Jam Stack Project

JAM Stack projects are a clever mix between Static and Full Stack Projects. JAM Stack projects encompass the fast speeds and low cost benefits of a static project, but with some of the dynamic capabilities of a full stack project.

What does JAM Stack mean?

• Javascript, the leading programming language for web applications.
• API, Application Programming Interface's are ways software programs "talk" to each other to perform tasks.
• Markdown is a computer language to format plain text. Think of it as using symbols to mark words to display as bold, italic, header fonts, lists, etc.

A JAM stack project's data is dynamic, but does not update itself in realtime like a Full Stack project would. Meaning the web page delivered to the user is static because it fetched the data to generate the pages before it was deployed. Every time you need to update that page with new data the web page needs to rebuild itself to fetch the new content for that page.

We know it can get confusing, but let's try to simplify that with an example:

Full Stack vs JAM Stack

We can compare the full stack model to the JAM Stack to see what might work best for you depending on the amount of traffic, or speed you need data to be updated for users.

We'll use an e-commerce website as an example to compare both models:

Full Stack

If you're website is expected to have a large amount of traffic where the data on the items you're selling needs to be update as quickly as possible, the Full Stack method is best for you. This is because you will have a server running 24 / 7 to listen out for and update any changes in data in realtime .

Meaning the moment someone makes a purchase on an item the server will immediately tell the database to update the quantity of that item as being one less than it was before. This update happens in realtime within milliseconds. The next user to visit the page of that item will effectively be sending a request to the database to see the new and updated information of that item, including its quantity.

JAM Stack

On the flip side let's say your website will have frequent visitors, but not enough to warrant running a server to immediately update that data. JAM Stack is your best bet. You will still be able to update your data, but much slower than a server could because the website triggers a an event to rebuild that page entirely before it can display the new data.

This means that in our scenario of a user purchasing an item the website will trigger the rebuild event which requests the new information, and redeploys the new static page to display that new data. This update varies in speed relative to the situation, but it is still fast. The next user to visit the page with that item may not see the update in quantity right away, but every user afterwards would.

Benefits of JAM Stack

Fast Page Speeds

Although the data is dynamic, JAM Stack delivers the page content as static because the data is NOT fetched in realtime, but before the page is even deployed on the web. You get the same speed benefits of a static website.

Cost Effective

Depending on the needs of your JAM stack website you can host your website for completely free, or for a very low and manageable cost. Either way it is much cheaper than running a server 24 / 7 to handle your websites data needs.

Dynamic Content

A lot of business may be surprised to realize they can run a fully functional and effective website with the JAM Stack model without any risk. This is because if you're not handling a substantial amount of user traffic, or time sensitive data, your web pages are perfectly fine to rebuild themselves to display the new data. It is still a very quick process!

Easy to Manage

Managing a JAM Stack website is much easier to handle than a Full Stack Website. No need for server maintenance and updates.

Safe and Secure

Because JAM Stack delivers static files it is not susceptible to attacks. Static files are read-only files, and they have no connection to other software which many contain sensitive data. There are no vulnerabilities to exploit.

What Projects are JAM Stack Good For

• E-commerce
• Blogs
• & More