Jamstack is an architectural pattern — not a specific technology — where the front end of a site is pre-built as static HTML and JavaScript, served from a CDN, and dynamic behaviour is added through JavaScript calling APIs and serverless functions. The name comes from JavaScript, APIs, and Markup. The pattern emerged around 2015 as a reaction to the WordPress-and-MySQL default, where every page view ran a PHP script and hit a database. Jamstack sites are faster because the HTML is already sitting on a CDN, more secure because there is no always-on server to attack, and cheaper to host because static files cost pennies. Next.js, Astro, and Nuxt are all capable of Jamstack-style builds; WordPress can be used headlessly in this pattern too. The trade-off is that truly dynamic content — live user data, personalised dashboards — needs a thoughtful hybrid, not a pure static build.
How this site applies the pattern
Every page on this site is pre-rendered at build time and pushed to Vercel's CDN — classic Jamstack. The one piece of dynamic behaviour is the audit subdomain, which is a separate application talking to a Lighthouse API. The homepage itself talks to no server at runtime. If Vercel evaporated tomorrow, the same static files would serve cleanly from Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, or a bare-metal Nginx box without a line of code changing.
Why Jamstack is the cheapest pattern for a marketing site
For a small-business marketing site, Jamstack is the cheapest, fastest, most secure pattern available. No server to patch, no database to back up, no plugins to update at 3am when a CVE drops. The pattern also decouples design from content — a headless CMS can sit behind the same static front end, so editors can update copy without developers touching the site. It is a good fit for most UK small-business sites.
Related terms
Bespoke, live in seven days.
£1,000 flat. Paid upfront. Full refund if I miss day seven. Code, hosting, and domain all in your name.