Netlify pulled "Jamstack" off its own homepage in October 2023. The community Discord closed. The State of Jamstack survey, running since 2020, ended.
Easy read: the architecture failed.
Wrong read. Pre-rendering, API-first content, edge delivery, decoupled front ends — those all ship as defaults now in Next.js, Astro, Nuxt, and SvelteKit. Nobody needs a name for the normal thing.
The part that actually changed
The original Jamstack answer to dynamic content was "fetch it in the browser after load." That still works for a view counter. It ages badly everywhere else — client fetches hurt LCP, and crawlers see an empty slot.
So the current shape is three tiers, not two:
| Tier | Runs at | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-rendered | Build time | Posts, docs, marketing pages |
| On-demand render | Request time | Search results, per-user pages |
| Client fetch | After load | Counters, badges, live widgets |
Put each piece of content in the cheapest tier that meets its freshness need. That one rule replaces most 2019-era Jamstack advice.
What it means when you pick tools
Stop filtering on the label. Judge the traits:
- Does it pre-render?
- Does it serve from an edge?
- Does content arrive over an API?
Same test applies to your CMS, and it rules out more of them than you'd expect. A build step can't call a browser-only SDK. Three things to check:
- A plain HTTP API with a server-side key
- Webhooks on publish, so builds trigger themselves
- A portable content format, not a vendor-specific tree
That last one is the expensive one to get wrong. A proprietary rich-text tree means writing a converter, then rewriting it when the front end changes.
The full write-up covers how a page moves through the whole chain, why Netlify moved to "composable," and the arithmetic for deciding if static fits at all:
Static Site Architecture and the Jamstack, Explained →
We build Draftbase, a headless CMS that stores rich text as plain MDX and serves it over cached REST and GraphQL. Hobby is free, and easy to start with our templates.
Top comments (0)