Static APIs

As a backend engineer, I've always traditionally thought of API's as dynamic, server drive, database backed systems.

But that doesn't have to be the case.

When I started Dumbify, a minimalist Home Screen launcher for iPhone, I decided to create a static API instead.

But what does that mean?

Well, since the data that the API delivers rarely changes, I decided to serve it as a static flat JSON file.

This means no database upgrades, no servers to maintain, just a json file that I update from time to time.

And best of all, static hosting is typically free!