Do you use the best static site tech stack?

Last updated by Harry Ross [SSW] 8 months ago.See history

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 NextJS (Recommended) Gatsby Astro Scully Gridsome Jekyll
Language React React Most major JS frameworks via islands Angular Vue Liquid
Data Handling Fully customisable GraphQL Fully customisable Fully customisable GraphQL Source code data files
Data Sources Fully customisable Filesystems, CMS, APIs, Databases, Local files Fully customisable Fully customisable Source Plugins, APIs, Local files Local files
GitHub Pages Integration Requires setup Seamless deployment via config files Deployment via GitHub Actions Deployment via GitHub Actions Seamless deployment via config files Works out of the box
Decap CMS (formerly Netlify CMS) integration

google trends nextjs
Figure: Google trends for the above SSGs. In a substantial lead is NextJS, followed by Gatsby.

GatsbyVsNextjs
Figure: NextJS and Gatsby are the major competitors that have been duking it out, lately Next.js has exploded in popularity

Two examples of static sites in action are SSW People and SSW Rules.

There are a few hosting options to choose from including:

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