Building Faster Web Applications and Sites Using Jamstack

Understanding Jamstack

A web development architecture relying on a mix of technologies, Jamstack offers a new approach to building websites. Jamstack sites use static site generators and CDNs to serve pre-rendered HTML files resulting in blazing fast response.

Benefits of Jamstack

Performance weighs in as a factor when you have to compute the response to each request. If responses are pre-built or pre-compiled, requests can be served immediately. Jamstack enables you to avoid the server-side processing that delays the first response.

Jamstack allows you to skip database servers and serve web applications with just static assets from a CDN. With no servers to guard, you can effectively reduce the surface area of attack.

Static hosting can bring down the cost of computing time and resources used. You need to pay only for the amount of data being downloaded with every request. Depending upon the number of API services the application uses, Jamstack can help you lower infrastructure costs.

When you require a server to process a request and render a page, you need to set up features like autoscaling to ensure site availability against the influx of traffic. If every request returns a static file, the application can easily scale with the number of hits.

Jamstack offers a smooth developer experience. With no servers to deploy and manage, much of the complexity is gone. Web projects can go live with only front-end code if using platforms like Netlify and Vercel.

Dynamic Functionality with Jamstack

Though the Jamstack approach involves serving static HTML files, it can be adopted to create web applications capable of dynamic interactions. In fact, Jamstack sites can be made to load data asynchronously, read from / write to a database (using DBaaS), and handle expensive computing tasks. Making use of third-party libraries, APIs, serverless functions, and other cloud services, Jamstack apps create the dynamic experience expected of modern web applications.

Third-party solutions can become a burden when every dynamic feature in the site calls for external service integration. Certain sites are just not right for the Jamstack approach when you consider the scale of complexity and interactivity. An experienced developer will recommend solutions like WordPress if the situation demands.

Adopting Jamstack

Unlike stacks such as MEAN and LAMP, Jamstack is not specific about the technology components it packs. Most of the frontend frameworks can be used in a Jamstack application but may require more tooling experience and maintenance.

Jamstack is not as easy to work with as a WordPress site for non-technical users. All changes in Jamstack sites have to be handled by a developer. However, many build tools and static site generators are available to reduce the IT workload.