If you are learning web development, you may have heard this term before. The term Jamstack was first coined by Mathias Biilmann, CEO of Netlify, in 2015.
JAM stands for JavaScript, Api's, and Markup. It is a revolutionary new approach to building websites. This approach is not a framework but is actually an architectural guideline using many of the tools and skills developers were already familiar with.
Since its conception, it has only grown in popularity and is now an important part of a web developer's toolbelt.
Why is JAMstack used?
Jamstack has many benefits and advantages that set it apart from other techniques.
It offers better performance, security, scalability, maintainability, and ease of developer experience.
Developers can build faster with fewer complications and can focus more on user experience. Businesses can then be more agile in competitive markets and make their customers more satisfied. End users get better content that is delivered faster.
It is a win-win for end-users, developers, and businesses.
How does Jamstack work?
Jamstack offers better performance by pre-rendering pages and content on the build, as opposed to each time a user visits a webpage.
Pre-rendering is typically done as static pages at build time over a content delivery network (CDN).
Once an image, video, or other content is loaded for the first time, it will then load faster when the user visits the same website again.
Security is stronger because it has fewer points, or vectors, of potential weakness. It lives on fewer servers and databases, which are frequently targeted.
It is more scalable because the webpage's content can be cached in a content delivery network. Unexpected heavy traffic can be handled much easier, and this means less downtime.
Maintaining the systems is also easier through the use of a CDN. There is less complexity and, therefore, fewer areas that can fail.
Most aspects have to work at build time, so by the time a webpage is live, it has already been tested.
Now that you have been introduced to what Jamstack is and how it works, it's time to take the next step. The best way to learn is to build!
If you would like to learn more, check out Jamstack.
Good luck and happy coding!
Also published here.