Static Site Generators

Eleventy is a JavaScript-based static site generator designed to transform templates, data files, and markdown into optimized HTML. It functions as a versatile template rendering engine and content management framework, allowing developers to aggregate data from diverse sources—including local files, databases, and external APIs—to populate structured web content. The project is distinguished by its template-engine-agnostic pipeline, which decouples the build process from specific rendering languages. This allows users to integrate multiple template formats, such as Liquid, Nunjucks, Handlebars, or EJS, within a single project. Its architecture relies on a data cascade that merges global settings, directory-specific configurations, and front matter into a unified context, providing a flexible foundation for complex site structures. Beyond core generation, the system includes a robust set of automation tools for managing the build lifecycle, including incremental builds, file watching, and programmatic execution. It supports advanced content workflows through features like automated pagination, internationalization, and component-based asset bundling. The platform is highly extensible, enabling users to hook into the build process via plugins to perform custom transformations, image optimization, or syntax highlighting. The project provides comprehensive documentation and supports configuration through modular files or TypeScript, facilitating consistent environments across different development setups.

Hugo is a high-performance static site generator that transforms source content and templates into optimized web assets. Built with a focus on speed and scalability, it provides a comprehensive framework for managing large-scale documentation and editorial projects through structured content organization, taxonomies, and a flexible template-driven rendering engine. The project distinguishes itself through a sophisticated build system that utilizes incremental caching to minimize redundant processing during site updates. It supports complex content requirements by enabling multidimensional modeling, which allows for the generation of diverse page variations from a single source, and multi-format output rendering that can produce HTML, JSON, RSS, or CSV simultaneously. Authors can extend their content using a modular shortcode system, while the integrated asset pipeline handles the transformation, minification, and optimization of images and stylesheets directly within the build lifecycle. Beyond its core generation capabilities, Hugo offers a robust command-line interface for managing the entire project lifecycle, including real-time development previews and automated deployment workflows. The system also features a modular dependency architecture, allowing users to import and version shared themes, layouts, and configuration components to maintain consistent design systems across multiple projects.

Jekyll is a static site generator that transforms plain text files and markup into complete, deployable websites. It functions as a content management engine and blog-aware publishing platform, orchestrating a multi-stage build process that organizes structured data and source files into a consistent site architecture. The platform distinguishes itself through a specialized processing pipeline that automatically generates chronological archives, category indexes, and RSS feeds from collections of dated text files. It utilizes a template engine to inject dynamic content into layouts and supports incremental builds by tracking file relationships to selectively recompile only modified portions of a site. Developers can further extend the build lifecycle through a modular plugin system that allows for custom logic and data manipulation. The system supports content-driven workflows by parsing metadata blocks from source files to define page-specific variables and layout inheritance. It handles the conversion of lightweight markup into standard web documents, facilitating the creation of organized documentation portals and blogs managed directly through version control.

Hexo is a command-line static site generator designed for content-driven blogging and website creation. It functions as a structured framework that transforms plain text files and markdown into production-ready static websites, utilizing a template-based rendering engine to separate site content from visual presentation. The project is distinguished by its event-driven build pipeline, which manages the entire site lifecycle through a series of hooks for file processing, asset generation, and deployment. Developers can extend the system’s core capabilities through a modular plugin architecture, allowing for custom rendering engines and specialized site-wide functionality. The platform also provides a local development server for real-time previewing and file change monitoring to ensure efficient build performance during the authoring process. Beyond its core generation capabilities, the system includes comprehensive tools for managing site metadata, URL structures, and content organization through front-matter configuration. It supports complex asset management, including post-specific folders and automated path resolution, alongside a suite of tag plugins for injecting dynamic elements like code blocks and media directly into content. The platform also features built-in deployment automation, enabling direct synchronization of generated files to various remote hosting environments and cloud platforms. Hexo is installed and managed via command-line utilities, with documentation and configuration centered around a project-based directory structure.

Pelican is a Python-based static site generator that converts Markdown and reStructuredText files into static HTML websites. It functions as a blog and page orchestrator, managing chronological posts and independent static pages while providing built-in support for RSS and Atom feed generation. The system is designed as a plugin-based web framework, allowing for the addition of custom functionality through a community-driven plugin architecture. It also includes capabilities for producing localized versions of articles and pages to support multilingual content delivery. The tool covers a broad range of content processing tasks, including syntax highlighting for technical documentation and the use of customizable templates for visual layouts. It also provides utilities for migrating existing articles and data from external platforms such as WordPress or Dotclear into a static format. Build performance is managed through incremental caching, which tracks file changes to process only modified content during site regeneration.

Astro is a content-driven web framework designed for building multi-page applications that prioritize performance by shipping minimal JavaScript to the browser. It functions as a static site generator and server-side rendering engine, transforming source files into optimized HTML documents. By utilizing an island architecture, the framework isolates interactive components within static pages, ensuring that only necessary code is hydrated on the client side. The framework provides a unified build pipeline that supports component-agnostic rendering, allowing developers to integrate components from various UI libraries into a single project. It enforces content-collection type safety through schema-based validation for local data files and generates search-engine-friendly pages to ensure proper indexing. Beyond its core rendering capabilities, the project includes build-time asset optimization to process and transform images, scripts, and styles for reduced payload sizes. You can initialize a new project by running the create command via your package manager.

Docusaurus is a documentation framework and static site generator designed to transform markdown files and component templates into optimized web pages. It functions as a content management platform for technical knowledge bases, utilizing a build process that pre-renders content into static HTML and JavaScript bundles to ensure site performance and search visibility. The framework distinguishes itself through a component-driven architecture that allows developers to build unique page layouts and interactive elements using reusable code blocks. It employs file-system-based routing to map directory structures directly to site navigation and supports client-side hydration to provide an interactive experience after the initial page load. A modular plugin system enables the injection of custom functionality and data sources into the build pipeline. The platform provides built-in support for managing multiple versions of documentation, allowing users to access instructions corresponding to specific software releases. It also includes tools for internationalization, enabling the translation and localization of content for global audiences, and supports the integration of external indexing services for site-wide search.

Ghost is an open-source publishing platform and headless content management system designed for professional publishers. It provides a decoupled architecture that separates the content management backend from the front-end delivery layer, allowing users to manage editorial workflows and site data through structured web services. The platform distinguishes itself by integrating a built-in membership and subscription engine, which enables creators to manage gated content, paid tiers, and secure member profiles directly within the system. It also features a dedicated infrastructure for professional newsletter publishing, supporting automated email distribution and subscriber engagement. Developers can interact with the platform through a comprehensive RESTful API or a dedicated JavaScript client library, while the system's headless nature allows for the delivery of content to any custom front-end application. Beyond its core publishing capabilities, the platform includes a templated theme engine for server-side rendering and supports extensive customization through modular configuration adapters. These allow for flexible storage backends, event-driven webhooks for external integrations, and granular control over site settings and security. The project provides extensive documentation for its administrative and content delivery APIs, alongside command-line tools for managing site configuration, theme validation, and environment settings.

This project is a documentation generation tool and static site generator designed to transform source code comments and structural metadata into navigable, web-based technical manuals. It functions as a build process that converts structured content files into a collection of interlinked HTML pages suitable for hosting on any standard web server. The engine distinguishes itself by automatically extracting code definitions and module hierarchies to create comprehensive technical references. It employs dependency-graph cross-referencing to resolve internal identifiers into stable URLs, ensuring that related modules and documentation sections remain connected throughout the build phase. The system supports developer knowledge management by organizing complex technical specifications into a centralized, browsable format. It utilizes a modular document processor to handle structured text files, applying template-driven rendering to maintain consistent visual layouts while generating searchable indices and metadata maps for client-side navigation.

Nuxt is a universal web framework designed for building full-stack applications that seamlessly transition between server-side rendering and client-side interactivity. It provides a comprehensive development environment that automates routing, dependency injection, and type generation, allowing developers to focus on application logic rather than manual configuration. By executing code in a platform-agnostic server engine, it supports deployment across diverse environments, including edge networks, serverless functions, and traditional Node.js runtimes. The framework distinguishes itself through a flexible hybrid rendering engine that enables per-route configuration, allowing developers to choose between static site generation, server-side rendering, or client-side execution to optimize performance and search engine indexing. Its modular architecture relies on a hook-based system for extensibility, while its file-based routing and global auto-importing capabilities streamline the development workflow by mapping directory structures directly to application endpoints and components. Beyond its core rendering and routing capabilities, Nuxt includes integrated tools for data fetching, SEO management, and styling. It provides utilities for managing asynchronous state, proxying headers, and ensuring consistent data hydration between the server and client. The framework also features built-in support for automated testing, error handling, and AI-assisted documentation, ensuring a structured approach to the entire software development lifecycle.

Halo is a modular content management platform built on the Java Virtual Machine, designed to power dynamic websites through a flexible, extensible architecture. It provides a centralized administrative interface for publishing digital content and managing media assets, serving as a foundation for diverse web projects ranging from personal blogs to corporate sites. The platform distinguishes itself through a plugin-based architecture that allows for the dynamic loading of functional components and third-party services without modifying the core source code. This extensibility is complemented by a template-based theme engine that separates visual presentation from content logic, enabling developers to customize the appearance and functionality of their sites through a centralized marketplace system. The system is engineered for consistent execution across diverse hosting environments by utilizing a container-first deployment model. It supports scalable operations through integrations with external object storage for media assets and provides enterprise-grade content governance tools for managing user roles, backups, and site configurations.

Simplefolio is a static site generator and React-based framework designed for building responsive, single-page professional portfolios. It provides a pre-structured template that allows users to showcase personal details, project galleries, and contact information through a clean, animated interface. The project distinguishes itself through a configuration-driven approach to development. Users manage their content and visual branding, such as color palettes and gradients, within centralized data files. This declarative mapping ensures that updates to project showcases, social media links, and design themes are applied consistently across the entire site. The framework handles the transformation of these configurations into optimized static files, facilitating deployment to web hosts. It includes built-in automation for continuous deployment, ensuring that updates are published automatically whenever changes are pushed to the repository.

Fastpages is a static site generator designed to convert Jupyter Notebooks, Markdown files, and Word documents into a formatted technical blog. It transforms these diverse source formats into a complete website consisting of flat HTML files that can be hosted on simple web servers without a database or active backend. The platform is tailored for collaborative technical writing by integrating community commenting systems, shared page annotations, and badges that allow readers to execute code in external environments. The system provides extensive controls for technical content, including the ability to render interactive charts, manage academic citations in BibTeX format, and use collapsible code cells to control content density. It also includes global and post-level metadata configuration for managing site identity, social previews, and post visibility, as well as a keyword-based search for content discovery. Developer utilities include a local site preview tool for testing layouts and a broken link scanner to identify missing local paths or dead external URLs.

Vitesse is a pre-configured starter template for building Vue applications with Vite and TypeScript. It functions as a static site generator and a progressive web app scaffold, providing a standardized development environment for web projects. The project distinguishes itself through a file-based routing system that automatically maps application routes based on the project folder structure. It employs an atomic CSS framework to generate on-demand utility classes for performant stylesheets and an automated component injection mechanism to remove repetitive import statements. The toolkit covers a broad range of capabilities, including type-safe global state management, internationalization for multi-language support, and the compilation of markdown files into UI components. It also incorporates universal icon set integration, reusable page layouts, and automated unit and end-to-end testing. The project includes configurations for production bundle compilation, static site generation, and containerization support.