Key principles
- Pre-rendering — HTML is generated at build time, not at request time
- Decoupling — frontend and backend are separate, communicating via API
- CDN-first — static assets served from edge nodes close to the user
Benefits
- Maximum speed — files from CDN, no server TTFB
- Security — no server to attack
- Scalability — CDN scales automatically
When it does not fit
Personalised content, real-time data, large e-commerce with millions of SKUs — where pre-rendering is impractical. Solved via ISR (Incremental Static Regeneration) or hybrid rendering.
Popular solutions
Next.js, Nuxt, Astro, Gatsby + Netlify/Vercel/Cloudflare Pages.