What is SSG (Static Site Generation)?

What is SSG?

SSG (Static Site Generation) means page HTML is generated ahead of time during the publishing process, not created on each user request. Content can come from Markdown, a CMS, or data files; the build tool outputs ready HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files for each URL.

With this approach, the server does not query a database and render a page for every visit. Files can be served directly from static hosting or a CDN. That makes SSG a strong fit for corporate websites, documentation, blogs, campaign pages, and product catalogs that are read often but changed less frequently.

Difference from SSR

SSR renders the page on the server at request time; SSG prepares the page before deployment. If stock, prices, or user-specific dashboard data changes constantly, SSG alone may not be enough. A static page can still call an API, use revalidation, or be combined with hybrid rendering.

Tools such as Astro make SSG a natural default: content pages load quickly, caching is straightforward, and the runtime attack surface is smaller. The main operational concern is making rebuild and deployment reliable whenever content changes.