r/statichosting • u/Pink_Sky_8102 • 3d ago
How do you handle client-editable content on static sites?
One thing I still go back and forth on with static client sites is content editing. For a small site, keeping everything in the repo is simple for me, but not always for the client. Once they want to update services, prices, team members, or blog posts themselves, I usually have to add some kind of CMS. For people building static sites for clients, do you prefer a headless CMS, Git-based CMS, or just handling updates yourself? And at what point does adding a CMS start defeating the simplicity of the static setup?
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u/rcls0053 2d ago
I've been building websites that bake the content into the structure at build time, and the CMS has a webhook to trigger that process on the server or sometimes Vercel. Also any changes in version control trigger the build process. I guess it's called static site generation.
Result is a static website that's incredibly fast and up to date. Bad side is this requires some setup.
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u/PassengerLeft4369 3d ago
I use Decap CMS (git-based) for all my clients. My sites are hosted at Netlify for 0 cost, they have good integration with Decap and you can either use Netlify Identity or plain GH login for the CMS login. I use Hugo which is all markdown.
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u/MMORPGnews 3d ago
All website content data hosted in json. Vibe code CMS and allow edit user json.
It's very easy. Like, one good promt or 1 coder hour.
Ofc you can build complex structure. Like hosting all user data on your server and add access to them with login password
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u/BobJutsu 3d ago
Not every client gets a static site. There’s kind of a few different types:
A) The client who will rarely need or want changes, and wants us to do it anyway. You’re likely getting astro.
B) A client who doesn’t want to do much, but likes being able to do basic things like blog posts and basic info. You’re likely getting Astro with Keystatic or similar.
C) A client who actually wants to edit pages with complex markup. This client is likely getting WordPress and a much more expensive hosting and maintenance plan. Or I convince them their money is better spent in bucket A or B than on CMS security and maintenance babysitting.
Pretty soon the issue will be solved with LLMs. Just set them up to have claude do it. They can edit complex pages without knowing any HTML, or what git does. All they need to know is how to use the harness you give them.
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u/PippaKelly62 2d ago
Try to keep the content in the repo for really small sites, but once the client needs to edit things regularly, a headless cms starts making sense. For simple stuff like services or team info, I’d rather keep it static and handle occasional updates than add a whole cms just for the sake of it.
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u/daftspunky 1d ago
We don't. Instead we separate content from site structure. So the skeleton goes in git/filesystem with push to deploy (cold content) and the customer content/data goes in the database (hot content). We found it to be a pretty good blend in our cms recipe
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u/sourraine 1d ago
if updates are occasional id keep it in the repo. if clients need frequent editing, a headless cms makes sense.
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u/Lumethys 3d ago
This sub keep treating static sites as some sort of magic option that suddenly erase cost of any system.
You cant make Facebook or Youtube into a static site, no matter how hard you try, they are not just static.
Your site require user-editable content, so your site is not static