The rise of static-first websites: why major brands are making the switch

Your website performance directly impacts your bottom line — and we’re seeing major sites increasingly turning to a “static-first” approach for their web presence. New data from the 2024 Web Almanac reveals a striking 67% growth in static and hybrid website architectures among the top 10,000 most-visited sites.

I've had a few days to think this over, having helped edit the Jamstack chapter of the report, and I’m certain that this isn’t just a technical trend — it’s a strategic business move. So why are big sites making the shift to static?

Three key business advantages of static

Cost efficiency

Static-first websites typically require less developer intervention (site maintenance) and less server processing power, translating to lower hosting costs. Instead of generating pages on-demand for each visitor, content is pre-built and served from global content delivery networks. This approach can be incredibly cost-effective for high-traffic sites where traditional maintenance and server costs can spiral quickly.

To give a real-world example of the potential savings and gains, DX moved from a ‘no-code’ dynamic website to a completely static website on CloudCannon, increasing their lead generation by 400% and saving $150,000 in annual operating costs.

Performance and user experience

The Web Almanac’s data shows that static-first sites consistently outperform their dynamic counterparts in Core Web Vitals — Google’s key metrics for user experience. This translates to real business benefits: faster loading times mean lower bounce rates, higher conversion rates, and better SEO rankings. And for every second saved in loading time, businesses typically see measurable improvements in user engagement.

The Web Almanac’s report also notes some specific performance challenges across the web — and the static approach is well placed to address them. In no particular order:

• Mobile devices suffer from slower processing power and network connections, creating an increasing performance divide with desktop experiences. Static sites deliver pre-rendered, pre-optimized content that requires minimal client processing, significantly reducing the performance gap between devices.
• Third-party scripts for analytics, ads, and user tracking significantly degrade interactivity and load performance. Static sites can analyze, optimize, and pre-load third-party resources during build time rather than handling them at runtime.
• Many sites still serve unoptimized images without proper dimensions, causing layout shifts and wasting bandwidth. Static site generators can automatically optimize all images during build, generating multiple formats and sizes with proper dimension attributes.
• Server processing time for dynamic content creates delays in initial page load. Static sites serve pre-built files directly from CDN edge locations with no server processing time.
• Popular sites often perform worse due to accumulated features and complexity. Static builds can analyze the entire site at once, enabling systematic optimization and code reduction before deployment.

Reliability and security

It might seem obvious, but it’s worth (re)stating: pre-built pages are inherently more secure and stable than their dynamic counterparts. With fewer moving parts and no real-time server processing, there’s much less that can go wrong during high-traffic periods — and this can be crucial for major marketing campaigns, viral moments, or emergencies.

Because static sites don’t rely on external plugins to add functionality, they’re much less vulnerable to attacks like cross-site scripting (XSS). In 2023, for example, plugins were responsible for almost 97% of all new WordPress vulnerabilities. (And there were almost 6,000 in total, more than half of which were XSS!)

Why the surge in enterprise adoption?

The 67% growth in static/hybrid approaches among top sites isn’t happening by accident. Several business factors are likely driving this trend:

1. SEO pressure: Google’s increasing emphasis on page performance metrics makes static-first approaches more attractive for maintaining search rankings. For businesses that depend on search engine ranking to generate leads, static is an obvious choice.
2. Mobile-first reality: With mobile traffic dominating, the lighter weight of static sites provides a competitive advantage in markets with varying connection speeds.
3. Environmental concerns: As businesses face pressure to reduce their digital carbon footprint, static sites’ lower server requirements offer an easy win for sustainability goals.
4. Cost optimization: The lower operating costs of static-first approaches — both in terms of initial development and maintenance — are particularly attractive to enterprise businesses.

The business case for change

For marketing teams considering their web strategy, the data makes a compelling case for at least exploring a static-first approach. The combination of lower costs, better performance, and improved reliability offers a clear competitive advantage. And as the Web Almanac team concludes, while the technical term “Jamstack” may be fading from use, its core principles of pre-building pages whenever possible are proving increasingly valuable. (And Jamstack has a bright future!)

Once more, this isn’t just about technology — it’s about delivering better customer experiences while optimizing costs. As more major sites make this shift to static, those sticking with traditional dynamic-first approaches (Drupal, WordPress, et al) may well find themselves at a growing disadvantage in both site performance and operating costs.