Is SSR compatible with the JAMstack?

Server side rendering is the technique for rendering content on the server and is one of the most popular ways of serving content online. In contrast to a static website, a server side rendered website is built for every request made. Each new request for a page triggers a round trip to the server and can take anywhere from a few milliseconds to a couple of seconds to render depending on factors like bandwidth, server location and load. With its focus on pre-rendering ahead of time, the JAMstack runs up against the SSR approach. In contrast to SSR where a server is necessary, the JAMstack advocates for the separation of client and server. This is largely to facilitate fast renders, reduce vulnerabilities, and improve the overall scalability of a site. When operating outside of the JAMstack model i.e. SSR, these benefits are hard to achieve and require intentional strategies to address. Take the case of a Wordpress site. Though plugins make working with Wordpress so delightful and easy, they introduce a slew of vulnerabilities to your codebase and make scaling Wordpress sites difficult and costly. By just nudging a site away from the server and onto a CDN, sites immediately see dramatic improvements in performance and security. Just ask Smashing Mag if you don’t believe me. ✨