Static Websites What are their advantages?

Static websites

Following with our enumeration of useful open source tools for entrepreneurs, we will dedicate the next article to static website generators. But, how to explain its usefulness is a bit complex, We are going to dedicate a post to explain what is its difference with traditional content managers and what its advantages.

I begin by clarifying that I have absolutely nothing against traditional content managers. In fact, I use them on a daily basis. Actually, if you are embarking on a venture with a limited budget and having several things to attend to at the same time, you probably want to use them.

Static Websites What are they?

When we talk about a static website we should not think of those sites from the early days of the Internet in which there were only fixed pages with text and immobile images. What we mean is that the server does not make any modifications to the site before displaying it. Any alteration is made by the browser on the client device executing Javascript code.

Let me clarify this with an example.

Linux Addicts, like millions of other sites around the world, uses a content manager called WordPress. The WordPress code base is exactly the same on all sites that use the same version.

Every time you enter the portal, the server consults in a database what content it has to show you. This content is what makes Linux Addicted from Addicted Cars or Addicted Tissues different. In that same database is the information about what content you have access to depending on the type of user you are and how the information is displayed depending on the type of destination device.

Advantages of static websites

Less resources

To run the typical content manager you need:

  • A machine running the operating system.
  • A web server running Apache, Ngnix or similar.
  • Have PHP and its extensions installed and configured properly.
  • A supported database engine.
  • The chosen content manager.
  • All the add-ons and additional themes you need.

You can believe me that having all of this working in harmony is a task worthy of a juggler. The decision you have to make is whether you do it yourself or if you pay someone else to do it. There are cheap web hosts and there are good web hosts. There are none that meet both conditions. And, even if your hosting provider takes care of having the first 5 elements updated and working, the possibility that a plugin or a theme breaks something is latent.

Static websites (once produced by a generator) are nothing more than HTML, CSS and Javascript files, therefore they do not need so many things to work. You can even choose to self host them on a Raspberry Pi.

Flexibility

Traditional content managers are highly configurable, and have hundreds of add-ons that allow them to do almost anything. But, you spend a lot of time removing what you don't need. And, the most interesting add-ons are paid (and quite expensive)

With static website generators you can create the site with just what you need and easily modify it when needed

Speed

As I explained at the beginning of the article, a static website is just HTML, stylesheets, and Javascript code. The server does not make any modifications before displaying it so it loads more quickly.

Security

The problem with the most popular content managers is precisely that, they are very popular. With hundreds of thousands of lines of code it is very easy to make mistakes. And, those errors are exploited by cyber criminals.

It is important to keep this in mind. A site does not have to be popular to be a victim of a cybercrime. Years ago, taking advantage of a vulnerability in a content manager, they used one of my websites to pish clients of a North American bank.

In other words, you have to make sure that absolutely all the components we mentioned above are up to date (and pray that the developers discover the vulnerabilities before the criminals)

Malicious code cannot be injected into static sites as they are built on a production machine before uploading. Generators create flat HTML files with CSS and JavaScript. When a user requests a page from your site, the server just sends them the file for that page without having to rebuild it.

Nor can databases be modified since they are not used.


4 comments, leave yours

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  1.   Delio Orozco Gonzalez said

    Static sites are also useful when you want to distribute information in an environment where the connection is slow or non-existent. For example, the portable version of Wikipedia meets this requirement; In other words, it provides information and knowledge without the need to be connected to the Internet.

    1.    Diego German Gonzalez said

      Thanks for your comment. Good contribution

  2.   chiwy said

    I was recently experimenting with Bashblog but it seems to me that the documentation that exists is very little ...

    With Pelican I have done better but what I think is necessary are more and better songs, most of the ones that are there are very old.

    1.    Diego German Gonzalez said

      Thanks for the feedback