Glossary
Static site generator
A static site generator is a tool that pre-builds every page of a website at build time into static HTML/CSS/JS files, served directly from a CDN.
Static site generators (Next.js, Astro, Hugo, Eleventy, Gatsby, Jekyll) take input — markdown, MDX, data files, or templates — and produce a directory of static HTML/CSS/JS files. Those files are served from a CDN, which makes pages fast and resilient.
Modern static site generators support hybrid rendering — most pages are static, but specific routes can run server logic on demand (ISR, SSR, edge functions).
Example
A Next.js-built marketing site with 200 pages can be pre-rendered to static HTML at build time and served from a CDN for sub-second LCP globally.