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Ask HN: What is the easiest to use static site generator?

4 points by hackercurious 11 years ago · 11 comments · 1 min read


I am trying to determine the easiest to use static site generator. I have found there are now several hundred static site generators and I understand most of these are forks of the main static site generators.

By easiest I mean the most user friendly to set-up and create a site, best documentation, and has an active group of users/community.

stadeschuldt 11 years ago

It really boils down to your language preference:

For Ruby: Jekyll http://jekyllrb.com or Middleman https://middlemanapp.com (in case you want a site rather than a blog) For Python: Pelican http://blog.getpelican.com

bbcbasic 11 years ago

Inspired by your question I had a quick Google.

This one seems quite easy http://gohugo.io.

You download the built binary, no dependencies, lots of themes available. Had it working in a few minutes. (The git clone step didn't work for me but I just went to github and downloaded the zip.)

jjude 11 years ago

Checkout Olai, (http://olai.in), a hosted static site generator. Nothing to setup. Connect Amazon S3 or Github page and you are done. Bonus: Use your desktop blog editors, like MarsEdit.

Disclosure: Olai is my baby.

  • thenomad 11 years ago

    Pricing's a bit confusing. Is that 10 new posts a month or are you only allowed 10 posts ever? :)

lalwanivikas 11 years ago

Jekyll.

If you are just getting started, you can read this tutorial I wrote for SitePoint:

http://www.sitepoint.com/set-jekyll-blog-5-minutes-poole/

someguy1233 11 years ago

What purpose are you using them for? I tried Jekyll and found it just got in the way of me creating sites, so I found Middleman.

Middleman is much easier than Jekyll if you want to build any kind-of normal non-blog website.

  • hackercuriousOP 11 years ago

    I was trying to want to build a simple kind-of normal non-blog website also. Thanks for the tip on Middleman.

gadders 11 years ago

CityDesk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CityDesk

(or it was 15 years ago)

hackercuriousOP 11 years ago

>It really boils down to your language preference:

I was looking for the easiest-setup, operation, posting on web, updating content etc.

In this way I have only the preference of simple use.

tuananh 11 years ago

active groups of user/community: jekyll probably.

jekyll documentation is good too.

it's quite easy

seems to fit with your needs.

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