Web_Designer_UK__May_2018

10 BEST STATIC SITE GENERATORS
3. GATSBY
www.gatsbyjs.org
PRO : Gatsby uses some of the
latest web technologies such as
ReacttocreatestaticPWAs
Like Hexo, Gatsby is powered by
Node.js and so will be more familiar
territory for experienced JavaScript
developers. However, several things
set it apart from other similar tools.
Gatsby uses React, which means
that everything is built with
components, and allows it to benefit
from React’s approach to DOM
rendering. This means it can be
picked up quickly by developers
who have worked with React, but
for those unfamiliar with it, learning
React will be necessary.
It also utilises GraphQL at build
time to retrieve data and content
from data sources, which provides a
modern, consistent interface to
ensure that each page receives the
exact data needed when it is built.
Finally, Gatsby will build pages as
progressive single page apps,
meaning that the entire site is
downloaded and subsequent
navigation is immediate.
3.
4.
4. HUGO
https://gohugo.io
PRO : Aims to be the fastest static
site generator. Hugo is the other
big hitter alongside Jekyll
Widely regarded as the ‘other’ leading
static site generator, it’s only natural to
compare Hugo with Jekyll. Hugo is the
newer of the two, and one of its key
focus areas is speed, which for some
has been a complaint with Jekyll.
Nobody likes waiting for a site to build,
and Hugo can put together a simple
site from your markup and templates
in milliseconds, or even blaze through
thousands of pages in seconds.
With Hugo it’s also typical to write
content with Markdown, and the
templating engine is based on Go
templates since Hugo itself is
implemented in the Go programming
language. Like Jekyll, it ships with a
lightweight HTTP server to quickly
serveyourpageslocally.Thetwo
tools’ build workflows are overall
fairly similar.
Formany,thekeybenefitofHugois
its quicker, simpler path to getting
started, with very little need for
configuration and no dependencies
other than the core binary. Its
documentation and tutorials are very
good, and it has an ethos of
maintaining simplicity which makes for
a very approachable learning curve.
One disadvantage Hugo has relative
to Jekyll is that it lacks the extensive
plugin ecosystem available for the
latter. Given its wide range of built-in
functionality, however, this is unlikely
to be a problem for most users. It also
may be marginally lighter on support
on sites such as StackOverflow since it
hasn’t been around as long; however,
it continues to grow in popularity and
many believe it may become the
leading static site generator in the
near future.
“ HUGO CAN PUT
TOGETHER A SIMPLE
SITE FROM YOUR
MARKUP AND
TEMPLATES IN
MILLISECONDS ”
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