Glossary · Beginner
Static site
A static site serves prebuilt files or generated responses without requiring per-request application rendering for its public pages.
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Definition
A static site delivers files or build-time-generated pages whose main public representation does not require application code to assemble it for each request. The hosting platform may still use a CDN, redirects, edge logic, or dynamic endpoints alongside those pages.
What static does not mean
Static does not mean visually plain, unchanging, or free of JavaScript. A page can load interactive scripts and call APIs after delivery. It also does not mean every response is correct: redirects, status codes, headers, forms, canonicals, and cache rules still belong to the deployed service.
Trade-offs
Prebuilt pages reduce runtime dependencies and are easy to cache, inspect, and roll back. Content changes usually require a build and deployment. Features such as accounts, private data, personalized authority, and mutable writes need a separate server or service boundary rather than being simulated in public client code.
Review question
Which routes are prebuilt, which execute server code, and which call external services after load? Request the deployed URL, inspect its status and headers, disable JavaScript, and test a missing path. Confirm the rollback artifact is known and that public source never contains secrets or client-only claims of successful writes.
Treat third-party forms, analytics, search, payments, and email as external runtime dependencies even when the page itself is prebuilt. Test those boundaries on the deployed host and record which provider owns each mutable operation and failure state.