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67 Comments

Do you use static site generators?

Thinking about Jekyll, Hugo, etc. Do you use them for things like your landing page, blog, etc.?

  1. 3

    Huge fan of static site generators, I used Next.js in SSG mode for building my landing page: React SaaS Boilerplate hosted on Cloudflare Pages.

    You aren't restricted to landing page, blog, etc. I've built a complete and deployed in production a SaaS using SSG. You can see a demo at https://postmage.com under the hood it uses Nextless.js.

    Using modern framework like Next.js, you can almost build any idea in SSG. This keep your cost low and make your application extremely fast.

    SSG in combination with Serverless, it's the perfect for indie maker. So, you don't need to manage server and you can focus on your idea/execution.

  2. 2

    I use GatsbyJS for my personal website (https://www.myoussouf.com/) as well as my side project (https://www.figmabox.com/).

      1. 2

        Love it! We are actually using another Hugo theme for our documentation and it is pretty sweet 👉 https://getdoks.org

        1. 1

          Nice, love the minimalist design & color palette, bookmarked!

  3. 2

    All my projects are built with hugo! I love it! The things you can do with it if you are a bit creative are incredible

  4. 2

    I'm migrating away from Gatsby to a no-code stack that's much easier for me to update and maintain.

    Recently migrated My portfolio website from Gatsby to Carrd + Notion + Feather

    I hadn't updated my portfolio in a year because it took too long to add new items.

    I wasn't writing blog posts bc they took too long to format.

    Now I can update either as quickly as I can write them.

    For the same reason I migrated my consulting-services landing page from Gatsby to Carrd. Achieved basically the same look in a single afternoon.

    Last website left that I need to migrate over is indieworldwide.co, also on Gatsby right now, I think Webflow might make the most sense for this one but still TBD.

    1. 2

      Gatsby is actually quite annoying to write in, you have to use GraphQL even if you have no need for it.

      I should use a no-code builder as well but I like building sites manually, so I've found Next.js to be a great sweet spot. Better than the arcane stuff Gatsby makes you do while still being flexible enough to add the features you want.

      1. 2

        I'm fully Nextjs-pilled when it comes to starting new projects.

        1. 2

          Based and NextJS-pilled

  5. 2

    Yes, I use GatsbyJS for the Hive Index, as it's a directory and GatsbyJS has a lot of advantages for programmatic SEO sites.

    Also my marketing site for GummySearch is built with Gatsby, I like it because I can write my blog posts in markdown and it generates the HTML pages for me.

    Would like to try NextJS at some point, as Gatsby isn't great for sites where you need user login.

  6. 1

    If you use Angular you can use Scully (https://scully.io/) it works great :)

  7. 1

    NextJS is okay, but I wish they would fix some longstanding issues.

  8. 1

    I built my own optionally static site generator. It can export as a static site; it can run its own production-ready web server; the underlying Go package can be used to mount a handler in an existing app; or it can be used on the CLI without a web frontend at all. I use it for blogs, documentation, and my personal Zettelkasten-like note manager.

  9. 1

    I use Jekyll courtesy of GitHub Pages to host a landing page for Graft (https://get.graftapp.co).

  10. 1

    I use static generator of nextjs on nftwatcher.co, is very performant!

  11. 1

    I'm experienced with PHP Laravel but for projects that are static it is overkill so I use a site generator.

    I actually found Hugo and Jekyll quite complicated to adjust. Coming from PHP they have a steep learning curve.

    Eventually I settled with Jigsaw, which is a static site generator based on Laravel. So, if you are coming from PHP, Jigsaw might be a better choice than the more popular generators.

  12. 1

    Nope, I built my landing page (and the whole project actually) in Aurelia. Specifically, the landing page uses Markdown and Tailwind CSS for styling. Since I've localized it to 10 languages out of the box, I'm also using i18next to translate all the titles.

    The tricky part was to add styling to translations in order to add color to specific words once they were translated.

    https://immersive.community/home/login

  13. 1

    I am using Gatsby for over 2 years but am not happy with where the SSG goes. Especially Gatsby.

    Seriously considering switching to remix.run. Already started to learn and will build my next side project with it. It will be slow but at least give me enough knowledge of the tool and let me ditch Gatsby once and for all :)

  14. 1

    I used Jekyll for a couple of sites in the past, now experimenting with Eleventy (https://www.11ty.dev/) for a side project. Also looking into Typemill (https://typemill.net/, not a static site generator but a flat-file CMS) as a possible alternative.

  15. 1

    I use Hugo deployed via Netlify and hosted on Github pages, so 0$ for Hosting, only little cost for domain.

  16. 1

    We switched from Gatsby to Hugo a while ago, and I'm very satisfied with the results.
    It's super-fast, working with markdown, and developer-friendly.

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  18. 1

    I've tried Gatsby but looks like the learning curve is a little higher even for a React Dev.
    I've tried NextJS as well.

  19. 1

    I use Mobirise freeware web design application that allows users to design and publish bootstrap websites without coding.
    Mobirise is essentially a drag and drop website builder, featuring various website themes.
    The generated site is published on GitHub pages and linked to - https://www.reflectcode.com/

  20. 1

    I like hexo.js, all js with many plugins

  21. 1

    I used to use Jekyll but now switched to next.js. Although not perfect, I think next.js much better suits the purpose.

  22. 1

    I use Nuxtjs Content for my blog. It's pretty great!

  23. 1

    I use (and sponsor) Eleventy + Nunjucks for all my websites.

    It’s a super fast and flexible combo.

  24. 1

    Jekyll and Hugo are great for setting up static sites, but I usually like to customize them so much that I end up rolling my own solution anyway. I recently set up my blog (https://productdiv.com/blog) using RemixJS with its built in MDX support. It provides attributes with frontmatter and interactivity with react components. It's the perfect solution for me and was dead simple to set up. If you're interested, check out their docs: https://remix.run/docs/en/v1/guides/mdx

  25. 1

    I used NuxtJS for my blog thefullstackdev.net.

    I build it in under a day. Greate DX. The content module makes creating a markdown blog a breeze. I just followed their tutorial here - https://nuxtjs.org/tutorials/creating-blog-with-nuxt-content/

    1. 2

      Thanks for the NuxtJS link! It's been a while since I looked at the project

  26. 1

    I use Gatsby and like it a lot. I tried Next.js but I really missed the plugin ecosystem of Gatsby, it really speeds up development. Not a huge fan of using GraphQL in Gatsby (overkill for my needs), but it's fine.

  27. 1

    I use Next.js and love it! Built a simple little static site here with Nextjs (https://www.clevelandgravel.com/). It was fast and relatively straightforward.

    Plus, if I decide to add a backend, I can hook up Prisma ORM + supabase (or other provider) to enhance features.

  28. 1

    We use Nuxtjs for our last project https://linkhub.online
    But I personally like Gridsome for it simplicity and completely static output with flexibility which gives you by vue.js

      1. 2

        Nuxt.js https://nuxtjs.org/ is a frontend framework built upon Vue.js that offers great development features such as server side rendering, automatically generated routes, improved meta tags managing and SEO improvement.

      2. 1

        Like NextJS but for Vue

  29. 1

    Sure do!

    • APIs You Won't Hate has been built with Jekyll, Gatsby, and (currently) Next.js at different times, for various reasons.
    • mikebifulco.com is built with next.js, used for publishing my own articles

    I've also built a site with Remix.run & Sanity for my wife's business - it's lightweight enough that she can manage it herself, and in a short while she's seen some growth in traffic for her YouTube channel, which was the goal

  30. 1

    Yeah - It's fantastic, we use Next.js' export on Cloudflare Pages for our marketing website. It's fast and cheap. We don't fully generate our pages for our webapp, we just run that as a React SPA.

  31. 1

    I used eleventy (https://www.11ty.dev/) recently for building https://castmill.com portal and I am super happy with the results and how easy I can update the page, add new blog posts, etc. Highly recommended.

  32. 1

    Hugo for me, switched from WordPress and I'm loving it. It's so nice having all the content as flat markdown files on disk.

    My personal blog, https://wagslane.dev as well as my side project's blog site are done with Hugo: https://blog.boot.dev

  33. 1

    SSG are great. I only use something else when I must.

    I used to use Hugo but as soon things get more complicated the templating language and features become a PITA.

    I am staying clear of those SSG that basically create a SPA. That's too much magic for a simple site.

    I've now switched everything to https://www.11ty.dev/ and I haven't looked back since.

  34. 1

    For static websites, I'm actually using Github page. It offers free hosting which is quite nice for small side projects.

  35. 1

    Yes! I use Hugo when I don't need a control panel, even for small customers.

    For me on simple websites, it's faster to edit a file and run a rsync than to maintain a Django website and navigate on a control panel.

    But when I need a dynamic feature, like some refined form or complex objects like a store, I prefer to use Django.

  36. 1

    Yes. They are great. If you have a lot of static content, like loads and loads of it, it makes perfect sense to use them. If you have very many such small websites and domains, then using SSGs is great; you can do that with Github and Netlifly, etc. Domains can easily be hosted on CloudFlare, etc.

    If you have large amounts of content, nothing like SSG, they load super super fast on the edge. This is especially true for those using WordPress, there are statis page generator plugins for Wordpress too now.

  37. 1

    Yes for documentation (Docusaurus) and blog (Hugo) of our url shortener.
    Both deployed for free on Netlify :)

  38. 1

    Anyone has any good solutions that also works well with mobile? Often I wanted to write blog posts on the go, but didn’t have my toolchain with me to build and deploy new static site.

  39. 1

    I've been using a static site generator for a few years now, and I've been really happy with it.

    I started with Jekyll and Octopress, but then I discovered Hugo and haven't looked back.

    I love how easy it is to get started with Hugo—there's no need to install any software, just create an account on GitHub (or GitLab) and you're good to go!

    And when I say "easy," I mean it: all you have to do is write your posts in Markdown format and then tell Hugo where they are and what they should be called. You don't even have to worry about setting up your own web server—Hugo will take care of that for you!

    I also like that Hugo lets me set up custom post formats (like this one!), which means my blog always looks great no matter what kind of content I'm posting.

  40. 1

    In the past, I've used a lot of static site generators to build my websites.

    But lately I've been thinking about it, and I realized that there are some things that make me uncomfortable about building sites this way.

    First, it's a lot of work to get your site up and running with a static generator. You have to learn how to use the generator itself—a learning curve for something that should be simple. Then you have to contend with all the files you have to manage, which can become cumbersome when you have many pages or subpages on your site. And then there's all the writing you have to do in order to build those pages! It's just not fun anymore.

    Second, it's not convenient! If you need to make changes to your website, changing things becomes harder than it would be if everything was dynamically generated. You can't just go in and change one thing; instead, you have to change every single file associated with each page or element of your site—and then ensure that they're all consistent with one another! And if something breaks? Well… good luck!

    Finally—and perhaps most importantly—I don't think there are any benefits for users when using static site generators instead of dynamic ones like WordPress.

    1. 1

      "change every single file associated with each page or element of your site" ?

      Seems like you've not been using SSGs as intended.
      SSG means change in one place - updates everywhere.

      I personally see many benefits over WordPress - but I don't want to evangelize.

  41. 1

    I've been using static site generators for a while now. I think they're a great way to get started with web development, especially if you're just getting into the field and haven't done any coding before.

    I learned how to use one when my cousin was learning how to build his own website. He had just graduated from high school and wanted to put up a page about himself so that people could see what he'd been up to since graduating. He didn't know much about coding at that point in his life and really wanted an easy way to create a site without having to learn HTML or CSS first.

    So I showed him how easy it is to use static site generators like Jekyll or Hugo (my personal favorite). He was able to build his own site in no time at all! And since then, he's decided that coding is something he wants to pursue further in college—and who knows? Maybe one day he'll be able to make his own website using these tools!

  42. 1

    I use GatsbyJS. Had to go through hustle a lot tho since I don't really code haha. My website is simple (https://dandemello.blog/) but I can easily edit and it is crazy fast.

  43. 1

    Does https://versoly.com/ count? :)

    It is a static site generator in the cloud.

    I would look at Astro if you have more time than money.

  44. 1

    I cringe created an Angular project for building landing pages. It's not at the point of full generation yet (ideally, this would be done with some config files) - right now it's a balance of reusable components and the flexibility of custom code (typescript/css/html). If curious, demo is https://mikeqdev.github.io/angular-landing-page-template/

    The true site generators mentioned in this thread certainly seem like more viable solutions moving forward. Will check them out!

  45. 1

    Yea. For https://getparthenon.com I used https://docusaurus.io/ which is a static documentation system but it has a blog and allows me to add custom pages. It also allows me to have versioned docs, so I could have a different doc for 1.3 than 1.2 which I'm sure I'll eventually need.

    When you go to buy you're then passed over to a Parthenon system to handle the sale and setting up the subscription. Which I've seen a lot when working for major companies so I don't feel so bad that it's split over two systems.

    For everything else I just use a landing page within the application. Or I use WordPress which is awesome

  46. 1

    I ❤️ Jekyll and use it A LOT, maybe even in cases where I should not

    1. 1

      I also love Jekyll.

  47. 1

    Use Hugo deployed to Cloudflare Pages for my blog about indie product learnings https://productbets.com

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