20 Best Static Site Generators

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Static websites go all the way back to the beginning of the web. However, they’re making a comeback. Static websites are plain, unstyled documents, with different documents in place for different pages. They were later replaced by dynamic websites, the complex, highly stylized ones that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing today. Dynamic websites require careful design and attention to a multitude of details, as opposed to static ones, which require minimal attention.

The modern static website generator allows the website to be split into different layouts and helps eliminate repetition, like duplicate headers, footers, and navigations. Static websites also have the advantage of being super quick to develop and inexpensive to host. So, if you’re looking for a fast, simple, and powerful website template, you’ve come to the right place, as we’re featuring some of the best static site generators available today.

These static website templates include awesome features that you’ll love. Take for example Hexo, which brings you impressive generating speed, one-command deployment to other sites, markdown support, and a powerful plugin system that will allow you to install Jade and CoffeeScript plugins. Another great template is Metalsmith, where everything is essentially a plugin. This gives you the freedom to create a lot of neat things, like project scaffolders, ebook generators, build tools, and technical documents. We also feature Hugo, a simple and flexible website creator that works with a variety of formats and that’s ideal for blogs, documents, portfolios, and more. This template doesn’t require administrative privileges, databases, or external libraries, and the sites that are built can be deployed to any web host, including S3, GitHub Pages, and Dropbox.

There are so many fantastic examples of static website template generators, that we had a hard time choosing only a few. However, we think that these are the 20 best static site generators we could find, and we hope you’ll find them useful when building your website. With a variety of great features, we’re sure you’ll enjoy exploring the world of static websites, an old standard that’s been revived, and that’s easier to build and more powerful than ever. Also, don’t forget to let us know what you think in the comment section below!