5 superpowers of JAMstack that makes him a real superhero

Have you ever thought about why superheroes are so popular? The answer lies in the fact that costumed creatures are born to protect. Driven by external or internal crises and social climates, they have emerged to save our society. Wouldn't everybody want to be a superhero once in their life? Wouldn't it be just awesome to have the power to change a world, make it a better place, or just save it? Imagine that you have a solution for any kind of problem; no matter how big or stressful it can be, you have a solution?

TA-DAAH !!! JAMstack has it all.

Yup, that's right.

JAMstack is a major devs ally, a hacker's biggest enemy, and a great secret keeper who can accomplish any wishes that society demands of him and all that he can do faster than anybody else.

You are now wondering HOW? Well, like any superhero, thanks to his unique superpowers! Let me introduce you to them:

I know I said this many times, but this superpower is just jaw-dropping. JAMstack is a smart ass when it comes to running fast. That ability is in his nature, thanks to CDNs; content appears a lot quicker, resulting in phenomenal site speed and performance. Load speeds are reduced to milliseconds because the site only loads on the first-page visit, not after each click. Isn't that excellent content delivery?

JAM obliterates the origin server used in other architectures by operating with CDN and removing security threats. In other words, you don't have to worry about server or database vulnerabilities because the lack of databases, plugins, and software decreases potential attacks and leaves so slight possibility of your site going down.

As you already know, traditional CMS websites are programs that always demand running on a web server to work correctly. Running sites this way, your investment and hosting are more expensive. On the other side, you get the website that unnecessarily slows things down, has lower performance, opens too many possibilities for attacks, and all of that for a higher price. At the same time, hosting a static site is way cheaper or even free.

A CDN, as a global network of files, is designed to enable faster loading by diminishing the physical distance between the server and a visitor on a website. Also, this way of scaling is cheaper too. So basically, the JAMstack app will remove the potential gridlock when it comes to scalability. If your product goes viral or your website visits increase, you will still have great support without bugs or declarations. One of the greatest and freshly new examples of JAMstack projects that show how JAMstack works perfectly in these situations is The COVID Tracking Project. They used the JAMstack app to track Covid19 and to collect all data about it.  JAMstack is omnipresent, and a lot of famous brands are using it on various of their projects. Read more about those JAMstack examples here.

Why? Even if it's new, the advantage lies in that JAMstack is not challenging to learn. With essential experience in HTML, CSS, and JS, developers can build complex websites, and at the same time, they have the opportunity to be more creative. Another cool thing is that static site generators remove the need to maintain a separate stack for content and marketing, contributing to a better developer experience.

Like any superhero, JAMstack has an Achilles heel too. To be honest, there are some cons you should be aware of.

For some updates on your website or landing page, coding is mandatory. Without coding knowledge, there is no room for improvement. So, the best way to avoid a lot of coding is to be well prepared and to plan everything in advance so there will be less work for the developer.

With JAMstack, you get an excellent user experience and the freedom to customize, but guess what? That mainly implies that there are not too many opportunities to use plugins. Poor plugin ecosystem, one more time, leads us to... developers. If you need something not already available as a plugin in your headless CMS, you will need to ask your developer to build it from ground zero. On the other hand, the inability to install plugins means a reduced possibility of someone else’s code adversely affecting the site, slowing it down, and leading to a conflict with existing functionalities.

As a static site, JAMstack is perfect for simple text and images. You will need to put more effort and play with your static site generator to work correctly for dynamic features. Functionalities don’t come out of the box, so that’s why you need to develop them independently. With the right choice of CMS, it can be effortless. Why is that? The answer is too simple: dynamic features are not included by default in the Jamstack design.

Well, no. At least not yet. As you can see, there are some disadvantages, but JAMstack has space for improvement. Some hybrids of SSG and SSR already exist that give a solution to these cons. While you are here, check BCMS.