?
Every page renders and reads without JavaScript. Scripts only add the folio pager, the form handling and small interface touches. The site is worked and tested to WCAG 2.1 AA, and its own accessibility statement lists what is known to fall short.
See your own numbers
Send us your website address and the free ten point check scores it in seconds, including the same HTML weight measurement run on your current site.