Static web pages

Overview

A static web page (sometimes called a flat page or a stationary page) is a web page that is delivered to the user’s web browser exactly as stored, in contrast to dynamic web pages which are generated by a web application.

Consequently, a static web page displays the same information for all users, from all contexts, subject to modern capabilities of a web server to negotiate content-type or language of the document where such versions are available and the server”) is configured to do so.

Static web pages are often HTML documents stored as files in the file system and made available by the web server over HTTP (nevertheless URLs ending with “.html” are not always static). However, loose interpretations of the term could include web pages stored in a database, and could even include pages formatted using a template and served through an application server, as long as the page served is unchanging and presented essentially as stored.

Static web pages are suitable for the contents that never or rarely need to be updated, though modern static site generators are changing. Maintaining large numbers of static pages as files can be impractical without automated tools, such as Static site generators described in Web template system. Another way for manage static pages include Online compiled source code playgrounds, e.g. GatsbyJS”) and GitHub may be utilized for migrating a WordPress site into statics web pages. Any personalization or interactivity has to run client-side, which is restricting.

Advantages of a static website

• Provide improved security over dynamic websites (dynamic websites are at risk to web shell attacks if a vulnerability is present)
• Improved performance for end users compared to dynamic websites
• Fewer or no dependencies on systems such as databases or other application servers
• Cost savings from utilizing cloud storage, as opposed to a hosted environment

Disadvantages of a static website

• Dynamic functionality has to be added separately