When we first wrote this post, the JAMstack ecosystem was still in its infancy.

That was +/- 5 years ago.

Back then, the Netlify founders came to us with a proposition. They had just come up with the term “JAMstack” to work around the negative connotation of “static web” and were asking if we would help to promote it.

“Yeah, sure” answered a very half-convinced, greener Snipcart team.

Boy, are we grateful today to have witnessed firsthand the rise of this now vibrant community.
It’s fair to say that we’ve played our part in this movement—crafting nearly fifty JAMstack-related blog posts & Github repositories with actionable, live demos.

The difference today is that this kind of content pops up everywhere! And don’t get me wrong, we’re all for it. It means the community is in good shape and growing stronger every year.

We plan to keep up providing valuable resources to new & seasoned JAMstack developers alike in 2020. It starts today with this update to our introduction post and what we think the year ahead has in store for devs.

I’ll cover:

1. What the JAMstack is
2. How to get started with it
3. How to sell the JAMstack to clients
4. What are the best resources to stay up-to-date
5. What the Snipcart team is expecting from the JAMstack in 2020

Ready to JAM?

1. What is the JAMstack?

1.1 Definitions

The JAMstack isn’t a specific set of tools, but a new, modern way of building websites & apps. Where does “J-A-M” come from, you may ask? From these three core concepts:

JavaScript: Any dynamic programming during the request/response cycle is handled by JavaScript, running entirely on the client.

APIs: All server-side functions or database actions are abstracted into reusable APIs, accessed over HTTPS with JS. Be it SaaS, third-party services or custom-built.

Markup: Templated markup should be prebuilt at build time, usually using a site generator for content sites, or a build tool for web apps.

Great. But what does it all mean in practice?

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