Static Site Generation (SSG)
Static Site Generation (SSG) is a technique where a site's HTML pages are pre-rendered once at build time and served as plain static files, rather than being generated per request on the server or entirely in the browser.
Definition
Static Site Generation (SSG) is a technique where a site's HTML pages are pre-rendered once at build time and served as plain static files, rather than being generated per request on the server or entirely in the browser.
Overview
SSG sits between traditional server rendering and client-side rendering: instead of generating HTML on every request like Server-Side Rendering (SSR), a build process runs ahead of time — pulling data from a CMS, database, or markdown files — and outputs a complete set of static HTML files that can be served directly from a CDN with no server-side compute per visit. Because the pages are pre-built, SSG sites tend to be extremely fast and cheap to host, and they are inherently resilient to traffic spikes since there's no per-request rendering cost. Tools like Astro, Gatsby, Hugo, and Next.js (in its static export mode) all support SSG, often pulling content from a Headless CMS so non-technical editors can update content that gets baked into the next build. The main trade-off is freshness: content changes require a new build and redeploy (or a mechanism like Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) to update pages without a full rebuild), which makes SSG better suited to content that changes infrequently — blogs, documentation, marketing pages — than to highly dynamic, personalized, or frequently updated data.
Key Concepts
- HTML pre-rendered at build time, served as static files
- Extremely fast page loads with no per-request server compute
- Easily and cheaply hosted on a CDN
- Naturally resilient to traffic spikes
- Content typically sourced from a CMS, markdown, or database at build time
- Requires a rebuild (or ISR) to reflect content changes
Use Cases
Frequently Asked Questions
From the Blog
RAG Explained: Retrieval-Augmented Generation
RAG is how you give an LLM access to your own private data without training a new model. This guide explains the full pipeline — chunking, embeddings, vector search, and augmented generation — with a working Python example using open-source tools.
Read More AI & TechnologyGenerative AI Explained: From Text to Images
Generative AI creates new content from patterns it learned — understand how text generation, image synthesis, and more work.
Read More ProgrammingTypeScript for Beginners: JavaScript with a Safety Net
TypeScript adds optional static types to JavaScript, catching bugs before your code runs. This guide explains types, interfaces, generics, and the compile step clearly — with practical examples that show exactly why TypeScript makes large codebases easier to maintain.
Read More AI & TechnologyVibe Coding: How to Build Faster with AI Without Losing Control
AI coding tools have shifted from autocomplete to full code generation, multi-file refactoring, and autonomous debugging. This guide explains how to use tools like Copilot, Cursor, and Claude Code effectively — including the critical skill of reviewing AI-generated code before shipping it.
Read More