Author: Ashish Roy
June 26th, 2020
0%
If you know anything about website development, you’re probably aware that WordPress is still king. It boasts an impressive assortment of plugins, extensions, tutorials, themes, and customization options. Some of the world’s biggest companies and organizations choose to continue to run their websites on WordPress!
Even so, the tide seems to be changing somewhat, as there are now some better, faster, more modern solutions for approaching website development. Before you decide to select WordPress by default, it may be worthwhile for you to consider some other available options. In this blog, we’ll focus on one worthy alternative in particular – Gatsby.
The fact of the matter is that WordPress has become something of an older technology. Gatsby has more recently emerged as a very popular static site generator. It’s built with React, meaning that all of that React goodness is right at your fingertips for building interactive components right into your static website. Gatsby is also built on top of GraphQL, so you have the ability to take query data and display it on your static website any way you want. In a nutshell, Gatsby takes current inputs, combines these with the website’s established look and feel, and then spits out a static site for browsers to engage.
Static sites have become a buzzword in 2020 because they’re both super-fast AND secure – something which can’t be said for WordPress. Since static sites are really just an assortment of HTML files, they can live on content distribution networks (CDNs) rather than servers. What’s the benefit of that for businesses and organizations? Significant cost savings! No more need for managed hosting, and no more costly server fees!
By contrast, WordPress is installed on a dedicated server. When a user visits a page, commands are issued to the server to gather the bits and pieces that make up a page. This takes time. Gathering images, fonts, style sheets, and everything else can end up being a somewhat slow process.
Gatsby looks great and is really quite simple to use. In fact, it looks a lot like your favorite content management system. It can be made to resemble WordPress, Drupal, Netlify, Contentful, Shopify, and a range of other popular platforms.
Gatsby itself doesn’t have need for a built-in interface to log in and write blog posts. It leans on other platforms to address this need. If you prefer, you can continue to use the administrative backend of WordPress for writing your blog articles, and then just let Gatsby take care of the rest!
One of the most impressive aspects of Gatsby is its sheer performance. Using Web pack and related routes, Gatsby doesn’t have to download the whole bundle every time you go to another sub page; it keeps itself freed up to be able to go out and fetch new content. Gatsby also works really well with pictures, which are usually a big hangup for other web formats in terms of performance. Based on the screen size and resolution of the client device, Gatsby automatically presents the appropriate image size. Plus, Gatsby comes with a built-in preloader function that activates upon link hover. Whenever a user slows down to hover over a link, there’s usually a very good chance that they’ll click on it. Because this is true, why not develop a system for automatically preloading these pages? Well, that’s exactly what’s Gatsby does, so it effectively prevents any unnecessary wait time!
This is the one of the best things about Gatsby. Because it’s an open source product, it’s FREE to install and use! Of course, so are WordPress and most popular CMS platforms, but the key difference is that Gatsby doesn’t need to run on a server, so it’s actually much cheaper to run over time.
There are some services like Netlify which also offer free hosting of static content. If you’re pretty tech-savvy, you can develop your own blazing-fast, incredibly secure website for free. This offer doesn’t extend to bigger sites, but if you’re just getting started with your site this could be an excellent opportunity to consider.
On the other hand, if you’re NOT very technical-minded, but like the sound of running a free website, the professional team at Cibirix is here to help! Our world-class web design team is expert at helping you create beautiful websites that will really “wow” your users. On top of that, our creative services come at some very affordable rates, so you won’t have to worry about breaking the bank!
Concerned about hackers? Then you might want to steer clear of WordPress. WordPress is most common site-building platform in the world, and hackers are very familiar with its ins and outs. They will look and wait for opportunities to exploit any poorly-configured setups.
Thankfully, Gatsby doesn’t present this problem. In order to hack a website, you need to first take control of the computer (server) it’s running on. As we mentioned, Gatsby doesn’t run on a server, so there’s really nothing to hack! Gatsby simply pushes out static HTML, CSS and Javascript files, so there’s just not much for a would-be hacker to work with.
This benefit of security isn’t something that can be understated. Many businesses hoping to run a low-cost, low-maintenance website have run into problems with spam and remotely-controlled botsas a result of using WordPress and traditional servers. Some of these bots can be prevented by using a firewall like Cloud flare or Imperva. But even though you can start out with a free plan, firewall services like these will eventually start costing you money. And even by adding this cost into your monthly website budget, you still won’t necessarily be immune from all hacking attempts.
Fancy, interactive and immersive website experiences are often driven by Javascript. Another benefit of Gatsby? It delivers all the right Javascript!
There are now some good examples of Gatsby even being leveraged for eCommerce websites. Based upon this and all the other factors we’ve discussed, you can see that when it comes to Gatsby, there are practically no limits on how you can choose to use the platform!
Bottom line? Gatsby can really be a perfect fit for businesses. Here’s a summary of some of the specific benefits you can derive by going with Gatsby:
Now that we’ve told you all this, you may still be scratching your head, wondering where to start. Not to worry! Don’t stress about it; let the pros at Cibirix help you get started!
Who is Cibirix? We’re an agency that exists to help businesses like yours to attract, engage, and retain customers through the creative use of digital technologies. Need a new website, or need to have your old website revamped? We’ve got you covered. Need help with digital marketing or branding? We can help you create digital campaigns to build brand awareness, target and qualify more leads, better engage your customers, and ultimately GROW your business! Whether you need web design, SEO, PPC, and social media marketing, or other content marketing, we can help provide real, measurable results!
Ready to help your business get seen, get heard, and really start GROWING? Reach out to us today!
Since founding Cibirix, Ashish has leveraged his marketing degree to lead the agency in crafting meaningful digital marketing experiences for clients. His results-driven approach is a unique mix of analytical thinking, crisp visual aesthetics and a desire to simplify frontends while developing robust architecture. With a passion for design, technology, & marketing, He leads each aspect of the agency’s business and oversees its talented team of digital professionals.