Netlify
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
Netlify is like Vercel's cooler older sibling that was doing the automatic-deploy-from-GitHub thing before it was cool. You push code, it builds and deploys your site in seconds. It also does forms, auth, and functions without you needing to touch a real server.
Real Talk
Netlify is a cloud platform for web hosting and serverless backend services. It offers continuous deployment from Git, a global CDN, serverless functions, edge functions, form handling, identity/auth, and split testing. Particularly popular with JAMstack and static site workflows.
Show Me The Code
# netlify.toml — project config
[build]
command = "npm run build"
publish = "dist"
[[redirects]]
from = "/*"
to = "/index.html"
status = 200
When You'll Hear This
"The Netlify build failed because of a missing env variable." / "We use Netlify Forms so we don't need a backend for the contact page."
Related Terms
CDN (Content Delivery Network)
A CDN is a network of servers spread around the world that store copies of your files.
Edge Function
Edge functions run your code at the CDN edge — meaning close to the user, not in some faraway data center.
JAMstack
JAMstack stands for JavaScript, APIs, Markup.
Serverless
Serverless doesn't mean there are no servers — it means YOU don't have to think about servers. Someone else manages them, scales them, and patches them.
Static Hosting
Static hosting is when you serve pre-built HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files directly — no server-side logic, no database queries per request.
Vercel
Vercel is the magic platform that takes your frontend code and puts it on the internet in like 30 seconds.