I'm trying to nail down a solid definition of what a static website is because I've encountered a bunch of conflicting explanations. I'm particularly looking for a formal source, like an RFC, that can clarify this. My concern is that depending on how we define 'static', it might actually allow for behavior that seems dynamic. Any insights would be super helpful!
3 Answers
A static website is basically one that you can host on a simple server, or even in an S3 bucket. Unlike dynamic websites, which alter the HTML code on the server side during requests, static files are served exactly as they are. That's why many frameworks have a 'static folder' for these files. Check out this link for more info: https://aws.amazon.com/getting-started/hands-on/host-static-website/faq/.
There's no formal definition per se, but I’d say a static website has no server-side processing involved. Shopify explains it well: a static website shows the same content to everyone. You can read more here: https://www.shopify.com/blog/static-vs-dynamic-website.
Essentially, a static page, also known as a flat or stationary page, is one that's delivered to the browser exactly as stored. This contrasts with dynamic pages that get generated by a web app. It's all about how the content is served!
Also, keep in mind that a static site could have JavaScript. It's about whether server-side processing happens to generate the HTML markup.
Right! A static site is usually just straightforward HTML/CSS, so no higher-level programming languages are needed.