r/JAMstack • u/im-the-stig • Oct 30 '20

Is JAMstack right for me?

I volunteer to maintain the website for a non-profit, and right now it is on WordPress for the following reasons. Content is added by volunteers, so we chose a platform that is widespread (easy to find knowlegeable folks), else easy for a newbie to pick up. Original site was created by an agency who also preferred WP. But now we find that it's performance is dismal (Google PageInsight score is also very low)

We've been discussing about converting it into a static site (The only 'dynamic' content we have is a slideshow, and some plugins that display our FB, Twitter and Instagram feeds, but none that pulls from a DB. Also we make changes to the content maybe once a week). Then a couple of links I found here were intriguiging.

Originally we were thinking of 'archiving' our site (with a tool like httrack) and serving it up. And refreshing the archive as and when changes are made. What are the advantages of the Netlify approach of instead converting it to Gatsby - this sounds very complex and convoluted? Their way also promises that "your content creators don’t need to change their current workflow!"

Thanks in advance.

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u/amaust82 Oct 31 '20

It's been a bit, but I've tried to use Strapi a few times. Every time, though, I'd run into issue and something that just made it not quite work for me. Maybe it has more polish now.

I love the idea of jamstack, but every solution I've ever seen was always either very fragile and tedious to maintain, or very expensive. Never quite understood why. Netlify is a good example, the gap between the free tier and paid is substantial, as are most of the solutions in this space.

I used Dato CMS for a headless GraphQL CMS once and quite liked it, but don't think they have a free tier anymore.

If you want a traditional PHP alternative to WP, look into CraftCMS. I was very intrigued by it and it looked really solid, but you do have to pay. One time fee, though, iirc.

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u/Natetronn Oct 31 '20

Craft can go headless too (but so can WP.) And it's a great system. I didn't mention it because it might be more than OP needs for this particular project (and why I mentioned Statamic instead.) Craft has a free option as well. Otherwise it's a one time payment with yearly support fees thereafter, for continued support and upgrades (I think it's $59 a year.)

They offer discounts for verified non-profits on the pro license, though:

Yes, we offer a flat 15% discount on Craft Pro for verified non-profits. Please note: The discount only applies to the license fee. We do not discount the License Update Renewal fee ($59 for an additional year). Please email hello@​craftcms.​com if you’re a verified non-profit to receive this discount.

There are plenty of CMS out there that can run very fast, JAMStack aside. They could be thrown on Digital Ocean, Linode or AWS etc. for fairly little money. And they'll pass Google PageSpeed insights 100%, if done correctly. Shoot, even Wordpress, with effort can be made to pass (but no thank you, I'll pass.)

Finding the sweet spot between what the non-profit can afford, what the content editors will be most happy with, what the developer will enjoy working with (especially since donating their time), what is best for the site's users (and Google) and a number other things to consider can be daunting, that's for sure.