Do you use the best static site tech stack?
Pure HTML pages are the fastest website around. However, server-side scripting languages enable richer functionality. Static sites solve this problem by providing the best of both worlds. Static sites are
- Cheap
- Easy to use
- Fast
On the other hand, complex functionality can be a bit more limited and time consuming to implement.
Here are some popular static site generators:
| Name | Gatsby (Recommended) | Next.js | Scully | Gridsome | Statiq | Jekyll |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Language | React | React | Angular | Vue | .NET | Liquid |
| Data Handling | GraphQL | Fully customisable | Fully customisable | GraphQL | Fully customisable | Source code data files |
| Data Sources | Filesystems, CMS, APIs, Databases, Local files | Fully customisable | Fully customisable | Source Plugins, APIs, Local files | Fully customisable | Local files |
| GitHub Pages Integration | Seamless deployment via config files | Requires setup | Deployment via GitHub Actions | Seamless deployment via config files | Deployment via GitHub Actions | Works out of the box |
| Netlify CMS integration | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Figure: Google trends for the above SSGs. In a substantial lead is Gatsby, followed by Jekyll. The others are much lower, and Statiq is excluded as it has very low search numbers.
Two examples of static sites in action are SSW People and SSW Rules.
There are a few hosting options to choose from including:
- Azure static web apps (recommended for small websites)
- Azure static storage (recommended for large websites)
- Cloud Flare
- GitHub Pages
- Surge.sh
