Definition
Jamstack (JavaScript, APIs and Markup) is a web architecture pattern in which a build step compiles the site into static HTML, CSS and JavaScript ahead of time, serves that output from a global CDN, and pushes any dynamic logic out to serverless functions or third-party APIs rather than a long-running origin server. Because pages are pre-built, most requests never touch a database or application server: CDN edge nodes typically return HTML in under 50ms and there is no origin process to compromise. This produces faster page loads, lower hosting cost at scale, and a smaller attack surface than traditional server-rendered stacks like WordPress or LAMP, though builds get slower as sites grow past a few thousand pages and teams face a real learning curve. Netlify coined the term in 2015; it is now the default architecture for marketing sites, documentation and frontend frameworks such as Next.js, Astro, SvelteKit and Nuxt, hosted on Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages and similar platforms.
How it works
A Jamstack build step runs at deploy time (or on demand via ISR) and produces static HTML, CSS and JavaScript that the CDN serves directly. Dynamic features (form handling, search, auth, payments) are handled by serverless functions or third-party APIs called from the client.
Why it matters
For most marketing, documentation and content sites, Jamstack delivers better Core Web Vitals, lower hosting cost at scale, and better security than traditional dynamic hosting. The trade is more complex builds and a learning curve for teams used to WordPress or LAMP.