Which static site generators are worth considering as Jekyll alternatives?

Jekyll is an open-source static site generator (SSG) that is easy to set up and known for its fast build speeds. Depending on your project requirements, another tool might be a better fit. Popular Jekyll alternatives include Hugo, Gatsby, Next.js, Nuxt, Astro and Eleventy.

What is Jekyll and when might an alternative be useful?

Jekyll is an open source static site generator built in Ruby. It uses Liquid templates to transform HTML fragments, Markdown or Textile data into static HTML pages ready for deployment. Jekyll is easy to configure, integrates seamlessly with GitHub Pages and generates sites quickly. Due to the fact that it separates content from design, Jekyll is a great choice for blogs, documentation and portfolio sites.

However, if you need interactive features, dynamic data connections, or server-side rendering, Jekyll quickly shows its limitations. Large projects or workflows that require built-in features like routing or APIs, may benefit from a more flexible solution or one that offers higher performance. Which is the best Jekyll alternative for you will, of course, depend on your project’s specific needs.

Hugo

Hugo is an open-source static site generator renowned for its incredibly fast build times. Even very large sites with thousands of pages can be built in milliseconds. Hugo is a single-binary tool written in Golang, meaning it consists of one executable file that contains everything needed for deployment. Configuration options are available in YAML, JSON, or TOML.

Thanks to multilingual support and powerful taxonomy system, this alternative to Jekyll is flexible enough for event pages, project documentation, and landing pages. Using Go templates, layouts and designs can be implemented quickly with shortcodes and variable placeholders.

Gatsby

Gatsby is an open-source SSG based on React and GraphQL, released in 2015. It supports building SEO-optimised websites and progressive web apps (PWAs). Content can be sourced through GraphQL queries from Markdown files, headless CMS, or APIs. Thanks to automatic code-splitting strategies, each page only loads the resources it needs, significantly improving performance for users.

A standout feature of this Jekyll alternative is its extensive plug-in ecosystem, offering more than 2,500 plug-ins for everything from image optimisation to e-commerce and analytics. With Version 4, Gatsby added server-side rendering (SSR) and Deferred Static Generation (DSG), enabling dynamic content on Node.js servers. The combination of a React-based framework, large plug-in library, and modern rendering methods makes Gatsby ideal for data-driven web projects.

Next.js

Next.js is an open-source React framework supporting both static site generation (SSG) and server-side rendering (SSR). With the getStaticProps function, content can be generated at build time for fast delivery through CDNs (networks of regionally distributed servers). For dynamic data fetching on every request, the getServerSideProps function is available. Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) lets you update individual pages without rebuilding the entire site.

Next.js includes built-in API routes for serverless endpoints and optimisations for images, scripts, and fonts. It supports multiple styling options, including CSS modules, global CSS, SASS and Tailwind CSS. The Middleware feature allows custom code to run before completing a request. As an alternative to Jekyll, Next.js is a strong choice if you need to combine static pages with server-rendered or personalised content.

Nuxt

Nuxt is an open-source framework based on Vue.js offering universal rendering, combining static site generation (SSG), server-side rendering (SSR) and single-page application modes (SPA) in one development environment. Nuxt pre-renders pages on the server, delivering a complete HTML page before Vue.js handles client-side interactivity. The Nitro server engine allows hosting on everything from serverless platforms to traditional VPS instances.

Nuxt also offers a clear folder structure, automatic component and middleware imports, path-based routing, and integrated API routes. Built-in features like image optimisation, TypeScript support, and global state management speed up complex web app development. This means, compared to other Jekyll alternatives, Next is particularly well suited for projects needing dynamic content, personalised user experiences and complex backend logic.

Astro

The JavaScript framework Astro has gained popularity among developers for building fast, content-rich websites. Unlike other Jekyll alternatives, it uses an island architecture, splitting the interface into Astro Islands – subcomponents that can be used across different pages.

To maximise performance, Astro converts unused JavaScript code into HTML and offers both SSG and SSR functionalities, configurable on a per-page basis. Astro is also framework-agnostic, meaning it can be used with any JavaScript framework. It can also be deployed on traditional servers or edge environments.

Eleventy

For those wanting a lean, simply structured SSG software, Eleventy (often 11ty for short) is a great Jekyll alternative. This JavaScript-based generator follows a static-first philosophy, meaning it’s designed primarily for HTML documents that don’t need to be updated once they are loaded in the browser. That said, the software also supports dynamic websites when needed.

There are plenty of reasons to choose Eleventy. On one hand, it enables the creation of static websites without requiring the use of client-side JavaScript frameworks. On the other, it delivers extremely fast build times that many competitors can’t match. In addition, the generator supports a wide range of template languages – from HTML and Markdown to JavaScript, SASS, and even MDX.