Deploy a blog on Tencent Cloud EdgeOne Pages at low cost (almost free)
Honestly, it's a bit of an exaggeration, but overall it's highly practical. At minimum cost, you still need a domain for DNS resolution and binding to static content. Regardless, Tencent Cloud has ushered in an era where you can host static sites domestically for free and get free CDN acceleration. (If you need a server, check this out)
Core Idea:
EdgeOne Pages mainly offers free hosting for static websites. After binding a domain, you can use the EdgeOne Free tier for node-level security caching and accelerated access.
Content updates are handled through WordPress—whether you run WordPress locally (on your machine or NAS, depending on your capabilities) or deploy it on various servers (free or low-cost shared hosting, lightweight cloud instances, etc.). The WordPress content update step is straightforward with no real complications. Additionally, you'll need to install two plugins to automate triggering content updates, loading, and saving to Tencent Cloud's EdgeOne Pages. This effectively lets you host your content site on Tencent Cloud for free, with free hosting and security acceleration (the EdgeOne Free tier works; configure it yourself or use an existing template). Compute-intensive backend tasks (a few dollars to a couple dozen per month, or even those "heirloom" machines worth hundreds) only need to handle content updates without bearing the performance load from user traffic. This is ideal for static blogs, official websites, SEO content marketing, and similar use cases, as both attacks and high concurrency are absorbed by EdgeOne's nodes and Tencent's own servers.
These two plugins are: WPGraphQL and WP Gatsby. Search for them in the WordPress plugin repository, install, and activate. (For offline use, you can download the plugin packages online and install them manually.)
The WPGraphQL plugin provides an API query interface for your WordPress content, enabling static site generators like Hexo to access WordPress data. Simply install and activate it—no additional configuration needed. After installation, you can test it by visiting: https://your-site.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts. If you get a response similar to the expected output, you're good to go.
The WP Gatsby plugin connects to the deployment webhook for EdgeOne Pages. When WordPress content is updated, this plugin triggers the webhook to notify the Hexo site hosted on EdgeOne Pages to perform a static rebuild. After installing and activating the plugin, set the "Builds Webhook URL" on WordPress's [Settings - GatsbyJS] page—this is your deployment webhook.
For specific steps, refer to the original article. I won't elaborate further here. If you have questions, check the original tutorial. I've provided the approach; anyone with basic technical skills should be able to implement it once they have the roadmap.