Fontstay – Local Hosting for Google Fonts

In the admin menu, go to Appearance → Fontstay. You can also click "Settings" under the plugin's name on the Plugins screen.

Only when you host a font: your server asks Google for the font names and styles, for example "Roboto 400, 700", and downloads the files once. Your visitors' browsers never contact Google for hosted fonts, and Google sees your server's address, not your visitors'. Scanning only opens your own pages.

It works with any theme, page builder or plugin that adds Google Fonts the standard WordPress way, which most do. If a theme or builder already has its own "load fonts locally" option turned on, those fonts are already on your site and won't appear in the list. Fonts added another way are listed under "Loaded another way".

A theme or plugin loads it from Google without the standard WordPress way – for example with a link written directly into the page code, or an @import inside a stylesheet. This plugin can't move those fonts safely, so it shows where they come from. Many themes and builders have their own "load Google Fonts locally" option; turning it on usually solves it.

The scan checks your home page, latest post, the busiest category, the first page in your main menu or site header (or your newest page) and, with WooCommerce, the shop and one product. A page the scan didn't open still gets local fonts when they are already hosted – for example the same font with fewer weights. If a page uses a font that isn't hosted at all, add that page under Settings → Extra pages to scan. Fonts that appear only for logged-in users can't be seen by the scan. A font that a script adds after the page has loaded is listed under "Loaded another way" when the scan recognizes the script – with the theme or plugin that adds it, when the scan can tell – but it can't be moved.

Icon fonts such as Material Icons and Material Symbols need Google's own stylesheet: it holds the rules that turn words like "home" into icons. Hosting only the font file would show words instead of icons, so the plugin leaves icon fonts on Google and tells you so.

To scan, your site visits its own pages (a "loopback request"). Some hosts, firewalls or security plugins block this. Ask your host to "allow loopback requests" for your site; Tools → Site Health shows the same check. WooCommerce's "coming soon" mode is fine: the scan sees the real site. With another maintenance or "coming soon" plugin, or a password prompt, scan once the site is open.

After you host or stop hosting a font, the plugin clears the cache of popular caching plugins and tells you which one. If your host or a CDN caches pages, or your caching plugin isn't recognized, clear that cache yourself so cached pages pick up the local fonts.

Click "Stop hosting" next to a font: your site loads it from Google again, and its files are removed a week later. To undo everything, deactivate the plugin – your site then loads fonts exactly as before.

The downloaded font files are always removed, because they can be downloaded again. Settings and the list of found fonts stay, unless you turn on "Remove plugin data when the plugin is deleted" in Settings.

Ask in the support forum of this plugin on WordPress.org. Support is free and best effort: we read the forum regularly and fix confirmed bugs in the next release. Please describe the steps and what you expected instead; never post passwords or other private data.

Please email office@wedoingood.com and do not post it in the support forum. We confirm the report, fix it and release an update.