When we want to create a statistical site, for example a personal blog, documentation page, portfolio, browser site or others, in general we have to write it using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. but such a method will be ineffective when we create a lot of pages and write them manually using html, css and javascript, a static site generator is a solution to overcome this problem.
With a static site generator it will make it easier for us to create sites that have lots of pages, because we don’t need to repeat each code again in the HTML. Apart from that, we can write articles with markdown to make it easier for us to create articles or pages, which the site generator will convert from markdown to html.
So this time I will discuss some of the best static site generators that I have tried myself and here are some site generators that you can use on your site.
Hugo
Hugo is a static site generator written using the Go programming language, which makes it one of the world’s fastest generators. hugo offers many themes on its official page and several features that you can use without requiring additional plugins.
With the speed offered by Hugo, this will be very useful when you have thousands of pages or more. Hugo also has a good structure when compared to other generators, but the structure in Hugo will be difficult to understand for those who are just starting to build sites.
Hugo’s advantages
- Build quickly
- No plugin required
- Supports themes
- Neat structure
Jekyll
Jekyll is a static site generator written using the Ruby programming language, which is the most popular generator currently. Jekyll is very friendly for blogging and the structure in it is easy to understand, this is suitable for those who are just learning to create static sites.
Jekyll has the weakness of being slow to build, this will be felt when you have thousands of pages or more. but jekyll has an easy to understand structure, this is suitable for those who are just starting to create static sites.
Jekyll’s advantages
- Easy to understand
- Simple
- Supports themes
- Supports plugins
Eleventy
Eleventy is a static site generator written using the Javascript programming language, which is an alternative generator to Jekyll with several interesting features. The structure of Eleventy is similar to Jekyll, even the template uses liquid just like Jekyll and several other addons that you can use.
Eleventy is also suitable for beginners because its structure is simple and easy to understand, especially if you are not familiar with JavaScript.
Eleventy Advantages
- Simple
- Easy to understand
- Supports plugins
- Supports themes
Suggestion
- Use Hugo if your site has more than 1000 pages because the build rate is very fast.
- Use Hugo if you are familiar with the Go programming language.
- Use Jekyll if you are just learning to create sites because it is easy to understand.
- Use Eleventy if you are a beginner in creating websites because the structure is simple and similar to Jekyll.
- Use eleventy if you are familiar with the JavaScript programming language.
Conclusion
Static site generator is a tool to make it easier to create a static website, adjust what you need to create a static website, which you think is comfortable and suitable for you.
