How it works
The name stood for JavaScript, APIs and Markup. Pages are generated ahead of time (SSG) and deployed to a CDN, and anything dynamic, such as forms, search, payments or comments, is handled by JavaScript calling APIs or serverless functions. Netlify popularised the term in the late 2010s, alongside static site generators and headless CMSs.
The ideas spread, but the label faded. Modern frameworks mix static pages, server rendering and edge functions route by route, so few projects describe themselves as Jamstack any more. The core advice still holds: pre-render what you can, serve it from a CDN, and keep servers for the parts that need them.
Related terms
More in Rendering and architecture
App shapes