What is Gatsby JS?
Learn about Gatsby, a platform to build websites that decouples visual presentation from content management systems using React and the content mesh.
Gatsby describes itself as "a platform to build websites" — a React-based framework that pulls content from wherever it lives (CMSs, Shopify, social APIs) and renders it as a single site. Gatsby calls this the content mesh.
Cloud-first by default
Instead of leaning on one CMS to do everything, a Gatsby site typically composes specialist services — Algolia for search, Shopify for ecommerce, whatever's best for the job. It's closer to how you'd bolt on Google Analytics than how you'd extend WordPress with plugins. The trade-off is cost: tier pricing across several services adds up.
React underneath
Gatsby is a React framework with scaffolding, a dev environment, and a pile of performance optimisations on top. Anything you can do in React, you can do in Gatsby.
Static, then interactive
Gatsby builds static pages that deploy to AWS, Google Cloud, or Netlify — and regularly hit 100% Lighthouse scores. On load, the page rehydrates into a live React app, so you get static performance with full interactivity. That's the split from Hugo or Jekyll.
The build-time problem
Large sites take a long time to build, which slows down previews and publishing. Gatsby's paid tier addresses this:
- Gatsby Preview — live editing previews across supported CMSs
- Gatsby Build — hosted incremental builds
More at gatsbyjs.org.
Sources
Andrew is Technical Director at Mutual, a Craft CMS Partner agency. He has been building with Craft CMS since its public beta in 2012 — working through every major version from Craft 1 to Craft 5 — and has delivered over 100 sites for clients including Apple, Transparency International, and Arts University Bournemouth.
He writes about Craft CMS on the Mutual blog and has contributed to net Magazine. At Mutual, he leads development of Mutual One, a marketing platform built on Craft CMS as its foundation.
He has spoken about Craft CMS to undergraduate students at the University of Brighton and Canterbury Christ Church University, and appeared on the Devmode.fm podcast. He has also trained development teams at other agencies in working with the platform.
