Item: Netlify Platform
Rating: 9
Author: Lankit Patel

Overall Satisfaction with Netlify Platform

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

we have two types of business scenarios that we run on Netlify Platford. Frontend with modern javascript frameworks like React, Vue & Angular Statically generated sites/portfolio AKA JamStack for the first case, we already have our backend code running on a server and exposing API endpoints. we can readily use this API with basic AUTH like JWT, Netlify Platform can handle the rest. more often than not, once we set up a project on Netlify Platform, we never have to check out the admin panel. Netlify Platform has a robust CMD tool. once the Pipeline setup is live, all one has to do is just commit and push the code. that's how easy it is the second scenario is to host statically generated Jamstack sites. these are basically pre-rendered websites that provide blazingly fast response time. once again, the same magic happens here, you focus on your code and just push it, Netlify Platform with its global range of CDN will distribute it for optimal speed.

Pros and Cons

Pros

command line tool
fast network of global CDNs
CI/CD ready to deploy

Cons

it is not aimed at it but first party laravel support would be nice.
their free tier was so handy, i wish they start some similar efforts
incorporate more WebOps mindset

Most Important Features

command line tools
CI/CD
Global CDN to speed up static sites

Return on Investment

as of starting it had a free tier, it gave a lot of sandbox experience which is hard to quantify in amount
business heavy application should avoid it as more promising options are there
we saved much resources that couldve been potentially occupied in some static sites

Alternatives Considered

Pantheon

Pantheon is WebOps oriented platform. it can basically be described as a super-set of Netlify Platform. it has incorporated many aspects of web development and efficiently brings them under a single umbrella. to do so also requires a similar level of effort and economic value. as a small startup, it may not be practical. Netlify Platform here, saves the day as being the lite version of it and tests things on the start-up level, once site scales, you can move to other platforms

Key Insights

Do you think Netlify Platform delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Netlify Platform's feature set?

Yes

Did Netlify Platform live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Netlify Platform go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Netlify Platform again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Pantheon, Laravel PHP Framework, Zend Studio PHP IDE

Likelihood to Recommend

Ideal scenario: let's say you have a portfolio site, you've built it using a modern javascript framework like Next.js. this inherently operates on the Jamstack philosophy. essentially it maps the whole possible outcome of web clicks and prerenders the website. this yields blazingly fast websites. it can also be used to create such blogs. Less ideal scenario: let's say you have some compute-heavy task or some enterprise application with lots of moving parts. Netlify Platform shouldn't be an ideal choice then, it may handle some complex blog and content management sites but its plays to its perks as most of them are static sites. enterprise applications are highly dynamic. thus renders Netlify Platform not a worthy contender.

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