Rendering
Static Site Generation (SSG)
Also: SSG
Building every page as static HTML at build time and serving from a CDN.
Definition
SSG generates all pages once at build time. The HTML is deployed as files; the CDN serves the pre-built HTML directly. There is no per-request server rendering. TTFB is whatever the CDN responds in, usually 30 to 100ms. Cache invalidation requires a rebuild and redeploy. Examples: Astro by default, Next.js with generateStaticParams, Hugo, Eleventy.
See also
More in Rendering
Prerendering
Generating static HTML snapshots of JavaScript-rendered routes for crawlers and (sometimes) users.
Server-Side Rendering (SSR)
Generating HTML on the server for every request, then sending it to the browser.
Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR)
A hybrid where pages are static-served from cache but regenerated on demand or on a TTL.
Hydration
The process of attaching JavaScript event listeners to server-rendered HTML in the browser.
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