When it comes to the speed and the safety of web pages nothing beats static web pages. However, they are tedious to write and every change across multiple files hurts. That is where static site generator comes in handy.

What is a static site generator?

A static site generator transforms page content written in markup language (such as Markdown) into HTML pages.

Main advantages

  • Usability — Writing Markdown instead of HTML
  • Flexibility — Page layout is defined at one place
  • Speed — Nothing loads faster than a static HTML
  • Safety — No runtime, no place for malicious code
  • Free/cheap hosting

Where do I get a static site generator?

There is a list of static site generators at StaticGen.

Which do I choose?

It depends. Personally, I recommend using the one which matches your use case, and/or is written in a programming language you know in case you want to write a plugin.

I can recommend Jekyll and Hugo.

Use cases

This blog uses Jekyll

  • Blog
  • Project site
  • Business / Personal sites
  • etc.

Hosting

To name a few free hosting services:

What if I need some dynamic content?

It is possible with JAMstack. JAMstack is a modern web development architecture based on client-side JavaScript, reusable APIs, and prebuilt Markup.