What is a static site generator?
A static site generator is a tool that generates a full static HTML website based on raw data and a set of templates. Essentially, a static site generator automates the task of coding individual HTML pages and gets those pages ready to serve to users ahead of time. Because these HTML pages are pre-built, they can load very quickly in users' browsers.
Static site generators are an alternative to content management systems (CMS) — another type of tool for managing web content, generating webpages, and implementing templates. (A template is a reusable format for web content; developers use templates to avoid writing the same formatting over and over.) Static site generators are typically part of a JAMstack web development approach.
1. Jekyll
2. Hugo
3. Hexo
4. Gatsby
5. VuePress
6. Nuxt.js
7. Docusaurus
8. Eleventy
9. Publii
10. Primo
1. What is Jekyll?
Think of Jekyll as a file-based CMS, without all the complexity. Jekyll takes your content, renders Markdown and Liquid templates, and spits out a complete, static website ready to be served by Apache, Nginx or another web server. Jekyll is the engine behind GitHub Pages, which you can use to host sites right from your GitHub repositories.
2. What is Hugo?
Hugo is a static site generator written in Go. It is optimized for speed, easy use and configurability. Hugo takes a directory with content and templates and renders them into a full html website. Hugo makes use of markdown files with front matter for meta data.
3. What is Hexo?
Hexo is a fast, simple and powerful blog framework. It parses your posts with Markdown or other render engine and generates static files with the beautiful theme. All of these just take seconds.
Hexo is a tool in the Static Site Generators category of a tech stack.
Hexo is an open source tool with
35.6K GitHub stars and
4.4K GitHub forks. Here’s a link to Hexo's open source repository on
GitHub
4. What is Gatsby?
Gatsby lets you build blazing fast sites with your data, whatever the source. Liberate your sites from legacy CMSs and fly into the future.
Gatsby is a tool in the Static Site Generators category of a tech stack.
Gatsby is an open source tool with
53.7K GitHub stars and
10.5K GitHub forks. Here’s a link to Gatsby's open source repository on
GitHub
5. What is VuePress?
A minimalistic static site generator with a Vue-powered theming system, and a default theme optimized for writing technical documentation. It was created to support the documentation needs of Vue's own sub projects.
6. What is Nuxt.js?
Nuxt.js presets all the configuration needed to make your development of a Vue.js application enjoyable. You can use Nuxt.js for SSR, SPA, Static Generated, PWA and more.
Nuxt.js is a tool in the Front-End Frameworks category of a tech stack.
7. What is Docusaurus?
Docusaurus is a project for easily building, deploying, and maintaining open source project websites.
Docusaurus is a tool in the Documentation as a Service & Tools category of a tech stack.
Docusaurus is an open source tool with
39.3K GitHub stars and
5.9K GitHub forks. Here’s a link to Docusaurus's open source repository on
GitHub
8. What is Eleventy?
Eleventy (also called 11ty) is a simple yet powerful static site generator. It uses JavaScript to transform data and templates into HTML pages. It's beginner-friendly, has fast build times, and generates fast sites by default. It also has a very active and friendly community.
9. What is Publii?
Free, Open-Source Static Website CMS for Windows and MacOS
Publii is a tool in the Self-Hosted Blogging / CMS category of a tech stack.
10. What is Primo?
It is an all-in-one IDE, CMS, component library, and static site generator. Build sites faster, add and manage content more easily, create an actual, usable component library, and publish a fast, secure, cheaply-hosted static site. For free, forever.
Primo is a tool in the Static Web Hosting category of a tech stack.