ASK: which noDB blogging framework should I use? | Hacker News Reader

ASK: which noDB blogging framework should I use?

3 pointscamillomiller6 comments

I'm planning on starting a new personal blog that would become a hub of my projects and interests. I work with wordpress everyday and I know that's not the over-stuffed platform I want to use. I'd like something that I can style quickly (as a part-time Web Designer I'm well versed in HTML&CSS and some php/js) while learning maybe some new trick at the same time. I was thinking of Ghost. It looks very promising, but I suspect it's still too much of a deal for what I'd like to do. Plus, node.js compatible hosting looks expensive for my purposes and I simply can't install it on my plain Dreamhost hosting account. Jekyll looks great, but I still have to understand if it make sense to use it when not coupled with GitHub pages. Kirby looks good, but I know almost nothing about it. I'm sure there's a lot more out there I don't know about. I'd really like to hear your suggestions and personal experiences. It will be great if you can link some demo sites for the platforms you'll be mentioning.

Jekyll has been absolutely fantastic for me. Also, hosting is free (or $7/mo if you'd like to keep the source private) via Github Pages. If you're not using GH pages, it still works just fine: simply build the site, and push the _site/ directory to your hosting provider.

After trying Jekyll I decided to move on, this lead me to http://hugo.spf13.com/ which had the benefit of higer speed of generation as well as a more logical file structure. I also have the benefit of being a single binary install making it very portable.

I made a short performance comparison of Jekyll, hugo and wintersmith: http://internaldeployment.se/post/2014-08-12-Jekyll-and-its-...

A few months ago I created: http://itsy-bitsy.org/ because I was frustrated with just how many dependencies static site generators needed - I was using Hakyll at the time and it had failed to build on my new netbook - so I wrote it to take the templates and markdown I had from Hakyll and combine them.

It boils down to a 10 line Bash script and the Markdown.pl script.

It is very very basic, but I have used it to back a blog and various other content sites.

I will vouch for Jekyll as well. It works fine not as part of Github pages, just sync your local jekyll output with your FTP even on something as plain as Dreamhost.

I personally use github pages for now, to archive my writing:

http://keerthik.github.com

If you are into node.js also see http://www.wintersmith.io and http://www.metalsmith.io/ for static page generation

Take a look at this: http://www.staticgen.com/

> node.js compatible hosting looks expensive for my purposes

DigitalOcean offers node.js-ready VPS for $5/month

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