Static Site Generators - Tools

Project Licence, Red., Internet article, 2026.

Static and dynamic: The two philosophies of building websites are in a constant shift - at the moment especially smaller websites tend to go the static route again, mainly for legal, cost and security reasons. This debate also spawned the somewhat profane webring of "real websites" and less profane ones like this one (actualwebsite.org) as living demonstrations of the maker's views on the topic. To arm you with the tools to participate you can find static site tools and generators below to help you getting started.

 

Static vs Dynamic: The cycle of digital life

In the good old days of the internet, webpages were written in html (see Oldavista for a stroll down memory lane). Content was static and therefore sometimes out of date but could be loaded and read on nearly any device without problems after some time to transfer the page.

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Modern websites - simply put - serve pages that get glued together on the spot for visitors by asking the database first for the content the visitor wants to see. Content is dynamic and this also results in longer loading times. If a page gets really popular it can also result in the database serving the page getting overwhelmed or additional costs for people responsible for the website or portal (aka webmasters).   

Features of Static vs. Dynamic Websites

FeaturesStatic WebsitesDynamic Websites
What it isFixed content. Every user sees the exact same pre-built HTML files.Interactive content. Pages are generated in real-time based on user behavior or database data.
Advantages

* Very robust and fast: Pages load instantly since no database queries happen.


* Highly secure: No database or server-side code to hack.


* Cheap hosting: Can be hosted for free or pennies on CDNs.

* Highly interactive: Supports user logins, shopping carts, and personalized feeds.


* Easy updates: Changing content in a dashboard updates the whole site instantly.


* Scalable content: Ideal for sites with thousands of pages (like news or e-commerce).

Disadvantages

* Hard to scale: Updating 500 pages manually is a nightmare. Find and replace tools can help here, though.


* No real-time interactivity: No native user accounts, comments, or dynamic search.

* Slower performance: Server processing and database fetching take time.


* Security risks: Vulnerable to database injections and malware.


* Higher costs: Requires complex hosting and constant maintenance.

Tools and Generators for making Websites

Static Site Generators (SSGs)

These tools and static CMS take raw text files (usually written in Markdown) and templates, then compile them into finished HTML/CSS files before the website ever goes live.

Astro: Astro is a modern framework that delivers ultra-fast performance by shipping zero JavaScript to the browser by default, making it perfect for content-focused sites.

Hugo: Built on Go, Hugo is famous for being incredibly fast at compiling thousands of pages in seconds.

Jekyll: Jekyll is one of the oldest and most reliable SSGs, heavily integrated with GitHub Pages for free and easy hosting.

Publii: Publii is a free open-source static CMS for Windows, macOS and Linux, offers official and community plugins (like static search, also on github).

Frameworks: For more tools see Static site generator at Wikipedia.


Dynamic Content Management Systems (CMS) & Frameworks

These tools use a live server and a database (like MySQL) to assemble pages on the fly every time a user clicks a link.

WordPress: Wordpress is the world's most popular CMS. It uses a database to power everything from simple blogs to massive e-commerce stores via plugins.


Mediawiki and Friends: Mediawiki is the software that powers Wikipedia. Most wikis generally use databases, but there are a variety of different options, like flat or single files for storing data (see wikimatrix).  

Next.js: Next.js is a powerful React-based framework used by developers to build hybrid applications that can blend fast static pages with highly secure, database-driven dynamic pages.

Frameworks: For more information see web frameworks or single-page applications at Wikipedia.


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