Redefining Modern Ebook Production with Classic-Web Technology

How Standard Ebooks serves millions of requests per month with a 2GB VPS; or, a paean to the classic web 🔗

Standard Ebooks is a project that creates modern ebooks from public domain literature using a detailed style manual. The project serves millions of requests per month with a 2GB VPS, demonstrating how inexpensive classic-web technology can handle significant traffic without relying on modern technological crutches. The website runs on a classic LAP stack without a traditional database, utilizing PHP for its familiarity, speed, and simplicity. The server handles everything without falling over, serving web requests, dynamic content without a database, and building ebooks with a small file-based templating system. The project eschews the use of JavaScript, cloud services, and complex back-end frameworks, emphasizing simplicity, speed, accessibility, and maintainability. The deployment is easy, and the server primarily serves static files on a filesystem. This approach challenges the notion that modern websites require bloated technology and expensive cloud instances, showcasing the effectiveness of classic-web techniques.