Analysis: Why you should use GatsbyJs and when not to use it

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Why you should consider using GatsbyJs? (compared to Frontity)

1. The Speed :+1:

but a good caching system is needed. Something that we still need to figure out (find good choices, easy ones and properly explain them). Right now it is solved with Vercel and it will be properly solved soon w/ embedded mode.

2. The Plugins :-1:

In Frontity this would the equivalent of packages. The backbone to create packages is done but we still need to:

  • properly explain packages philosophy
  • encourage people to create packages
  • create more packages ourselves

3. Starters & templates :-1:

Gatsby has a lot more starters and templates. We need to encourage people to create more templates and we need to find a better system to organize them and make it easy for people to find them and use them

4. The rise of the Jamstack :-1:

I think here we can explain better where is Frontity located regarding JamStack.

5. ReactJs based :+1:

Frontity apps are isomorphic
Gatsby apps are Static Generated sites
The code served to the user is similiar but Frontity one is generated in runtime and the Gatsby one is generated in build time

6. Ease of use with Markdown :-1:

Frontity is not meant to be used with Markdown

7. SEO :+1:

With proper architecture SEO is as good.(better?) as with a Static Generated Site (Gatby)

Why should you avoid Gatsby? (compared to Frontity)

1. Increasing build times :+1::+1:

Here Frontity offers a clear advantage over Gatsby

2. Completely Dynamic website :question:

I don’t fully understand this point as w/ Gatsby once the site is “hydrated” you should be able to make it as dynamic as you want (requests from different API’s, behaviours,…)

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@dev-team @documentation-team @Pablo @SantosGuillamot any thoughts on this?

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Maybe he means something like a SaaS where the app is behind of a login system and completely different for each user.

We thought about calling it dynamic JamStack vs static JamStack although I don’t know if you want to go ahead with that naming or not.

I think here we can say “how cool” is to work with a block editor like Gutenberg, for example.

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I’m still not sure about the term “Dynamic JamStack” because the JamStack seems to imply Static Generated Sites (as can be read from https://jamstack.org/).

But taking that meaning (Static Site Generation) aside, “Dynamic JAMStack” it’s a term that can be used to place Frontity in a specific place in the React ecosystem and help in the understanding of what Frontity is

I’d like we have more feedback from the community about this

I agree. I think we should explain in the docs the advantages of using WP + React for a project, and inside that explanation the advantages of using Gutenberg as an editor

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I gather a couple of answers from the community regarding the term JAMstack and Frontity on Twitter: