How a 19-brand WordPress multisite was replaced with a single static, own-the-stack platform on AWS — cheap, fast, and nothing to hack. brand names & data omitted
Each brand is a folder of JSON (identity, team, testimonials). No database, no CMS to patch — content is data, versioned in git.
One codebase renders every brand at build time into plain HTML/CSS/JS — hundreds of pages, zero servers. A new brand is a new JSON folder, not new code.
Static output lives in one S3 bucket, served worldwide through the CloudFront CDN over HTTPS. Runs for a few dollars a month.
A tiny function runs at the edge on every request: it reads the incoming domain, maps it to that brand's subtree in the bucket, and rewrites the path. Shared assets stay at the root. One bucket, one distribution — many independent branded sites.
Every form (contact, apply, careers, loan-officer) POSTs to a Lambda Function URL that writes the lead to DynamoDB — tagged by brand and form type. Own-stack, no third-party form service.
Mortgage calculators and a rates ticker run entirely in the browser — no backend to run or secure.
No PHP, MySQL, or ~100 plugins to patch. Nothing dynamic to exploit; the attack surface is basically "static files behind a CDN."
Still PHP/MySQL/plugins underneath — the wrong architecture, just someone else's problem to run.
Right class (static) but a managed abstraction over S3/CloudFront — lock-in and extra cost. We own the raw primitives.
A stack you fully own: pennies to run, fast everywhere, and reproducible from templates. Cheap, fast, nothing to hack.