Static Site Exporter is a WordPress plugin for site owners and developers who want to move a WordPress blog or site to Markdown so it can be served by Jekyll, Hugo, or any other static site generator.

What it is

Static Site Exporter is a one-click WordPress plugin, written in PHP and distributed under GPL-3.0, that converts all posts, pages, taxonomies, metadata, and settings from a WordPress installation into Markdown and YAML. The output is structured so it can be dropped directly into Jekyll, Hugo, or any other Markdown and YAML based site engine, and it ships as a single zip file containing _config.yml, a pages directory, and a _posts folder with a .md file for each post named according to the Jekyll naming convention.

The problem it solves is the manual, error-prone process of migrating WordPress content off a database-backed CMS. Because it runs post content through the_content filter prior to export, it exports what users actually see rather than what the database stores, which means third-party plugins that modify output are accounted for. It converts all post_content to Markdown, converts all post_meta and fields within the wp_posts table to YAML front matter for parsing by Jekyll, and generates a _config.yml with all settings in the wp_options table — replacing the WordPress-to-static-site migration step entirely.

Key capabilities

• Converts all posts, pages, and settings from WordPress to Markdown and YAML for use in Jekyll, Hugo, or any other Markdown and YAML based site engine
• Runs post content through the_content filter prior to export, so third-party plugin modifications are reflected in the output
• Converts all post_content to Markdown and all post_meta and fields within the wp_posts table to YAML front matter
• Generates a _config.yml containing all settings from the wp_options table
• Outputs a single zip file with _config.yml, pages, and a _posts folder containing .md files named in the proper Jekyll naming convention
• Supports selective export of specific categories, tags, or post types using WP-CLI
• Requires no settings screen — activation and a single click from the Tools menu are enough

Who uses it and how

• WordPress site owners migrating a blog or personal site to GitHub Pages, as indicated by the project's github-pages topic
• Developers moving a WordPress site onto Jekyll or Hugo while preserving taxonomy, custom field, and settings data as front matter
• Teams performing selective migrations, exporting only particular categories, tags, or post types via WP-CLI rather than the whole site
• Maintainers handling custom post types and custom fields, which have dedicated documentation pages in the docs directory
• Local development workflows, with a documented procedure for developing locally

Getting started

Place the plugin in the /wp-content/plugins/ folder, activate it from the WordPress dashboard, and select Export to Jekyll from the Tools menu; it is also published in the WordPress plugin directory at wordpress.org/plugins/jekyll-exporter/.

How it compares

The facts provided name no comparable exporter or migration tools alongside this project, so it stands alone in this registry.

When to use it — and when not

It suits anyone whose content already lives in WordPress and who wants a single-click path to a static output, with WP-CLI available when only a subset of content should be exported. It is not a static site generator itself, so you still need Jekyll, Hugo, or another Markdown/YAML engine to build and host the result, and it requires a working WordPress installation with the plugin activated to run. The README directs readers to an external documentation directory for details such as required PHP version, selective export, and custom fields, so those specifics are not self-contained in the project's main page.