Editor's note (2025): This article was originally published in 2020. While the principles of pre-rendered markup and decoupled architectures remain sound, the "JAMstack" label has largely been replaced by framework-specific terminology. Today we build with tools like Next.js, React, and Three.js — applying these same fundamentals alongside interactive 3D experiences and AI-powered applications.
At its core JAMstack stands for JavaScript, APIs, and markup. Translated to plain English, JAMstack is a technique for building modern websites and web apps which are better performing, more scalable, and more secure than traditional systems.
The primary feature that sets JAMstack apart from traditional tools is server-side rendering vs prebuilt markup. Most traditional platforms such as Drupal or WordPress use a process called server-side rendering to build webpages. Rendering is the process of combining the written content of your website with a template or theme that provides the look and feel. Rendered content is sent to your web browser and produces the stylized web pages you see. With server-side rendering this process takes place on the web server during every page request.
With JAMstack all page rendering happens before your website is published. When you make a change to one of your pages it generates the entire website statically and that static content gets sent to the web host as prebuilt markup. Since prebuilt markup is already built for your browser, it doesn't require a web server to generate it on the fly.
Prebuilt markup is beneficial in a number of ways. First, because it results in a much higher performing website. Since each of your pages have been rendered prior to publishing, the end user does not have to wait around for the web server to generate them. This removes precious seconds from the initial page load in a world where users form first impressions in milliseconds. JAMstack sites consistently have the fastest load times and time to first byte, an industry standard measure of website performance.
In addition to page-speed performance, JAMstack sites also handle larger amounts of traffic with ease. Since your web server isn't having to constantly generate new pages on every request it can instead allocate most of its resources to serving up light-weight prebuilt pages. This results in considerably lower server resources necessary to serve higher levels of traffic.
With JAMstack, say goodbye to huge hosting bills - even for higher-traffic websites.
Beyond its superior performance and scalability, JAMstack websites are also much more secure. Websites built with tools such as Drupal or WordPress rely on web servers which are always running backend code used for page rendering - this code can be exploited resulting in damage to your website. Backend code must connect to your database and can have flaws or weaknesses in it which can be abused to gain unwanted access to your database and content. This access can be used by hackers to run malicious code and inject unwanted spam or advertising on your website. Traditional CMS based websites require constant software updates to prevent these security issues from arising.
JAMstack on the other hand is immune to most of these issues because webpage generation happens offline and away from the web server. Since all of the pages on a JAMstack website are prebuilt, there is no backend weakness to expose. The only thing that exists on the server is the actual prebuilt markup and this markup cannot be hacked in the same way that a CMS backend can.
The JAMstack site-building methodology includes a number of improvements over traditional website platforms such as WordPress or Drupal. With increased performance, better scalability, and more robust security, JAMstack sites are often the right choice for businesses exploring a new platform for their website. We hope this article has cleared up some of the confusion around the question "What is JAMstack?" and we hope it has been a helpful part in planning your new website project!
Continue your learning journey with these related articles.
JAMstack development involves creating a template in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and managing content using either a CMS or in static markdown files. You can then use a static site generator such as Gatsby or Hugo to build your website.
Read article →A static site generator is responsible for building your website's pages from templates that you write. It uses your content combined with the template to generate static HTML pages. The result is a static website that you can upload to a host like GitHub, Amazon S3, or your own server.
Read article →Choosing the right platform for your website can be a very difficult task. To make things a little easier for you, here is a rundown of the differences between two popular approaches: the Drupal content management system, and the JAMstack site building methodology.
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