Frontend

Server-Side Rendering (SSR)

A technique where web pages are rendered on the server for each request, delivering fully formed HTML to the browser for faster initial load and better SEO.

Server-Side Rendering (SSR) generates the full HTML for a page on the server in response to each request. The browser receives a complete page that can be displayed immediately, without waiting for JavaScript to download and execute.

SSR improves perceived performance (users see content faster), SEO (search engines receive complete HTML), and social sharing (crawlers can read meta tags and content). After the initial HTML loads, JavaScript "hydrates" the page to make it interactive.

Modern SSR frameworks include Next.js (React), Nuxt (Vue), SvelteKit (Svelte), and Astro (multi-framework). These support hybrid rendering modes — some pages can be SSR, others static (SSG), and others client-side rendered (CSR).

Trade-offs include increased server load (every request requires rendering), higher Time to First Byte (TTFB) compared to static files, and hydration overhead. Streaming SSR (supported by React 18+) mitigates some of these by sending HTML in chunks as it's rendered.

Related Terms

Static Site Generation (SSG) Hydration

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