I tried to save money by deploying to AWS S3 instead of Vercel, but ended up with a broken site. I share the three nightmares of Static Export (Image Optimization, API Routes, Dynamic Routing) and how to fix them.
How to deploy without shutting down servers. Differences between Rolling, Canary, and Blue-Green. Deep dive into Database Rollback strategies, Online Schema Changes, AWS CodeDeploy integration, and Feature Toggles.
Solving server waste at dawn and crashes at lunch. Understanding Auto Scaling vs Serverless through 'Taxi Dispatch' and 'Pizza Delivery' analogies. Plus, cost-saving tips using Spot Instances.
Why your server isn't hacked. From 'Packet Filtering' checking ports/IPs to AWS Security Groups. Evolution of Firewalls.
Why would Netflix intentionally shut down its own production servers? Explore the philosophy of Chaos Engineering, the Simian Army, and detailed strategies like GameDays and Automating Chaos to build resilient distributed systems.
Yes! createContext and useContext work perfectly fine because they are client-side features. Static Export only removes the Server Runtime. Anything that runs in the browser works.
Since you don't have an API route to process the form, you need a 3rd party service.
next/image if I self-host?Yes, but you need to run npm run start (which needs a Node.js server).
If you are doing output: 'export' and serving just HTML/CSS/JS via Nginx or Apache, then NO. You must use an external loader or unoptimized: true.
Static Export is actually Great for SEO. Since all pages are pre-rendered as HTML files, Googlebot can crawl them easily without executing JavaScript. It's faster than Client-Side Rendering (CSR).
You must trigger a Rebuild and Redeploy. There is no ISR (Incremental Static Regeneration). If you fix a typo in the CMS, it won't show up until you run the build pipeline again.
If you are a solo developer or a small startup with zero budget, Yes. The cost savings of S3/CloudFront are massive compared to Vercel's Pro plan ($20/member). However, be prepared to implement your own CI/CD pipeline (GitHub Actions) and handle the limitations mentioned above. If your time is worth more than $20/month, just use Vercel or a similar managed service.