The Renaissance of Static Site Hosting
Static hosting plus the modern JAMStack makes it trivial to launch fast, inexpensive sites with enterprise-grade tooling.
When I started migrating client projects to Astro, I revisited the state of static site hosting. The combination of Git-backed storage, CDN delivery, and serverless augmentation has turned “simple” marketing sites into a high-leverage platform again.
Why static still matters
A static website is a bundle of HTML, CSS, and JS that never changes between visitors. That sounds limiting, but for brand sites, blogs, documentation, and a surprising share of applications, static delivers the fastest experience possible. With a CDN in front, every page is effectively cached worldwide.
Historically the drawbacks were obvious:
- No authenticated experiences
- No per-user personalization
- No CMS to edit copy without a developer
- No database-backed forms or workflows
Today those gaps are closed by APIs and serverless building blocks. Need forms? Use Netlify, Vercel, or a third-party service. Need a CMS? Go headless. Need auth or payments? Drop in services like Clerk and Stripe that expose secure endpoints.
JAMStack in practice
Back in the day you rented a VPS, managed patches, and worried about PHP modules. Now the pattern is:
- Author content in Git (or via a headless CMS that commits content for you).
- Let a platform watch the repo and build on every push.
- Ship the static output to a CDN with edge caching.
- Sprinkle in APIs or serverless functions only where bespoke logic is mandatory.
That stack goes by JAMStack—Javascript, APIs, Markup—and it underpins modern “composable” frontends.
Hosting platforms compared
| Feature | Netlify | Vercel | AWS Amplify | Cloudflare Pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built-in headless CMS | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Spend cap | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Free commercial tier | ✅ | ❌* | ✅** | ✅ |
| Auto form handling | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
* Vercel requires the $20/mo Pro plan for commercial projects.
** Amplify is effectively free for most marketing sites because usage stays inside the free tier.
Netlify
- First mover in JAMStack hosting and still the smoothest overall developer experience.
- Built-in form handling, cron triggers, split testing, and a generous free tier that allows business use.
Vercel
- Invented Next.js and optimizes hard for React-based apps.
- Offers spend caps so a viral moment or DDoS spike doesn’t wreck your budget.
AWS Amplify
- Leverages the rest of AWS, so you get IAM, Cognito, S3, and CloudFront under one umbrella.
- Great when you already live in AWS and want everything in one bill.
Cloudflare Pages
- Extremely fast global CDN and an aggressive free tier.
- Rapidly adding support for frameworks like OpenNext to make Next.js deploys easier outside of Vercel.
So, who wins?
For clients who want rock-solid reliability, a headless CMS option, and free/low-cost hosting, Netlify is the sweet spot. I still reach for Amplify when a project already uses AWS identity or storage, but Netlify balances flexibility with predictable bills.
The bigger lesson: static hosting is no longer a compromise. It’s a premium default—especially for AI-era marketing and knowledge experiences where speed and security matter more than server-rendered gimmicks. Build statically, augment with APIs when required, and you get the best of both worlds.