No Servers Required: Netlify Delivers Backend App and Website Services Through an All-In-One, Multicloud Platform

Netlify Delivers Backend App And Website Services

TL; DR: Netlify is an all-in-one platform that simplifies building and running apps and websites. Its cloud-native web architecture, Jamstack, declutters backend workflows, streamlines updates, and enables fast load times with tight security. Netlify is a trusted partner, and has helped developers build sites and apps for some of the world’s largest companies, including Google, Facebook, Verizon, Mailchimp, and Nike.

Matter Supply is a small website design group based in Portland, Oregon. Its talented team had designed plenty of web content for large firms, including Impossible Foods, maker of the Impossible Burger, and the company was accustomed to working with enterprise clients. But when Matter Supply landed a project with global apparel powerhouse Nike, it was a turning point for the business.

“Agencies don’t have a lot of people on their bench waiting for Nike to call them,” said Marc Ammann, Principal at Matter Supply. When the company earned the Nike contract, it knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Netlify logo

Netlify helps developers quickly build and deploy dynamic web content.

Marc and his team didn’t have time to worry about server speeds, load balancing, or dependencies. The team was too busy designing an international advertising campaign. So when it came time to build out the sites’ backend, Matter Supply needed to find a partner that could carry the traffic at the speed users expected.

Matter Supply turned to Netlify, an all-in-one serverless hosting and backend website and app service provider. It took just two Matter Supply developers to build all the pages for Nike using Netlify’s platform. Nike expected a total of 1 million visitors, but the campaign blew well past those estimates, averaging 200,000 hits a day.

Netlify launched in 2014 and now serves more than 1 million developers and businesses. Through its web architecture, Jamstack, developers can quickly build dynamic web content that pre-renders and serves fast.

“What helped launch Netlify is that everything is moving to the web, and development teams keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible,” said Robert Fenstermacher, Netlify VP of Product Marketing. “If you approached a product designer five years ago and said their main design tool would no longer be a dedicated desktop app, but would be a web app instead, they’d say, ‘Nope, that’s not going to happen.’”

Web apps dominate today’s landscape, and Netlify is at the forefront of helping businesses and users transition quickly and smoothly. Netlify has worked with some of the biggest companies in the world, including Google and Facebook, but keeps its products affordable and intuitive for even the smallest entrepreneurs.

From Git to Global Deployment

Web app and website development can get complicated with so many moving pieces and timelines, even with the latest software. The backend is on an entirely different timeline and platform than the frontend, so even basic updates can require a total system overhaul. That requires a lot of team communication and often stalled deadlines.

Now it’s possible to decouple the frontend presentation layer from the backend, where the backend is split into many different APIs and services.

“Back in the day, if you were building something like payment integration into your web experience or a subscription service, you’d have to integrate it server-side with the payment gateway and build a lot of that functionality from scratch,” Robert said. “But today, it’s so fast and easy. You pull in Stripe, and you’re good to go.”

Even with the advances in software, developers need to manage and keep track of the tools necessary to run a website, and Netlify cuts down on the clutter.

Screenshot of Netlify frontend and backend interface

Developers can seamlessly bring all of their components together through Netlify’s platform.

“There was still a lot that the developer needed to do to make these experiences happen. There’s still a lot of complicated infrastructure in place that needed to be configured just right — and it needed to be managed and maintained,” Robert said. “And everything needs to be designed for scale and security. That led to Netlify creating the infrastructure and workflow to handle all of this for development teams and remove the complexity.”

Netlify gives developers the power to build fast and beautiful websites and web apps without sacrificing dynamic content for speed. Now any company, regardless of size or budget, can go from Git straight to global deployment.

Web App Service with No Need for DevOps or Servers

One dynamic that has changed in 2020 is that many IT departments don’t share a common workspace. Many choose to work from home to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Enterprises are looking for cloud-hosted and serverless options when building their websites, but they also need to stay ahead of security threats while maintaining fast load times.

“Jamstack basically removes all of that internal infrastructure in the web server. The idea now is that you prebuild everything. The pages associated with that site are fully prerendered and then served directly from the network edge,” Robert said. “Any update to that web app or to that website is automatically pushed out and deployed, so it’s always instantly available and updated.”

That simplifies the process for developers because they no longer need to keep 100 different functions in mind when making changes. More importantly, all of Netlify’s products are cloud-hosted, so IT teams never need to maintain a physical server.

Screenshot of Netlify development process

Netlify simplifies the process of building websites, from coding to deployment.

“We have applied a frontend development workflow to build web infrastructure,” Robert said. “In the past, there were a ton of tools and processes that you have to manually stitch together to make all of this work. You had development servers in AWS, staging servers, automated build and testing environments, CI/CD pipeline, and lots more custom infrastructure. We support all of that in a single, serverless toolset, so it’s one connected workflow, end to end.”

There’s now no need for a large team of developers to work in tandem to ship products on preset timelines. Onsite teams also don’t need to build hardware to ensure security and speed. Everything can move faster using Jamstack and Netlify. Small product teams do not limit companies because the Netlify toolset allows more than 100 apps and processes to work seamlessly together.

Netlify Aims to Offer Higher Speeds at Affordable Prices

Companies partner with Netlify for their web hosting and backend solutions for many reasons. Central to Netlify’s growth model is that it combines fast development workflows with highly performant infrastructure, all at affordable prices.

“There are three main reasons why our customers come to us. The first is all-around site performance, specifically faster speed, security, and reliability. Ecommerce is concerned with site speed because it’s directly linked to conversions and revenue from the site,” Robert said.

Development efficiency is the second reason, according to Robert. Netlify clients can build features faster and in larger quantities and can iterate more quickly. Initially, Netlify focused on site performance, but efficiency has become just as critical as it has grown.

“One of the nice things about our platform is that as more developers adopt it, the network effect reduces the coordination overhead that’s required to build a site,” Robert said. “That’s why the third reason is all around cost savings. With Netlify, companies don’t just spend less on web infrastructure, but they also gain a ton of efficiency as development teams ship web projects faster.”

Robert and the Netlify team plan to continue innovating with their core values in mind: Building and maintaining websites doesn’t have to be complicated or costly. Developers and businesses can build fast, cost-effective websites and web apps and deliver products on time with Netlify’s comprehensive platform. Companies, including Google and Nike have chosen Netlify to make website-building fast, easy, and affordable — and small entrepreneurs can benefit, too.

Advertiser Disclosure

HostingAdvice.com is a free online resource that offers valuable content and comparison services to users. To keep this resource 100% free, we receive compensation from many of the offers listed on the site. Along with key review factors, this compensation may impact how and where products appear across the site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). HostingAdvice.com does not include the entire universe of available offers. Editorial opinions expressed on the site are strictly our own and are not provided, endorsed, or approved by advertisers.

Our Editorial Review Policy

Our site is committed to publishing independent, accurate content guided by strict editorial guidelines. Before articles and reviews are published on our site, they undergo a thorough review process performed by a team of independent editors and subject-matter experts to ensure the content’s accuracy, timeliness, and impartiality. Our editorial team is separate and independent of our site’s advertisers, and the opinions they express on our site are their own. To read more about our team members and their editorial backgrounds, please visit our site’s About page.