Static Vs Dynamic

fastn can be deployed in two main modes, static and dynamic.

Static Mode

To use static mode you run fastn build command, and this command creates a folder named .build in the fastn package root folder (which is the folder that contains FASTN.ftd file). This folder contains HTML, CSS, JS, and image files. This folder can be deployed on any static web server.

Static mode is a great idea for a lot of content heavy, and infrequently changing sites.

Static Hosting Is Cheaper

A lot of static hosting providers provide free hosting for static content. Static host means no dynamic computation, and so it is quite cheap to host.

You can checkout our guide on Github Pages and Vercel, two of the popular options available to you. Both offer free plans.

Static Hosting Is Harder To Hack

If you are using static hosting, lesser software is running on the server, and therefore it is harder to hack. Wordpress is a common alternative to build content heavy websites, and Wordpress is often hacked by bad players.

Static Sites Are Faster

Since static sites are rendered HTML, so the server can directly serve the HTML files, making it much faster to serve.

Dynamic Mode

Static mode is great, but sometimes you want dynamic features. Maybe you want to have authentication on your site. Or maybe you want to collect information from the visitors or show them up to date information.

To deploy your fastn website in dynamic mode you have to deploy the fastn binary itself. fastn can run on Linux, Windows and Mac so you have a lot of choices for where to deploy it.

Get Started with fastn: We provide a step-by-step guide to help you build your first fastn-powered website. You can also install fastn and learn to build UI Components using fastn.
Web Designing with fastn: Check out our design features to see how we can enhance your web development process.
Read the docs: Our docs is the go-to resource for mastering fastn. It provides valuable resources from in-depth explanations to best practices.
Frontend with fastn: fastn is a versatile and user-friendly solution for all your frontend development needs.