Ask HN: Which static site generator is your current favorite and why? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Which static site generator is your current favorite and why?

6 points12s12m5 comments

There are thousands of static site generators to pick from and it is very confusing for a beginner. Which static site generator is your current favorite and why?

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In the Stay Static showcase [1] I've built the same (static) website with pages, posts and datafiles in 10+ versions (e.g Jekyll • Middleman • Nanoc • Webgen • Metalsmith • Gatsby • Harp • Nikola • Hugo • Jigsaw [2]). I'd say pick the one with your favorite template language or scripting language. I'm a fan of Jekyll (thanks to GitHub Pages) and the kramdown markdown to markup converter. Easy to get started - no config needed, just a single README.md, for example. See my collection of Jekyll themes (starter sites) called Henry's Themses [3] incl. Hello, Pages! or Hello Jekyll! etc. Happy publishing. Stay static.

[1] http://staystatic.github.io [2] https://github.com/staystatic/staystatic [3] https://github.com/henrythemes

your showcase is an excellent idea!

the huge array of static-site generators today is amazing, as a demonstration of the creativity of developers, but it makes it difficult to sort out all of the contenders.

a head-to-head matchup, on the same material, is a fantastic way to make an informed decision to cut through the clutter.

Thanks for your kind words. Don't be afraid to build your own. With the magic of libraries or tools a build script for your use case might just be a couple of lines. A great real-world example is the Raspberry Pi documentation website build script [1]. Cheers.

[1] https://github.com/raspberrypi/documentation/blob/master/Rak...

I have been watching staystatic for a very long time :) Your commitment is really awesome.

Thanks for your kind words. Trying to add a new sample every other month. Pelican in Python upcoming in July (or August). Contributions always welcome. See the Sample Site Starter Kit [1]. [1] https://github.com/staystatic/staystatic-starter

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