What Is Server-Side Rendering (SSR) with a CMS?
IntermediateQuick Answer
TL;DR
Server-side rendering (SSR) generates each page on the server at the moment a visitor requests it. The server fetches the latest content from the CMS, renders it into HTML, and sends the complete page to the browser. Every visitor gets fully up-to-date content, and search engines receive pre-rendered HTML — good for SEO. The tradeoff: higher server costs and slower time to first byte (TTFB) compared to static approaches.
Key Takeaways
- SSR renders pages on-demand at request time, always serving the latest CMS content
- Pre-rendered HTML improves SEO compared to client-side rendering
- TTFB is slower than SSG/ISR because each request requires a server round-trip and CMS fetch
- Server costs scale with traffic — high-traffic sites need more compute than equivalent static sites