Static and Headless Websites

It's not for everyone - but when it's good, it's very, very good.

Static and headless are not the same thing, but they can look identical to a visitor and they share a lot of the same technology. Both offer significant speed, security and hosting cost advantages over a traditional, monolithic CMS site where every page is assembled by a server on each visit.

This website is one of them: the pages are built with Astro, the blog and portfolio content is pulled from a headless Drupal site at build time, and the result is served from Netlify's edge network.

When is a headless site a good solution?

• You have needs a standard CMS theme can't meet: content from several systems, a bespoke front end, or an app-like interface.
• Speed matters. Pages are pre-built and served from a CDN, so they load very quickly wherever the visitor is.
• Marketing microsites, campaign and product launch pages that must be fast and secure.
• You have the budget and the time. A headless build costs more and takes longer, because the CMS and the front end are two separate projects.
• You accept double the ongoing upkeep: the back end and the front end each need maintaining.

When is a static site a good solution?

• A small site of fewer than five to ten pages.
• A site that doesn't need regular updating. Updates are possible, but generally need a developer and someone who can publish the site.
• A site on a CMS that is no longer supported. It can be cloned into static markup that keeps working with no security patches to run.
• Portfolio sites for artists, designers and photographers, brochure sites for local services, event landing pages, and documentation or help centres.

The biggest disadvantage of static sites

Let's get it out of the way, so you can stop reading if this is you.

• They are hard or impossible for a non-technical owner to edit. If you want to make regular updates yourself, choose a CMS platform such as Drupal, Wix, Shopify or EmDash, a full CMS built on Astro that keeps the speed of a static front end. The half-way house is a static site with Netlify Visual Editor on top, which lets you change existing pages in place without touching code.
• They don't suit sites with user logins, dynamic filtering, ecommerce or other interactive features. Those need a server or a headless back end.

Key advantages

• Speed. No server-side processing, so pages load very quickly.
• Security. Fewer moving parts. No database or login forms means far fewer vulnerabilities.
• Low hosting cost. Static sites can be hosted free or very cheaply on Netlify, Cloudflare or GitHub Pages.
• Stability. Nothing to break during updates and no plugins to fall out of date.

Who's buying them?

• Businesses that want speed and search performance without ongoing editing needs.
• Startups wanting a quick launch page or a minimum viable product.
• Agencies and marketers building fast, SEO-optimised brochure sites.
• Developers building JAMstack sites with a headless CMS and a static front end.

Not sure whether static, headless or a full CMS is the right fit? Talk to us and we will tell you straight, even if the answer is Wix.