WordPress a Content Management System and Gatsby the Static Site Generator are two different approaches for website development. On one side there is a monolithic approach of website development and on the other, there is the static site being available. The two different approaches is a very interesting combination in Jamstack technology where the front and back-end makes perfect sense.  Besides, we recommend a plugin that is used by WordPress.

Gatsby being Static site generator can take data from any source and when the WordPress is being used as headless CMS having APIs like GraphQL it becomes the perfect pair. Gatsby has some good plugins to source data from the CMS like WordPress.  Jamstack websites come up with latest techniques, designs and modern technology where they benefit the businesses in several ways. Many people have confusion over the through combination and detachment of the two ends.

  • Some developers find pleasure in developing on WordPress again because of using it as a database centre.
  • A WordPress website that is being hosted on Netlify with some appealing features is a dream come true.
  • Some pages can be made static with others can be loaded dynamically through Gatsby and headless WordPress.
  • The plugin that is used by WordPress for managing the connection in terms of APIs is GraphQL, which is a Gatsby friendly plugin. Some developers also believe that there will be alternative methods of connecting them in the same efficient manner and Rest APIs will trigger the connection
  • The Website content needs to be pushed on a platform like GitHub and bitbucket which is a code generator and the SSGs read the code in terms of HTML files. But the user may not necessarily know the development techniques, languages and other skills to do the needful.
  • Building a website on Jamstack would be another big story where you will be using a complete package of WordPress, Gatsby, APIs and the hosting and other installations.
  • Some platforms offering build0in and no-code solutions are the perfect marketplace for non-developers and on the other hand, the developers and the tech freaks would dig things out to learn more about the technology.

The Jamstack websites are not a seasonal treat that will vanish in the air after some time, it is here to stay with its benefits that are removing the drawbacks of the other website and application development architectures to a greater extent. The front-end and the back-end being separated making the website based on microservices is the latest architecture for development that is for ease of the designing, development and marketing teams as well. All the benefits come together to make a website and technology a big success. Things work only if people are working on making improvements.

Some drawbacks of headless WordPress.

Of course, there is nothing that is perfect technology with all solutions in one place. There are several places where headless WordPress is not appropriate to use e.g. if you have users unfamiliar with coding and you have to update on a daily basis on your site for this you must have a worker fluent in JavaScript to maintain it because headless WordPress removes the front end.

It is not much beneficial on a smaller scale and cost consuming especially if you don’t have a web development team in place.

How to set up WordPress?

 It is more than simple. Follow the steps below.

  1. You have to install the WP installation and set it up.
  2. No need for themes. You can use a blank theme if you want.
  3. Allow Rest API access if you use security plugins. In the case of advanced custom fields, use the act to rest API plugin.
  4. That’s all for WordPress.