#what is jamstack

Do you know Leonardo DiCaprio used JAMstack to build a website? And he is not the only one!

Well, now that JAMstack got your attention...We have previously talked about JAMstack web development so it should not be a surprise that everyone is using it to build websites.

Businesses having different priorities are also aligned with JAMstack web development and those that have chosen the JAMstack approach are certainly getting great results that are worth highlighting.

Here are the top 5 examples of JAMstack Websites in action:

1. Peloton

Peloton website sells bikes and treadmills packaged in-home classes depending on your location in the world.

This website uses React JS in the front-end for the users.

Of course, this website wouldn't be on the list if it wasn't using JAMstack!

JAMstack is smooth and performs well under pressure.

2. Logger MTS

Many developers think that "Static" websites are devoid to get animation on the website.

Logger MTS is one of the websites that perfectly proves them wrong, so we have included this website here.

Logger MTS website uses Hugo as a front-end generator and is smooth, fast, and still beautifully animated. This is an ideal example of headless web development that compromises on next to nothing and still gives all the benefits.

3. Louis Vuitton

We are including this website as we want to include examples of eCommerce websites running on JAMstack. Louis Vuitton fits very perfectly for an eCommerce website.

The front-end of this website uses VueJS.

This website's overall design shows that static web pages can have a flair of dynamism.

Overall, the website is easy to use and has a quick hassle-free checkout option for the customers.

4. Leonardo Dicaprio Foundation Website

Leonardo DiCaprio! We hope this name id familiar to you and should have got your attention.

Specifically, we are talking about the website made for his personal charity - the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.

The website uses TakeShape.io as a front-end system.

The foundation has a long history and has used the JAMstack ecosystem for their based needs.

Thus, JAMstack is not visually boring, but it's fast to load and gives a smooth customer experience.

5. Fabuwood

Fabuwood's website is designed to sell luxury kitchen cabinets from their base in the USA. Their range might be small but their website doesn't pull any mistakes when it comes to content.

Fabuwood's website has the ability to find dealers via postcode. It’s the website can easily handle content updates and additions to their websites.

It uses Metalsmith and Webpack as a front-end and still loads wonderfully.

Conclusion:

JAMstack developers should take note that great websites don't mean to pay more for the website. The examples are reflected in this article and there is a broad range of what is possible with JAMstack.

JAMstack is the latest approach for building fast, secure, and highly scalable websites and web applications.

JAMstack is a community-based set of workflows that maximize website building efficiency.

JAMstack usually stands for JAvaScript, API, and Markup. These are the three components used by JAMstack in creating fast and dynamic websites.

These components play a vital role for mobile users where the speed Counts and bandwidth are less available.

JAMstack is different from the traditional web development architecture. Look at the image below to know what is JAMstack and how it differs from any other web development approach.

Comparing the traditional web development architecture to the JAMstack architecture will give insight into the benefits of using JAMstack for web development.

5 Benefits of JAMstack

JAMstack is very flexible and intuitive helping the developers to think creatively without being confined to monolithic infrastructures.

Any great movement needs a concept to get aid. So, here are the 5 benefits of JAMstack.

1. Speed

JAMstack projects are very dynamic even more than monolithic websites. When we talk about static websites, it means that the HTML is hosted on several different servers located at different locations.

When the user requests a website to load the server located closest to the user delivers the website.

While in JAMstack, data travels a much shorter distance than any other traditional architecture. Each time the content is requested, the data goes through several CDNs (Content Delivery Networks) to reach the destination.

This makes the websites load faster and speed up irreverent of the client location.

2. Security

JAMstack provides serverless websites that are they are not stored in a single database. These websites are stored in several CDNs and are much harder to attack.

JAMstack architecture also gives developers some time when one of the microservices stops working. As the microservices work independently.

JAMstack developers don't need to maintain the backend of a website, unlike other web development architectures.

3. Scalability

JAMstack developers do not have to anticipate how much traffic a website may bring and plan accordingly.

JAMstack has pre-rendered HTML with global delivery. This makes your website scale as needed without the fear of overloading or crashing.

4. Stability

JAMstack approach enables users to access the simple static HTML, which can be delivered through CDNs.

This reduces the complex server applications and databases. Hence, JAMstack is a very stable architecture.

5. Simplicity

Simplicity is the key to the best product and service experiences, unlike the complex one. JAMstack hasn't completely removed the complexity but had made it easier for the user to interact with the websites.

Conclusion

These were the 5 benefits of JAMstack which make it revolutionary web development architecture.

JAMstack is a revolutionary architecture introduced by Mathias Beilman. It is designed to make the web faster, supports the new tools, and also has workflows that are used in modern development.

JAMstack is a combination of three basic elements: JAvaScript, API, and Markup.

Here is the detailed structure of the three elements, to get what is JAMstack?

JavaScript

Javascript handles the dynamic functionalities. There is no such restriction on which framework or library you must use in javascript.

APIs

Server-side operations are abstracted from reusable APIs and are accessed over HTTPS along with Javascript. These may be third-party services or any custom function.

Markup

Most websites are put as static HTML files and can be generated from source files, such as Markdown, using any static site generator.

A website is actually a program that runs on a web server at all times. Sites running this way needlessly slow down and provide many opportunities for attack, and is also expensive to scale.

Benefits of using JAMstack

Fast Performance

It serves as a pre-built markup and assets over a CDN.

Secure

It is more secure and while using this, no need to worry about server or database vulnerabilities.

Cost-Effective

Web hosting of static files is very cheap or even free.

Better Developer Experience

While using JAMstack front-end developers can focus only on the front end, without being tied to a monolithic architecture. This usually makes quicker and more focused web development.

Scalability

If the website suddenly goes viral and has many active users, the CDN seamlessly compensates accordingly.

As regards the core updates are pushed through Git. This allows rebuilding the site via any tools. Static site generators are very good examples of such tools as they form an important part of the JAMstack web development.

Today World-renowned companies like Mozilla, Nike, are using JAMstack. The reason behind choosing this solution differs. The main factor is to reduce reliance on a single server by means of solving tasks on the client-side and improving performance. These are the benefits of JAMstack architecture.

According to Netlify's survey, typical business uses for JAMstack include consumer software, internal tooling, and enterprise software.

Conclusion:

JAMstack is the buzzword in the tech industry currently and everyone wants to know how they can leverage JAMstack to gain more business out of their websites.

So, in this article, you'll get to know how the JAMstack works.

But, before that for those who don't know what is JAMstack, you can refer to this article by me: What is JAMstack?

So, there's nothing too complex about the working of JAMstack. It's quite simple and fresh and especially for e-commerce websites, JAMstack has made it very easy. The whole working of JAMstack can be classified into:

1) Designing 2) Static Site Generation 3) Integration of Headless CMS 4) Integration of Headless Ecommerce Solution 5) Deployment to a CDN

JAMStack separates the frontend presentation again from the dynamic functionality of the ""head"" application, enabling faster performance and an improved customer experience.

This is done using markup: your static HTML files. In a headless setup, these files may come from a static website generator like React or Vue, or a digital experience platform DXP. Because they are static, the files can be pre-rendered from a CDN cache, allowing users to see content with minimal loading time.

With e-commerce, many components are dynamic, not static. This includes product prices, stock levels, temporary promotions, and customer reviews. To be able to handle this dynamic functionality, JAMStack uses Javascript to dynamically insert content after essential markup and APIs pull data from the backend services.

JAMstack is the buzzword in the industry and every now and then you will hear someone asking "What is JAMstack?" Well, it might sound highly complexed to many people but JAMstack is here to make life easier for developers.

Many of the developers and website owners have shifted to JAMstack due to its endless benefits and the value it brings to a business with many outcomes.  

Just like CSS, AJAX, responsive design, and HTML5 brought a change in the web development industry and they have enhanced this whole industry, JAMstack is here now to take us all ahead in the future.

What is JAMstack?

The term was first coined by Mathias Biilmann, the CEO of Netlify, a cloud hosting company helping developers make the most of the Jamstack movement. Our industry loves a good TLA (three-letter acronym) so let’s start with the JAM:

J – It stands for Javascript to handle the dynamic elements of the website on the client-side.

A – It stands for application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow for content and experiences to be called by JavaScript as required. These can be third-party APIs and/or your own API endpoints. These APIs act as the servers and present the webpages in pre-rendered versions to the users.

M– It stands for Markup and this makes the whole JAMstack ecosystem different from other technologies. Markup is short for HTML (HyperText Markup Language) but it's when the HTML is rendered that is key. In an ideal Jamstack site or application, the core HTML or markup is rendered at build time, not runtime. In other words, the HTML is ready to go when the user requests the page, instead of being dynamically produced server-side when the user requests the page.

What are the Benefits of JAMstack?

1) High-speed websites because the backend is decoupled and due to the combination of static HTML and CDNs.

2) Stable development architecture because there is no reliance on the backend.

3) The cost to scale a JAMstack website is not too much.

4) Since JAMstack is new, it is less vulnerable to cyber attacks.

Conclusion

Just having a website on the internet is not something to be proud of. If your website is not able to get monthly visitors and not able to generate revenue for you then that website is of no use to your business.

As a business owner, you spend a lot of money and time on your website and its maintenance. So, in return, you should expect some value from that website. But 60% of website owners don't know how to measure the value their website provides them and this is a big worry!

These days new website development technologies and platforms are coming up that help business owners in analyzing their websites too. The latest addition to this segment is headless web development that is the trending form of web development where the backend and front end are decoupled to decrease the load on the server and lower your site maintenance costs.

Still, many people are avoiding this just to get websites at low investment.

It is very important to ensure that your website is performing well for your users and customers. This is why you must be aware of different metrics that help you analyze your website's performance on the internet. Your website’s performance metrics will suggest to you the necessary changes required in your website to improve the performance so that it performs better for future website visitors.  

Here are the 4 most important website metrics that you shouldn't avoid:

1) Page Speed: Nobody likes looking at the loading icon when they have visited a website to resolve their query. These days, people want quick actions as they don't like to be kept waiting. Slow page speeds are one of the quickest ways to get people to turn around and leave your site, no matter what it is you have to say or what you have to sell them.

2) Bounce Rate: It denotes the percentage of people who have bounced back from your website in a quick time. This means that people didn't find your website to be relevant or they were not able to use it because your website has some issues. Typically just a few simple improvements will be enough to retain site visitors for a longer period, subsequently improving your bounce rate.

3) Conversion Rate: Conversion rate is the most important metric with respect to your business because this denotes the percentage of your website visitors that are converted to your paying customers by visiting your website. The conversion rate refers to the number of unique site visitors divided by the conversions.

4) DNS Lookup Speed: It means the amount of time taken by your Domain Name System (DNS) provider to translate a domain name into an IP address. It’s important to note that there are faster and slower DNS providers out there, and if you’re using a slower provider, it can vastly slow down your DNS lookup speed. There are plenty of free online tools at your disposal to test your DNS lookup speed, and going with a premium DNS provider can ensure you have the fastest DNS lookup speed possible.

Conclusion

Chatbots are being implemented on many of the websites and landing pages by businesses to improve the conversion rates for their products and services. These days chatbots are so much customized that their responses are so much humanized and personalized that they are very necessary for a website to drive sales. It's being done to match the change in the way a user behaves on a website.

79% of consumers opt for messaging to get customer service or query resolution. 82% of consumers rate an “immediate” response as very important when they have any query 36% of companies use live chat for marketing, sales, or customer service inquiries. Especially in their campaigns they always have a chatbot on their landing pages. 65% of millennials want chatbots to cater to their customer requests

Conversational sales and marketing helps deliver a better customer experience, and chatbots are the perfect way to achieve this. Chatbots boost the lead scores, qualification, and distribution, helping customers in their search and providing them guidelines and instructions to take an action.

The main reason why chatbots have become so smart today is that they have been there for a long time now and their conversations with the users over the past have made them more intelligent.

Previously chatbots could be integrated with only a few technologies of web development but nowadays, chatbots are easily integrated into many web development architectures like JAMstack web development. JAMstack is a really powerful web development architecture due to its speed, scalability, customization, and security. Its integration with chatbot makes it the most powerful web development architecture in the current times.

So, here are the 5 benefits of having a chatbot on your website:

1) 24-Hour Service: According to studies, over 50% of customers expect a business to be available 24/7. Customers want fast solutions these days and that is why chatbots are necessary to have someone on your website addressing the queries of your customers or visitors. You can also enable your chatbot to book a call with the customer in which an actual person can connect with the customer.

2) Saving time and costs: A chatbot can reduce your overhead cost of adding a lead by 30%. Yes, it's that much beneficial for you. With a chatbot, you will get fewer inbound calls and it can replace some of the workforces that you might have hired for calling and response purposes.

3) Instant Transactions: Chatbots can easily provide you data of the customers that interacted with them and they also present in a classified manner that makes it easier for you to understand the different categories of queries.

4) Patient Listeners: As compared to humans, chatbots are very patient. They will never be frustrated with user queries and their responses will always be polite. Chatbots can show the patience that no human can provide. At this point, a human-sourced consumer service problem can be resolved directly.

5) Multi-language: Unline a customer service individual, a chatbot can speak converse in multiple languages. That helps you in making a connection with different people from different demographics. This is a very important factor behind the popularity of chatbots.

Conclusion

If you're a developer who is always at the tip with the latest updates in the tech industry then you might not need any introduction to JAMstack but many people still don't know what is JAMstack and how it is changing the phase of web development in the tech industry.

JAMstack is the modern web development architecture that is innovative in the sense that it delivers pre-rendered files to the users through a content delivery network known as CDN.

It sounds so simple and clear, right?

It makes the customer experience so simple and easy that the eCommerce stores that have shifted to this framework are witnessing a large increment in their online sales due to better customer retention.

Though it sounds easy, the work behind it is quite unique.

Don't worry, it's not complexed for a developer. Instead, it's the most developer-friendly web development framework right now!

Its demand is increasing day by day and why it shouldn't?

Businesses see great potential in this platform.

What does JAMstack contain?

JAMstack is made up of Javascript, APIs, and Markup. All dynamic functionalities are handled in JavaScript. This enables the developers to use modern Javascript frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular to build the frontend. The javascript then communicates through APIs to different server-side operations that are accessed over HTTPS. These can be both third-party services or your custom-written functions hosted in for example Google Firebase or AWS Lambda. The data is then prebuilt and served as static HTML resources in response to user queries.

Why use JAMstack?

The benefits of JAMstack are immense but the advantages that will help you, in the long run, are mentioned below:

1) Faster Site performance 2) Stronger & secured website 3) Easily scalable 4) Developer Friendly 5) Customization is possible

Conclusion