There is a popular phrase which many of us hear frequently, “Old is Gold”. The Internet has evolved so much from waiting minutes to connect to the Internet using a DialUp modem to downloading megabytes of information at the same time. In a similar way, handing and managing content on the website also changed. We have moved from HTML and CSS in the 1990s to Content Management systems in the 2000s like WordPress. Even now WordPress is popular but developers are moving to a new stack called JAMStack. This article helps you choose a JAMStack provider according to your project needs.
What is JAMStack?
If you are trying to choose a better hosting provider you might be already aware of what JAMStack is, even if not here is a basic introduction of JAMStack. JAM stands for JavaScript APIs and Markup. JAM stack is a modern website architecture based on Client-Side JavaScript, reusable APIs, and prebuilt Markup. JavaScript along with APIs provides Dynamic content for the website. Markup helps to generate a website from source files such as markdown files, HTML templates, and CSS using a Static Site Generator like Jekyll, Gatsby, Hugo, and more. The most popular reasons for the adaptation of JAMstack by developers are: Faster performance because there is no server-side rendering and most of the HTML already pre-built, Webpages load faster using CDN. Since there is no server to process it itself makes webpages less prone to server-side attacks and database vulnerabilities. Less expensive than normal website hosting. Scalability is easy because all it needs is to upgrade the bandwidth we are paying.
Best JAMStack/Static Site hosting providers
The growth of JAMStack has exploded a number of options for developers to choose from with some big players also joining the game.
1. Netlify
Netlify is often regarded to be the pioneer of JAMstack. Netlify has easy to board in the process. Netlify pulls the content from your GitHub repository and according to your build settings builds the site and deploys it to their CDN. Netlify also has a wide range of features like Analytics, identify management, custom headers, custom domains with free SSL, Serverless functions. They also have a generous free plan with 100GB bandwidth and 300 build minutes can be upgraded according to needs. It’s the ideal choice for beginners.
Features:
- Free Plan available
- Deploy previews
- Instant rollbacks
- Identity management
- Analytics
- Custom Domain with Free SSL
- Sitewide Password Protection
- Serverless Functions
- Up-to-date notifications on Email, Slack, GitHub Pull requests
2. Vercel
Vercel (is also known as Zeit) is one of the biggest competitors to Netlify. They also provide similar features to Netlify like deploy previews, pulling content from GitHub repository, custom domains with SSL, serverless functions, and analytics. Vercel also has a free plan with 100GB bandwidth with 500 builds that also can be upgraded.
Features:
- Free Plan available
- Deploy previews
- Instant rollbacks
- Analytics
- Custom Domain with Free SSL
- Sitewide Password Protection
- Serverless Functions
3. GitHub Pages/GitLab Pages
GitHub Pages is a product of GitHub and GitLab Pages is a product of GitLab. Both are similar in working and limits. GitHub Pages are free without any plans to upgrade and have hard limits on bandwidth (100GB) with a single custom domain with free SSL. They don’t provide extra benefits like Analytics, Serverless functions, and more. They are tailored towards developers rather than the business. They are as popular among developers like Netlify.
Features:
- Free Only, so you won’t be billed
- Directly from your repository
- Custom Domain with Free SSL
4. Cloudflare Pages
Cloudflare is very well-known among web hosting, Network Infrastructure companies for providing website security, DNS hosting, Web App firewalls, and more. Cloudflare has its own data centers around the world, they are the domain registrar and have their own serverless functions (Netlify/Vercel depend on upstream providers for these). They are also known for privacy-first initiatives. Like others, they also provide analytics, GitHub pulls, Identify management using Cloudflare access, Custom domains with SSL. Their free plan has unlimited bandwidth (if used according to their AUP) with 500 builds and can be upgraded.
Features:
- Free Plan available
- Deploy previews
- Access Policies
- Analytics
- Custom Domain with Free SSL
- Serverless Functions
- Other Cloudflare services like SSL, CDN, WAF, DNS, and more
5. Azure Static Web Apps
As a part of Azure services, Microsoft also started their own JAMStack hosting Azure Static Web Apps which became generally available recently. They might be new but they have one of the most reliable infrastructures. They do have a free plan with 100GB bandwidth along with their own serverless offering Azure Functions that can be upgraded. It might not be ideal for beginners but if you have existing Azure infrastructure you can try it easily.
Features:
- Free plan available
- Custom domain with free SSL
- Serverless functions
- Authentication and Authorization using AAD, GitHub, Google, Twitter
- Backed by Azure Infrastructure
6. S3 + Cloudfront (Amazon Web Services)
This is not a direct offering of JAMStack hosting but quite popular practice by many AWS fans. They also don’t have any free plan but their Pay-as-you-go model is relatively cheap. If you are an AWS fan you can try it on.
Features:
S3+Cloudfront isn’t a direct AWS offering so most of the features are either of S3 (or) Cloudfront’s and might incur charges
- Pay-as-you-go Plan available Free plan is available for first 12 months)
- Custom domain and SSL via Cloudfront
- Edge functions via Lambda@edge and Serverless function via Lambda function
- Access control available through Cloudfront
- Backed by AWS Infrastructure
These are some of the best JAMStack/Static Site Hosting providers, you can learn more about their offerings from their respective websites.
