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7 Static Site Generators that will help you build the Amazing Websites

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clock-iconAugust 09, 2017
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Do you remember the first website that you created? Most programmers start by building a series of pages with the particular HTML files. Each will call in some assets i.e. images, CSS, and JavaScript. You can launch all these files directly from the system without using a web server.The static sites offer excellent security and functionality as they don't have dynamic content.

Today, websites are becoming smoother, faster and more flexible, as users love fast yet seamless experiences. The best way is to use a light and static website generator that makes web developmentand management incredibly simple. Static website generator has become a significant tool for creating the professional websites.Having a static site generator means you can create websites with advanced frameworks with a high level of efficiency.

Here are top 7 static site generators preferred by the most developers:

Jekyll

Powered by Ruby, it is a user-friendly static website generator. You can import content from WordPress, Drupal, Tumblr, RSS and CSV formats while using Jekyll. With its built-in server, you can evenbuild your personal static server from its template and source code. It acts as a local web server and generates the HTML, CSS & JavaScript files fromMarkdown, templates, Sass, or CoffeeScript files. With the help of templates, layout controls, and a large number of configuration options, it is easy to create the blog post.

Roots (roots.cx)

Roots is a static website generator that generates static HTML, CSS, and javascript files. It is a highly-functional framework used for creating small to medium sized front-ends. Comes with simple installation, it can manage a large number of compiled languages. It uses dynamic content to build blogs, collections, etc. WebriQ has implemented a Web APP to build and manage Static Pages based on Roots and Github repositories.

DocPad

Created on Node.js and Express.js, it is a static website generator provides your site with amazing layouts, pre-processors, and a powerful plugin system. It is integrated with the easy-to-manage administrator dashboard that makes publishing easier. It is easy to generate documents dynamically at runtime while using DocPad. Supported by the great community and maintained plugins, DocPad is becoming better every single day.

Hugo

Written in a statically compiled language, Hugo has become the most popular static website generator in just two years. Comes with a high level of flexibility, Hugo helps you organize your web content with any URL structure. It can be deployed on GitHub Pages, Dropbox, Amazon S3, or any host you choose. With Hugo, it is easy to define the metadata, declare the content types and use indexes to group the content.

Wintersmith

Created on top of Node.js, Wintersmith is a multi-platform static website generator. Comes with a Jade plugin, It provides absolutely no limitations on how do you manage your content.It also comes with some handy site templates for developing blogs & web apps.It will develop a basic structure for your website that contains all the assets and the content written in Markdown of JSON files.

Middleman

It is a command-line tool used for developing static websites. While simplifying HTML development, Middleman supports several templating languages that will enable you to add variables, call methods and use loops. With Middleman, you have access to Rb, Haml, CoffeeScript, verbose Javascript and multiple asset management solutions.With the LiveReload extension, the browser will automatically refresh whenever you edit the files of your website.

Nanoc

Written in Ruby, Nanoc is a powerful static website generator that is ideal for creating any kind of website, from personal portfolios to large business websites. Nanoc is highly flexible site generator helps you pick your favorite languages and extensions. It is easy to mix and match Haml, Sass, CoffeeScript, ERB, and Less, in order to minify CSS and JavaScript.

All these static website generators will help you highly functional static websites.

Author Bio: Ankur Purohit is working with Baymediasoft – a renowned PHP development company. With Six years of experience working in the field of development and digital marketing, he has technical as well as marketing skills to deliver valuable web solutions.