Cloudflare’s EmDash is a full content management system with an admin interface, editorial roles, a database, and plugins. Diego Dotta’s NeighDash takes the opposite route for sites that are mostly read. Content lives as Markdown, every push to the production branch builds static HTML and deploys it, and editing and any dynamic feature become the site owner’s job. In his September 29, 2026 account, Dotta describes moving eight websites off a shared server and onto Cloudflare this way. The results are concrete, but they come from one author’s sites, so they show what a static approach can do for a small site rather than what a CMS costs in general.
What the two projects are
EmDash: Cloudflare’s CMS
Cloudflare introduced EmDash in April 2026 as an open-source CMS written in TypeScript and built on Astro. It is designed to run on serverless infrastructure and in other Node.js environments. Cloudflare announced EmDash 1.0 on September 28, 2026, describing it as a stable, free, open-source CMS. The 1.0 release post highlights editorial, media, localization, migration, deployment, API, CLI, and MCP workflows, along with a decentralized plugin registry.
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Cloudflare’s plugin model runs each plugin in an isolated Worker with declared capabilities. That is Cloudflare’s description of its architecture. It is not an independent assessment that EmDash is secure, and it should be evaluated as a claim about the design.
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Dotta calls NeighDash a “Stable Site Generator.” It is a free, open-source Claude Code skill that bundles a migration playbook, templates, scripts, and lessons from his moves. The output is a static site. Content is stored as Markdown and rendered to static HTML, and a push to the production branch triggers a build and deployment. A small Worker handles selected legacy URLs and the few dynamic exceptions the site still needs.
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The design has no admin screen and no database at render time. Whatever a visitor receives is pre-built HTML, which is the main reason Dotta gives for the speed gains described below.
What Dotta measured on his own sites
Dotta says the move was prompted by instability on his shared host. He reports TLS handshakes taking 20 to 30 seconds and outages that affected several sites at once. He moved eight websites in total, and the largest WordPress site he describes has 251 posts and 901 MB of uploads. These are his own accounts of his own sites, not audited hosting records.
For his blog at diego.horse, the homepage went from 323 requests to 13. Lighthouse results for diego.horse are medians of three runs per side, captured on August 21 and September 28, 2026. The table below sets out the Lighthouse scores and homepage sizes he reports for three sites.
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|---|---|---|
| diego.horse | 55 to 80 | 5,155 KB to 439 KB |
| thesunrise.org | 58 to 72 | 1,476 KB to 776 KB |
| fireflow.cc | 96 to 99 | 1,701 KB to 312 KB |
Dotta also reports a simulated mid-range phone, where first paint on diego.horse moved from 15.5 seconds to 1.7 seconds. He flags two limits on the “before” side. The old site was measured while its server was responding, and the homepage content differed between the two measurements. Both points weaken a precise before-and-after comparison, which is why his numbers are best read as a single case study. They do not predict what another site will gain.
What Cloudflare reports about EmDash at scale
Cloudflare says its own blog moved to EmDash on August 12, 2026. Its migration write-up describes a setup with a Worker, Workers Cache, an EmDash object cache on KV, and Hyperdrive connected to PlanetScale. Cloudflare reports that 99.5% of static files and 70% of requests were typically served from cache in that configuration.
Three traffic figures appear in Cloudflare’s material, and they describe different situations. The EmDash 1.0 post says the blog must handle millions of pageviews per week, with legitimate spikes up to 5,000 requests per second. Cloudflare also describes a load test to 7,000 requests per second, and a later DDoS event at 28,000 requests per second. These are Cloudflare’s operational claims about its own infrastructure, not benchmarks for a typical site.
Cloudflare also quotes a customer. Greg Barbosa, Director of Innovation and Systems at Avulux, is quoted in the EmDash 1.0 announcement: “The site had to be fast to use and simple for our team to update. WordPress had become the opposite of that. With EmDash, we now have a shared platform that developers can extend and marketers can edit content.” That is a statement published by Cloudflare, not an independent review.
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What you give up when the CMS goes
Dotta’s account is candid about the costs of a static setup. These are the ones that matter most for an owner deciding whether to follow the same path:
- Editing requires Git. He says a typo fix now means a Git commit, where a CMS would offer an editor screen.
- Every dynamic feature is code you own. Anything added beyond static pages becomes something the owner builds and maintains.
- Self-editing is lost for smaller sites. Dotta notes that owners of smaller sites lose the ability to edit their own pages without a developer’s tooling.
- Logins and commerce are out of scope. For a shop or a site that needs user accounts, he says he would build an application instead.
His argument rests on the publishing pattern. He writes about once a week and mostly needs the sites to be read. A site with that profile rarely benefits from a database on every request, and the static build removes that dependency entirely.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Choosing between EmDash and a static approach
The two options solve different problems, so the comparison starts with the people who publish and the features the site needs. The table sets out the differences the sources describe. Where a sources does not state a value for one side, the cell says so.
| Question | EmDash (Cloudflare) | NeighDash static approach (Dotta) |
|---|---|---|
| Who edits and how | Admin interface with editorial roles, per Cloudflare’s 1.0 post | Markdown in Git; a typo fix is a commit |
| Scheduled publishing | Listed among EmDash workflows | Not stated |
| Database | Database-backed workflows, per Cloudflare | No database at render time; the site is pre-built HTML |
| Dynamic features | Provided by the CMS and its plugin model | Owner builds and maintains each one; a small Worker covers legacy links and exceptions |
| Localization and media | Described as EmDash workflows | Not stated |
| Plugins | Isolated Workers with declared capabilities, per Cloudflare’s architecture description | Not part of the approach described |
| Hosting | Serverless infrastructure or other Node.js environments | Static output deployed to Cloudflare on push to production |
| Best fit | Teams with several editors, roles, and content workflows | Mostly read sites with one or few publishers and infrequent updates |
Before choosing, answer four questions:
- How many people publish, and will any of them be unwilling to work in Git?
- Do you need logins, forms that store data, or a shop?
- How often does the content change, and how much of it is updated after launch?
- Are you willing to maintain any custom behavior yourself?
If the answers point to a small, mostly read site with a single publisher, the static route is the one Dotta’s account supports. If an editorial team needs a shared interface, roles, and scheduled publishing, EmDash is the option the sources describe for that work. Neither project’s own figures should be treated as the result you will get.
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