An introduction to Static Site Generators

Let's build a (content) website

Option 1 : static site starting from scratch

  • Easy to get started

 

  • Good performance out of the box

 

  • Easy to deploy / host

 

  • Good to learn the fundamentals
  • Time consuming

 

  • Not a great Developer Experience (DX)

 

  • Hard to scale / maintain

 

  • How do you manage your content ?

Option 2 : use a "traditional" CMS

client

web server

content editor

database server

  • Easy to get a "full" website up quickly

 

  • Nice editing experience for your content

 

  • Community / ecosystem to help you
  • Deployment & hosting can be complex

 

  • Security can be an issue

 

  • Need to code backend + frontend parts

 

  • You just wanted a banana, but what you got was a gorilla holding the banana and the entire jungle

Option 3 : use a platform

  • No coding required !

 

  • Same advantages as the "classic CMS"
  • (Very) limited customizability

 

  • You don't own your content

Option 4 : use a static site generator

client

web server

content editor

database server

developer

rebuild site

  • Great performance

 

  • Good security

 

  • Easy deployment & hosting

 

  • Good DX (templating + clean separation of code and content)
  • Poor content-editing experience out of the box

 

  • Dynamic functionalities (e.g. Auth) can be complex to implement

Not (just) for "simple" sites !

An introduction to Static Site Generators

By maelig

An introduction to Static Site Generators

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