Making sense of web rendering patterns (SSR, CSR, static, islands)

In a PodRocket episode, Gil Fink, CEO of SparXis, discusses various web rendering patterns—server-side rendering (SSR), client-side rendering (CSR), static rendering, and islands/resumability—and emphasizes choosing the right approach based on the specific needs of each page. He points out that frameworks often obscure the tradeoffs involved, potentially leading to unexpected performance costs. The main idea is to deliver meaningful content and interactivity efficiently without incurring excessive server compute or complexity. SSR offers faster initial content delivery but increases server workload and costs, CSR suits interactive apps but can delay interactivity, static rendering is optimal for rarely changing content-heavy pages, and islands architecture is useful for integrating interactivity into mostly static pages. Gil advises evaluating each page's interactivity and change frequency and using frameworks that support multiple rendering modes to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach.