The website you are currently viewing is developed with the Gatsby framework. This framework focuses on optimizing the performance of the resources that make up a web page, applying advanced techniques for image rendering and cache management.

Gatsby is a framework that generates static sites. This means that, in principle, you could not use it if you want to present dynamic content. However, there are solutions to create a Gatsby site connected to a dynamic system, such as a CMS. Let me explain how this works in my own words.

When developing a site with Gatsby, you must connect the framework to the dynamic system you prefer. This site, for example, uses WordPress, where I write my posts. When performing the build for publication, Gatsby reads the posts or information I want to extract from WordPress and saves it in the cache. Therefore, in production, Gatsby reads the information from my posts from its own memory, without making requests to my WordPress.

WordPress configuration in gatsby-config.js

Getting data from WP Post

Taking this into account, it is possible to create ‘dynamic’ sites with Gatsby. However, to connect the site to the dynamic system you use, you must ‘notify’ Gatsby that you have made a change in your system and, therefore, Gatsby will have to rebuild the project to obtain the updated information from the CMS.

Advantages:

• Develops highly optimized websites.
• It is SEO-friendly.
• It is based on React (which makes learning easier if you already have knowledge of React).
• It has a vast ecosystem of plugins that solve various needs.

Disadvantages:

• It is focused on static sites.
• Although dynamic systems can be connected, real-time information synchronization is not easy.
• You require a certain level of manipulation of the dynamic platform you use.
• Job demand is not as high as that of other frameworks such as Angular or React.

Conclusion:

I would use Gatsby on sites that require extreme optimization, considering its limitations. For example, I would use it as a WordPress theme (it would be relatively easy to create a Gatsby-based theme) as long as the site does not have too much dynamic information and does not require constant external requests.