Static Site Generators

Hugo87.3k★

Hugo builds static sites faster than anything else. We're talking thousands of pages in seconds, not minutes. Written in Go with a single binary distribution — no Ruby gems, no Node modules, no dependency hell. It's been the speed king of static site generators for years. Eleventy is the Node.js alternative with more templating flexibility. Astro is the modern framework that mixes static and dynamic. Jekyll is the OG that GitHub Pages made famous (and slow). Next.js is overkill if you just need static output. If you're building a blog, documentation site, or marketing page with hundreds of pages, Hugo is your fastest option. The content management through Markdown and front matter is straightforward. Themes are plentiful. The catch: Go templating syntax is its own special kind of pain. {{ with .Params.author }}{{ . }}{{ end }} reads like someone lost a fight with curly braces. The learning curve is steeper than Eleventy or Astro for anything beyond basic content. And if you need dynamic interactivity, you'll bolt on JavaScript frameworks anyway.

Eleventy19.5k★

Eleventy is the static site generator for people who think Gatsby was a mistake. Zero client-side JavaScript by default. No framework lock-in — use Nunjucks, Markdown, Liquid, whatever templating you want. Your pages are just HTML, and they load instantly. Hugo is faster at build time (Go vs Node) but has a steeper learning curve with its templating. Astro is the modern competitor that ships zero JS by default but adds framework components when you want them. Next.js is overkill if you just need a blog or docs site. Jekyll still exists for the Ruby nostalgic. Use Eleventy if you want a personal site, blog, or documentation that's fast, accessible, and doesn't require a React PhD. The data cascade is powerful once you learn it, and build times are fast for sites under 10K pages. The catch: Eleventy gives you freedom, which means decisions. No default theme, no prescribed structure, no UI components. You're building from scratch. If you want a polished site quickly, Astro with a template will get you there faster.