A practical checklist for deciding which architecture your site genuinely needs.
The static versus dynamic argument is usually settled by whoever is loudest rather than by what the site actually needs. A short checklist settles it faster.
How often does the content change, and who changes it
If content changes a few times a month and one person handles it, static is the better answer: faster, cheaper to host, and almost nothing to attack. If content changes daily, or a dozen people across departments need to publish without a developer, you need a database and an editing interface behind it.
Does the page differ per visitor
Pricing that depends on who is logged in, stock levels, a saved cart, a dashboard, a booking calendar with real availability. Any of these means dynamic. Personalisation is the clean dividing line, and no amount of clever build tooling removes it.
The middle ground is now the common answer
Modern sites are frequently both: marketing pages generated ahead of time and served from a cache, with a handful of genuinely dynamic routes for search, accounts and checkout. You get static speed where it matters for SEO and dynamic behaviour only where it earns its cost.
Decide per section, not per site. Pages that never change should never be rendered on demand, and pages that must be current should never be cached for a day.
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