Netlify Explained

Netlify, Inc.
Former Name:MakerLoop, Inc.[1]
Key People:[2]
Products:Netlify platform
Revenue: (2023)
Area Served:Worldwide
Num Employees:244 (2023)

Netlify is a remote-first cloud computing company that offers a development platform that includes build, deploy, and serverless backend services for web applications and dynamic websites.[3] The company enables building, deploying, and scaling websites whose source files are stored in the version control system Git and then generated into static web content files[4] [5] served via a content delivery network.[6] [7] Netlify Functions are used in building dynamic websites with interactive features. The Netlify platform integrates with various plugins and application programming interfaces (APIs) to add extra features/functionality for web projects.[8]

History

The company was founded in 2014 when Danish entrepreneur Mathias Biilmann noticed the emergence of Git-centered workflows with modern build tools and static site generators, a shift he described as "a massive change happening in the web development space", while running Webpop, a content management startup based in San Francisco.[9] In 2015, Biilmann invited Christian Bach, his childhood friend who was working as an executive at a creative services agency in Denmark, to join him as co-founder in his new venture. In 2017, MakerLoop was rebranded as Netlify. Beyond the initial focus on hosting for static websites, and attracting many developers with a free basic offer, the company expanded to a broader offering including serverless functions and test and deployment services.[10] [11] On May 19, 2021, Netlify announced the acquisition of FeaturePeek, a Y Combinator and Matrix Partners backed startup that enables developer teams to preview frontend content.[12] On November 17, 2021, Netlify acquired Y Combinator and SignalFire-backed OneGraph to allow for the composition of apps with APIs and services using GraphQL.[13] On February 1, 2022, Netlify announced the acquisition of Quirrel, an open-source solution and service for managing and scheduling the execution of serverless functions and jobs.[14] Later in February, Netlify announced the acquisition of competitor company and Jamstack framework and platform provider Gatsby.[15]

On June 29, 2023, Netlify announced the acquisition of Stackbit, a visual editing company run by entrepreneurs like Ryland King.[16]

Financing

On August 16, 2016, Netlify raised $2.1 million from the founders of GitHub, Heroku, Rackspace Cloud, Bloomberg Beta and Tank Hill.[17] On August 9, 2017, the company announced that it had raised $12 million in series A funding from Andreessen Horowitz.[18] [19] [20] [21] On October 9, 2018, the company issued a press release announcing that it had completed a series B round led by Kleiner Perkins—with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Slack and Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield, Yelp CEO and co-founder Jeremy Stoppelman, among others—securing $30 million.[22] [23] On March 4, 2020, Netlify secured $53 million in a series C round led by EQT Ventures, the venture capital branch of Swedish investment company EQT, with contributions by existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, and newcomer Preston-Werner Ventures.[24] On November 17, 2021, Netlify secured $105 million in a series D round led by Bessemer Venture Partners at a $2 billion valuation, with contributions by existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, BOND, EQT Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Mango Capital, and Menlo Ventures.[25] This brought Netlify's total funding to $212 million.[26]

Capabilities

Connect and build web applications

Netlify combines a platform for apps that streamlines the workflow for a development team.[27] Netlify Build is a CI/CD infrastructure for frontend teams that is automated and pre-configured. It does not require a full-time administrator to manage the pipeline.[28] Netlify Graph is a GraphQL-based approach to integrating distinct APIs to build a web app that strives to reduce the inherent complexities in mixing different data models, response formats, and authentication schemes; it is integrated with a number of APIs such as GitHub, Stripe, and Salesforce.[29] Developers write, test, and review code before production with Netlify CLI. Within the CLI is Netlify Dev, which is a collection of development CLIs that brings the Netlify production environment down to a developer's local machine.[30] Deploy previews are used to view and leave feedback about a web project, with every annotation and comment synced to an organization's productivity tools. Netlify automatically builds a new Deploy Preview as a unique permanent URL for each Pull/Merge Request.[31]

Run web applications

Netlify Edge is a network used to power web experiences. It is fast due to its global distribution with automated prerendering. With Edge, apps are deployed to multiple cloud providers. Worldwide caches are invalidated instantly as every global deployment is an atomic and instant update.[32] Netlify's serverless capabilities include Netlify Functions, Background Functions, Scheduled Functions, and Edge Functions. Netlify Edge Functions allow developers to build fast web experiences by running dynamic content or an entire application from the network edge. Edge Functions are built on open source runtime Deno to work with server-side features from existing web frameworks and edge-first frameworks.[33] Working as API endpoints deploy server-side code that automatically runs in response to events or completes jobs in the background by coding functions with JavaScript, TypeScript, or Go. Netlify executes functions written as full API endpoints, or functions can be executed directly from the frontend through JavaScript, or they can be called from other services through webhooks.[34]

Ecosystem and Integrations

Netlify works with open source contributors, web framework authors, digital agencies, and technology vendors in the modern web ecosystem; developers pick and plug in the tools for their projects. Netlify is an Enabler member of the MACH Alliance, group of independent technology companies that aim to advocate for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems.[35]

Jamstack

See main article: Jamstack. Jamstack is a cloud-native web development architecture based on client-side JavaScript code, reusable APIs, and markup content.[36] It was pioneered and created by Netlify.[37] [38] In its purest form, the idea of Jamstack is that a web application is pre-built into static pages, using content and code to generate the output. In basic terms, Jamstack is a significant shift in focus from the now abstractable back end to the now-powerful front end.[39] Netlify is the host of the annual Jamstack Conf and runs the annual Jamstack Community Survey.[40]

Reception

In March 2017, Netlify CMS was named "GitHub project of the week" by the Software Development Times.[41] On July 10, 2018, GitHub founder and former CEO Tom Preston-Werner predicted that "within 5 years, you'll build your next large scale, fully featured web app with JAMstack and deploy on Netlify."[42] Netlify customers include Google, Facebook, Verizon, NBC, Samsung, Nike, Cisco, Atlassian, LiveChat, TriNet, Loblaw, Wieden+Kennedy, Vue.js, Citrix, Peloton, Kubernetes, Lodash, Smashing Magazine, Sequoia Capital, VMware,[26] UW Health, Pan Macmillan,[43] Victoria Beckham Beauty, Twilio,[44] and Unilever.[45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52]

References

Citations

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Business Entities Filing Document. February 26, 2018. Secretary of State of California. PDF. October 26, 2018. October 26, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181026222413/https://businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/Document/RetrievePDF?Id=03644845-23842441. dead.
  2. Web site: With netlify, website maintenance has gotten even better . HostAdvice . 6 April 2016.
  3. Web site: McKemie. Ashley. Rydhan. Sarfaraz. 2020-02-21. How to Build JAMstack Ecommerce Store - BigCommerce & Netlify. 2020-04-05. Netlify. en.
  4. Book: Working with Static Sites: Bringing the Power of Simplicity to Modern Sites. Camden. Raymond. Rinaldi. Brian. O'Reilly Media. 2017. 9781491960943. Sebastopol. 155, 177.
  5. Web site: Carey . Scott . Vercel, Netlify, and the new era of serverless PaaS . InfoWorld . en . February 21, 2022.
  6. Book: blogdown: Creating Websites with R Markdown. Xie. Yihui. Presmanes Hill. Alison. Thomas. Amber. CRC Press. 2017. 9780815363729. The R Series. Boca Raton. 79. Yihui Xie.
  7. Book: R Markdown: The Definitive Guide. Xie. Yihui. Allaire. Joseph J.. Grolemund. Garrett. CRC Press. 2018. 9781138359338. The R Series. Boca Raton. 207. Yihui Xie. Joseph J. Allaire.
  8. Web site: Vizard . Mike . Netlify Makes Build Plugins Available for Jamstack Platform . DevOps . May 27, 2020.
  9. Web site: Matt Biilmann, CEO and Co-Founder of Netlify . CodeSandbox . April 4, 2021.
  10. News: After attracting 800K web developers, Netlify wins $53M in funding . Silicon Angle . Maria . Deutscher . March 4, 2020.
  11. Web site: Smith. Craig S.. Have You Noticed The New Web? It's Faster, More Secure. 2021-05-11. Forbes. en.
  12. Web site: Banda . Manda . Netlify acquires FeaturePeek . Intelligent CIO Africa . June 4, 2021.
  13. Web site: Chauhan . Monika . Netlify Graph Helps Developers Connect APIs In Fewer Steps . TFiR . February 23, 2022.
  14. Web site: Chauhan . Monika . Netlify Acquires Quirrel To Shape The Next Wave Of Serverless . TFiR . February 1, 2022.
  15. Web site: MacManus . Richard . 2023-02-01 . Netlify Acquires Gatsby, Its Struggling Jamstack Competitor . 2023-05-25 . The New Stack . en-US.
  16. Web site: Netlify Acquires Stackbit to Provide Web Teams with a Full Set of Solutions Across Their Web Stack . 2024-06-15 . Netlify . en.
  17. News: Netlify, a service for quickly rolling out static websites, raises $2.1M. Lynley. Matthew. August 17, 2017. TechCrunch. October 9, 2018. en-US.
  18. News: A hot startup is using $12 million from Andreessen Horowitz to pursue a 'holy grail' of web technology. Weinberger. Matt. August 9, 2017. Business Insider. October 5, 2018.
  19. News: Netlify raises $12 million to advance web development. Hanley Frank. Blair. August 9, 2017. VentureBeat. October 5, 2018. en.
  20. News: Dansk it-firma har landet en investering fra et af verdens største ventureselskaber: "De forlanger pengene 100 gange igen". Wittorff. Jacob Ø.. August 25, 2017. Computerworld. October 10, 2018. da. Danish IT company lands investment from one of the world's largest venture companies: They expect a 100-times return.
  21. News: Netlify. Levine. Peter. August 9, 2017. Andreessen Horowitz. October 5, 2018. en-us.
  22. News: Netlify raises $30 million to modernize the web. Sawers. Paul. October 9, 2018. VentureBeat. October 9, 2018. en-US.
  23. News: Netlify just got $30 million to change the way developers build websites. Miller. Ron. October 9, 2018. TechCrunch. October 9, 2018. en-US.
  24. News: Netlify nabs $53M Series C as microservices approach to web development grows. Miller. Ron. March 4, 2020. en-us.
  25. News: Netlify Raises $105 Million In A Series D Round Led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Mirchevska. Sara. November 19, 2021. en-us.
  26. Web site: Wheatley . Mike . November 17, 2021 . With $105M in new funding, Jamstack creator Netlify buys GraphQL startup OneGraph . SiliconANGLE.
  27. Web site: Lewkowicz . Jakub . Netlify launches Enterprise Grid, availability on AWS Marketplace . . September 21, 2021.
  28. Web site: Vizard . Mike . Netlify Acquires OneGraph to Integrate GraphQL APIs . DevOps . November 18, 2021.
  29. Web site: De Simone . Sergio De Simone . Netlify Graph Aims to Simplify External API Integration in Web Apps . InfoQ . en . February 16, 2022.
  30. Web site: Chidiebere . Melvin . Top 10 Netlify CLI Commands . DEV Community . January 28, 2022.
  31. Web site: Netlify Brings Collaboration to Deploy Previews with FeaturePeek Acquisition . The New Stack . 27 May 2021.
  32. Web site: Yuan . Michael . WebAssembly Serverless Functions in Netlify . Wasm . en . August 10, 2021.
  33. Web site: Dee . Katie . Netlify announces Netlify Edge Functions . . April 19, 2022.
  34. Web site: Onyenma . Miracle . Build a Link Previewer with Puppeteer & Serverless Functions - SitePoint . en . November 29, 2021.
  35. Web site: Edwards . Roy . MACH Alliance continues growth with eight new members . Enterprise Times . March 2, 2022.
  36. Book: Gilbert, John. JavaScript Cloud Native Development Cookbook: Deliver serverless cloud-native solutions on AWS, Azure, and GCP. Packt Publishing. 2018. 9781788470414. Birmingham. 143, 148.
  37. News: The Sweetness of JAMstack: JavaScript, APIs and Markup. Gienow. Michelle. December 26, 2017. The New Stack. November 1, 2018. en-US.
  38. News: App Developer Netlify Looks Beyond Web Servers. Leopold. George. October 9, 2018. EnterpriseTech. November 1, 2018. en-US.
  39. Web site: Ouellet . Charles . JAMstack for Clients: Benefits, Static Site CMS, & Limitations . CodeBurst.io. October 23, 2017 .
  40. Web site: Xing . Jessica . The next big startup opportunity could be the 'Jamstack,' as hot firms like Netlify and Vercel help developers build websites faster . . September 13, 2021.
  41. News: SD Times GitHub project of the week: Netlify CMS. Moore. Madison. March 24, 2017. SD Times. October 25, 2018. en-US.
  42. 1016506622477135872. mojombo. Prediction: within 5 years, you’ll build your next large scale, fully featured web app with #JAMstack and deploy on @Netlify.. Tom Preston-Werner. Tom Preston-Werner. July 10, 2018. October 9, 2018.
  43. Web site: Boye . Janus . Pan Macmillan - Adventures with Gatsby, Kontent and Netlify . Boye & Company . November 19, 2020.
  44. Web site: Anderson . Tim . Netlify acquires OneGraph: One API to rule them all? . . en . November 19, 2021.
  45. Web site: D'Onofrio . Mary . Robinson . Elliott . Teng . Jenelle . Why Netlify is the architecture for the next generation of web development . BVP . en.
  46. Web site: Neumegen . Mike . Jamstack CMS: The Past, The Present and The Future . . en . August 20, 2021.
  47. News: Dansk startup får millionrygstød: Har Google og Facebook som kunder. Blædel. Mathias. August 11, 2017. Dagbladet Børsen. October 10, 2018. da. Danish startup gets a $1 million push: Has Google and Facebook as customers. October 10, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181010134925/https://borsen.dk/nyheder/virksomheder/artikel/1/349342/dansk_startup_faar_millionrygstoed_har_google_og_facebook_som_kunder.html. dead.
  48. This Company Wants to Make the Internet Load Faster. Finley. Klint. October 24, 2018. WIRED. October 25, 2018. en-US.
  49. News: Founders of Slack, Yelp join $30M round into web development startup Netlify. Deutscher. Maria. October 9, 2018. Silicon Angle. October 17, 2018. en-US.
  50. Web site: Netlify Application Delivery Network. Netlify. en. October 17, 2018.
  51. Web site: Plans and Pricing. Netlify. en. October 17, 2018.
  52. Web site: Netlify raises $53 mn Series C funding to fuel expansion. hrnxt.com. March 6, 2020 . en. April 17, 2020.

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