Before modern web technologies stepped in, websites worked in a very straightforward way. When you opened a page, your browser sent a request to a server. The server prepared the full page on the spot and sent it back. This meant the server was doing most of the work every single time someone visited a page. It worked fine for smaller websites, but as traffic grew, this approach often became slow and placed a lot of pressure on the server.
Over time, new techniques were introduced to make websites faster, more scalable and more user friendly. These techniques changed how pages are created and delivered. Four of the most common approaches today are SSG, ISR, SSR and CSR. Let’s look at each one in simple words.
1. Static Site Generation (SSG)
Think of SSG like printing a book. Once the pages are printed, they don’t change unless you decide to print them again.
With SSG, the website pages are created ahead of time. When someone visits the site, they quickly receive a ready made page. This makes it extremely fast and stable because almost no work is needed when the user requests the page.
Best for: blogs, documentation and pages that rarely change.
2. Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR)
ISR is like SSG with a small upgrade. Imagine you printed a book but allowed certain pages to automatically reprint themselves when they get too old.
With ISR, pages are still generated ahead of time, but you can tell the system to quietly refresh them in the background after a certain period. This gives you the speed of SSG with the flexibility to keep content up to date.
Best for: sites with content that changes occasionally, like news sections or product listings.
3. Server Side Rendering (SSR)
SSR works more like a restaurant that cooks your meal only when you order it. Each time someone visits a page, the server prepares the page on the spot and sends it back.
This is helpful when the content is different for every user, such as dashboards or personalised pages. It may not be as fast as SSG because the server must work each time, but it ensures the content is always fresh.
Best for: personalised content, user dashboards and dynamic pages.
4. Client Side Rendering (CSR)
CSR is different from the others. Instead of preparing the page on the server, the browser does most of the work. When the user visits the website, they first get a basic page. After that, JavaScript loads the rest of the content on the user’s device.
A simple example is when you open Facebook and it loads more posts as you scroll. CSR can feel very smooth inside the app, but the first page load might be slower because the browser needs to load and run JavaScript before showing the content.
Best for: web apps, interactive dashboards and applications that behave like mobile apps.
Why these methods matter
These techniques were introduced to solve the main problems that traditional websites had: slow loading, heavy server usage and poor user experience under high traffic.
Now we can choose the best method depending on the type of page. The result is faster websites, reduced hosting costs and a smoother experience for users.