Rendering dynamic HTML dropdown client-side VS server-side? : I always find it difficult to decide if I should render my HTML server-side or client-side.

Let's say I want to render a dynamic HTML dropdown with following requirements:

 - Shows records from a database table at page load
 - Must stay up-to-date (users can add/remove records from the database table using the website)

I can't decide between

    1.1 Render template with empty drop down server-side
    1.2 Populate dropdown client-side using ajax requests (JSON)
    1.3 Update dropdown client-side using ajax requests (JSON)

    Concern:
    Rendering empty elements before populating feels ugly to me

AND

    2.1 Render populated dropdown server-side
    2.2 Update dropdown client-side using ajax requests (JSON)

    Concern:
    Why would you render server-side if you are still updating it client-side?

What solution is more commonly used in web development? Feel free to share different approaches...


