@phenomlab A couple comments…
Did you mean SSG, a.k.a. “Static Site Generator”? If so, I would not classify ghost as such since it is using nodejs and a backend database. Static sites are by definition stand alone. Static as in static HTML. More modern Web too oh, oh, oh! times they have extended to include various “interactive features”.
Yeah, PHP was big. But also was various java technologies being hosted on stuff like Tomcat and JBoss. Particularly in large enterprise environments. Another, with a bit of a different take, that I put to good use was Plone. Python and object oriented db, rather than relational. Ahead of it’s time. But like all software, had it’s warts and areas of compromise.
Ah… memory lane. Interesting to have lived in such interesting times, eh?