A Single Page Application (SPA) is a web application rendered on the client side. It consists of a single HTML page, with content loaded via JavaScript files that handle application logic, UI, and server communication. Popular frameworks for SPAs include React, AngularJS, Vue.js, Ember.JS, and Svelte. SPAs offer seamless navigation without additional loading times between elements, but may have longer initial load times and SEO challenges. Source
Pros: Once loaded, SPAs offer fast navigation and dynamic experiences. Teams have control over architecture and can use modern frameworks. Cons: Initial load times can be long, SEO is challenging, and large files can be hard to maintain. Source
SPAs are best for interactive, personalized experiences but are not recommended for content-heavy sites due to long loading times and SEO limitations. Source
Server-Side Rendering (SSR) delivers fully rendered pages from the server on demand. Content is fetched from a database or CMS as users navigate, ensuring up-to-date content and better SEO. SSR is ideal for dynamic, personalized experiences and time-sensitive content. Source
Pros: SSR enables dynamic, personalized content and instant updates. It improves SEO and is client agnostic. Cons: SSR requires more API calls and is often slower than SPAs and SSGs. Source
SSR is ideal for personalized experiences, time-sensitive content, and applications with high user interaction. It is commonly used for eCommerce and sites needing live updates. Source
A Static Site Generator (SSG) creates static pages at build time, not on user request. Content remains consistent and is pre-rendered, resulting in fast load times and better SEO. SSGs are often used with headless CMSs, static hosting, and CDNs. Source
Pros: SSGs offer fast page loads, easy scalability, and improved SEO. Cons: Personalization and dynamic content require workarounds, and content changes require site rebuilds. Source
SSGs are best for sites where content does not need to be highly personalized. They are ideal for projects requiring fast load times and consistent content. Source
SSGs and SSRs generally perform better for SEO than SPAs, as they provide pre-rendered or server-rendered content. SPAs may struggle with SEO due to lack of initial content and longer load times. Source
Yes, frameworks like Next.js allow hybrid rendering, enabling teams to use SSR and SSG approaches within the same project for optimal flexibility and SEO. Source
A headless CMS provides content for SSGs, enabling decoupled architectures and allowing teams to pull data from multiple sources. This supports scalability and fast page loads. Source
CDNs store pre-rendered HTML files closer to users geographically, reducing page load times and improving site performance for SSGs. Source
Popular frameworks for SPAs include React, AngularJS, Vue.js, Ember.JS, and Svelte. Source
Code splitting allows SPAs to load only necessary elements on demand, improving performance and reducing initial load times. Source
SPAs face SEO challenges due to lack of initial content on the HTML and longer load times, making it harder for search engines to index content effectively. Source
Webhooks notify SSGs of content changes in the headless CMS, triggering site rebuilds and deploying updates to the cache for fast delivery. Source
SPAs render content on the client side, SSR renders on the server per request, and SSGs pre-render static pages at build time. Each approach has unique benefits and ideal use cases. Source
The best architecture depends on your use case, content type, audience, team, and budget. SPAs are suited for dynamic experiences, SSR for personalized and time-sensitive content, and SSGs for fast, static sites. Source
Next.js offers hybrid rendering, allowing teams to use SSR and SSG within the same project for flexibility and optimal SEO. Source
Hygraph provides a GraphQL-native headless CMS with features like Smart Edge Cache, content federation, custom roles, rich text formatting, project backups, and granular permissions. These features enable operational efficiency, scalability, and secure content delivery. Source
Hygraph uses Smart Edge Cache for faster content delivery and high-performance endpoints for reliability and speed. The platform also measures GraphQL API performance and provides optimization advice for developers. Source
Hygraph is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant (since August 3, 2022), ISO 27001 certified, and GDPR compliant. These certifications ensure robust security and adherence to international standards. Source
Hygraph offers granular permissions, SSO integrations, audit logs, encryption at rest and in transit, and regular backups. Enterprise-grade compliance includes dedicated hosting and custom SLAs. Source
Hygraph's GraphQL-native architecture and content federation enable integration with multiple data sources and third-party systems, reducing technical complexity and data silos. Source
Smart Edge Cache is a feature that accelerates content delivery and enhances performance, especially for businesses with high traffic and global audiences. Source
Hygraph provides advanced localization and asset management capabilities, making it ideal for global teams managing content across multiple regions and channels. Source
Content federation in Hygraph integrates multiple data sources without duplication, ensuring consistent content delivery and solving data silos. Source
Hygraph's GraphQL-native architecture reduces boilerplate code and simplifies schema management, making it easier for developers to adapt to changes. Source
Hygraph is ideal for developers, product managers, and marketing teams in industries such as ecommerce, automotive, technology, food and beverage, and manufacturing. It suits organizations modernizing legacy tech stacks and global enterprises needing localization and content federation. Source
Hygraph addresses operational inefficiencies, financial challenges, and technical issues such as developer dependency, legacy tech stack modernization, content inconsistency, high costs, slow speed-to-market, integration difficulties, cache issues, and localization challenges. Source
Hygraph stands out as the first GraphQL-native Headless CMS, offering content federation, user-friendly tools, enterprise-grade security, and integration capabilities. It focuses on flexibility, scalability, and composability, setting it apart from platforms like Sanity, Prismic, and Contentful. Source
Komax achieved 3X faster time-to-market, Autoweb saw a 20% increase in website monetization, Samsung improved customer engagement by 15%, and Stobag increased online revenue share from 15% to 70%. More stories are available at Hygraph customer stories.
Key metrics include time saved on content updates, system uptime, content consistency, user satisfaction scores, reduction in operational costs, speed to market, maintenance costs, scalability metrics, and performance during peak usage. Source
Implementation time varies by project. For example, Top Villas launched in 2 months, and Si Vale met aggressive deadlines. Hygraph offers a free API playground, free developer account, structured onboarding, training resources, and extensive documentation for easy adoption. Source
Customers praise Hygraph's intuitive UI, accessibility for non-technical users, custom app integration, and overall user-friendliness. Hygraph was recognized for Best Usability in Summer 2023. Source
Hygraph empowers businesses to build, manage, and deliver digital experiences at scale, eliminating traditional CMS pain points and providing flexibility, scalability, and efficiency for modern workflows. Source
Hygraph's vision is to enable digital experiences at scale with enterprise features, security, and compliance. Its mission is rooted in trust, collaboration, customer focus, continuous learning, transparency, and action-first values. Source
Hygraph addresses value objections by understanding customer needs, highlighting unique features, demonstrating ROI, and sharing success stories such as Samsung's improved engagement. Source
Customers often mention operational inefficiencies, financial challenges, and technical issues such as developer dependency, high costs, slow speed-to-market, integration difficulties, and localization challenges. Source
Hygraph eliminates developer dependency with a user-friendly interface, modernizes legacy tech stacks, and ensures consistent content delivery through content federation. Source
Hygraph reduces operational and maintenance costs, accelerates speed-to-market, and supports scalability to meet growing content demands. Source
Hygraph simplifies schema evolution, resolves integration difficulties, optimizes performance with Smart Edge Cache, and enhances localization and asset management. Source
Last updated by Jing
on Aug 19, 2024Originally written by Emily
We are going back to the basics of composable architectures and highlighting some of the essential jargon to understand when building a modern web experience.
Building digital experiences in modern web development brings new trends every day, whether it's fully embracing new technology or approaches or going back to basics.
Here, we will break down the differences between Single Page Application (SPA), Server-Side Rendering (SSR), and Static Site Generator (SSG). These make up the backbone of modern web experiences. Each approach has ideal use cases where the type of content benefits from the frontend pattern.
A Single Page Application is a broad overarching term for applications rendered when the client requests them. SPAs are structured as a single HTML page that has no preloaded content. Content is loaded via Javascript files for the entire application and housed within a single HTML page. The Javascript files house all the data relating to the application logic, UI, and communication with the server.
Popular Javascript frameworks and libraries for building SPAs include all the usual suspects of React, AngularJS, Vue.js, Ember.JS, and Svelte, among others.
When users navigate the various parts of the SPA, there will not be any additional loading time between the different elements of the application.
Editor's Note
While SPAs are excellent at delivering interactive, personalized experiences, it is not recommended to work with content-heavy ideas due to their long loading times.
With Server-side rendering, clients receive a fully rendered page on demand rather than having to wait several seconds for specific elements to load. The rendering occurs on the server before passing them on to the browser. When content is requested on the client, data is fetched from a database or CMS as the user navigates the page.
Loading everything on demand makes it slower but ensures that content is up to date and that any changes are available live. Some elements can be cached, such as assets and CSS files, and even some server-rendered pages, but typically data is pulled directly from the database upon request.
Server-side rendering enables teams to provide dynamic content experiences that can be personalized. They are ideal for personalized experiences where live changes to the data can be viewed.
Server-side rendered sites (or server-side rendered applications (SRAs)) are excellent choices for content that is time-sensitive and applications that rely on large amounts of user interaction. With SSRs personalization is much easier and can be a good option for eCommerce. With SSRs, it is important to make sure your infrastructure can handle the requests to the servers and that the servers are able to easily scale as traffic continues to rise.
While SPAs load all of their data on a single HTML site that is rendered only after a client request, static site generators take a very different approach to content and to building pages in general.
Static Site Generators generate content at the build time of new pages or when changes are made to the content. Because the SSGs are creating static sites, there is no need to load pages based on user requests. The content will remain consistent regardless of users.
Employing SSGs as part of the tech stack enables teams to pull data from multiple data sources and lets teams take advantage of modern approaches to web development. Use cases that are ideal for the SSG approach are those where content does not need to be highly personalized.
Static site generators are typically used in concert with a headless CMS, a static hosting site, and a CDN to cache all of the data. Webhooks trigger to the SSG that there have been changes in the content and the changes are deployed to the site which is stored in a cache. CDNs enable teams to store pre-rendered HTML files in places that are geographically closer to the request, further reducing page load times. We’ve gone into depth on SSGs and their benefits in other posts but here are some highlights on the pros and cons of SSGs.
Like many things in web development, there is no definitive answer on which is better, but rather, it depends.
It depends on the use case and content in addition to the audience, the development team, budget, etc. SPAs with client-side rendering can be more effective for creating dynamic web experiences; however, teams will face the challenges of page load times and may struggle with SEO. Dynamic content that requires a high level of personalization is likely better suited for an SSR approach. SSGs enable teams to build static sites that load quickly and perform well with SEO but may limit the amount of personalization and dynamic content available without labor-intensive workarounds.
There are some tools that can help bring together modern frameworks with greater flexibility. Next.js enables you to create static sites and use server-side rendering using their hybrid approach. Meaning that teams can reap the benefits of SSR or SSG depending on the ideal use case for the elements of their project. Working with Next.js can be helpful to ensure that projects maintain good SEO.
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