This article explains what Live Mode is and when to use it. To create a Live Mode page set or switch an existing one, read Create and switch Live Mode Page Sets.

In Classic Mode, LPagery writes a full copy of your template page into every generated page: the content, the page-builder data, the SEO meta and the images. Classic Mode is the default. For a few hundred pages it works well. For thousands of pages it means a big database, long generation runs, and an update run every time you change the design.

In Live Mode, the template page stays the only copy of your content. Each generated page is a small stub: title, URL, status and the row data from your spreadsheet. When a visitor opens the page, LPagery renders it from the template and fills in that page's data. Edit the template, save it, and every page in the set shows the new design on its next load. No update run is needed.

Live Mode is in beta. Classic Mode stays the default, and you can switch a set between the two at any time.

Classic Mode was built for the typical page set of a few dozen to a few hundred pages. Once a set grows into the thousands, three things start to hurt.

Every design change becomes an update run. In Classic Mode the design is stored in each page, so after you change a heading colour, add a section or swap a widget, LPagery has to rewrite every page before visitors see it. In Live Mode you edit the template page and save. That is the whole change.

The database grows with every page. Each Classic page stores the full content, the page-builder layout and the SEO meta of your template again. Thousands of pages built with a page builder add up to a lot of wp_postmeta. A Live page stores only the handful of fields WordPress needs to list it, so the set grows by a few small rows per page.

Generation takes as long as writing all those pages. A Live stub is a fraction of a Classic page, so the first run and every later data update finish much sooner.

Images follow the same idea. Classic Mode makes a real copy of the source image for every page that needs its own filename. Live Mode serves one source file under a per-page filename instead. That part has its own article: Virtual Image URLs.

A Live Mode page is a real WordPress page. It appears in Pages, in menus, archives, sitemaps and the REST API like any other. LPagery stores on it only what WordPress needs to list it correctly:

Everything else lives on the template page: the page content, the page-builder layout and the SEO plugin meta. LPagery fills it in with the page's data at request time. That is why a Live set stays small no matter how many pages it has, and why template changes need no update run.

In practice this means:

To change design or content, edit the template page and save. Every page in the set follows.

To change data (new rows, changed cells), run an Update or a Google Sheet sync, exactly as with Classic sets.

To edit one page on its own, convert that page to Classic first, then edit it like any other page. A Live page has no content of its own to edit. The rest of the set stays Live.

WordPress search, and search plugins such as Relevanssi or SearchWP, match Live pages by title and excerpt only, because the body text isn't stored in the database.

If you use LPagery's image processing with a placeholder in the filename (a source-file column like hero_image.jpg with a value such as plumber-{city}.jpg), Classic Mode copies the source image once per page. Live Mode keeps the source image as a single file and gives each page its own image filename through a URL LPagery owns, called a Virtual Image URL.

One site-wide setting, Virtual Image URLs, decides whether Live pages use those per-page filenames or the shared source file. LPagery sets it for you based on whether a CDN or caching layer sits in front of your site. Read Virtual Image URLs for how it works and when to turn it on.

Live Mode is in beta. Everything described here works, but expect it to keep changing. Classic Mode stays the default and is fully supported.

Live Mode currently renders templates built with Elementor or the WordPress block editor (Gutenberg). For any other builder (Divi, WPBakery, Bricks, Breakdance, Oxygen, Brizy, SeedProd), use Classic Mode for now.

You can switch an existing Classic set to Live, and a Live set back to Classic, at any time from Manage. Switching to Live discards manual edits made directly to the pages' content. Titles, slugs and status are kept.

LPagery must stay active. Live pages are rendered by LPagery, so if you deactivate the plugin they serve empty content until you reactivate it. Convert them to Classic first if you are removing LPagery for good.

Creating, switching and syncing Live sets needs the Extended plan. Serving pages that already exist does not.

Create and switch Live Mode Page Sets shows how to choose Live when creating a set, make changes, edit single pages and switch existing sets.

Virtual Image URLs explains per-page image filenames without copied files, and the setting that controls them.