📦 Static, Dynamic, or Real-Time? When and How to Handle Data in Modern Web Apps

🔍 Understanding the Problem

You’ve updated your CMS content, but your site doesn’t reflect the changes unless you refresh — or worse, until you redeploy. This is totally normal for static sites, but not okay if your app needs to stay updated automatically or handle user-specific content.

Choosing the right data fetching strategy ensures your app works the way your users expect — without wasting time, money, or performance.

🧱 1. Static Site Generation (SSG)

🔹 What It Is

Pages are prebuilt at deploy time and served as static HTML.

✅ Use When:

• Your content doesn’t change often
• You prioritize fast load and SEO
• Examples: Blogs, documentation, marketing sites

🔧 How to Keep It Fresh:

• Trigger site rebuilds using webhooks (e.g., from Sanity CMS)

🔄 2. Client-Side Fetching (CSR)

🔹 What It Is

Your site loads first, then fetches data from the client using JavaScript.

✅ Use When:

• Content updates frequently
• Data depends on user input or filters
• Examples: Product filters, dashboards, listing pages

🌐 3. Server-Side Rendering (SSR)

🔹 What It Is

Pages are rendered on each request with the latest data.

✅ Use When:

• You need dynamic, personalized content
• SEO still matters
• Examples: User dashboards, account settings, dynamic searches

🔁 4. Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR)

🔹 What It Is

Like SSG, but allows pages to update automatically in the background or on demand.

✅ Use When:

• You want static performance + live updates
• You manage large, frequently updated content
• Examples: E-commerce product pages, frequently edited blogs

⚡ 5. Real-Time Updates

🔹 What It Is

The browser is updated instantly via WebSockets or subscriptions — no reloads needed.

✅ Use When:

• You need immediate updates without refresh
• Examples: Chat apps, live dashboards, game stats, notifications

🧩 Bonus: Edge Functions & Serverless Logic

🔹 What It Is

Dynamic logic that runs close to the user — often used for auth, personalization, or fast API calls.

✅ Use When:

• You need personalized experiences or geolocation
• Examples: Region-specific content, A/B testing, auth-protected pages
  

🧠 Final Thoughts — What to Use When

Static (SSG) + Webhook

✅ Best for: Simple, rarely-changing content
🌐 Example sites: Personal blogs, Documentation sites, Marketing pages, Portfolios

ISR (Background Revalidation)

✅ Best for: Fast pages that need periodic updates
🌐 Example sites: E‑commerce product catalogs, News sites, Job boards

SSR / Edge Functions

✅ Best for: Personalized or auth-protected content
🌐 Example sites: SaaS dashboards, User profiles, Admin panels

CSR / SSR

✅ Best for: Data-driven pages with interactive filters/search
🌐 Example sites: Real-estate listings, Data visualization dashboards, Directory sites

WebSockets / Real-Time Subscriptions

✅ Best for: Instant, push-based updates without reload
🌐 Example sites: Chat apps, Live sports scoreboards, Collaborative editing tools

💡 Tip: You don’t need to pick just one — most modern apps combine these. For example, a blog might be static, the dashboard SSR, and the chat real-time.

Let your content type and user experience guide your data strategy — not just the framework.