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Jekyll vs Middleman: What are the differences?

Introduction: Jekyll and Middleman are both static site generators that help in creating and managing websites. While they serve a similar purpose, there are key differences between the two.

  1. Installation and Configuration: Jekyll requires Ruby to be installed on the system as it is written in Ruby. It also requires some additional setup steps, such as installing specific gems and configuring the project. On the other hand, Middleman, also built with Ruby, has a simpler installation process and requires fewer configuration steps.

  2. Templates and Layouts: Jekyll uses Liquid as its default templating language, allowing developers to specify reusable templates and layouts. Liquid offers a wide range of functionality and flexibility for creating dynamic content within static pages. Middleman, on the other hand, uses ERB (Embedded Ruby) as its default templating language. ERB is a powerful and widely used templating language that seamlessly integrates with Ruby code.

  3. Extensions and Plugins: Jekyll has a strong community support with numerous extensions and plugins available. These extensions and plugins enhance Jekyll's functionality and allow developers to add features like pagination, SEO optimization, and image processing. Middleman, while also having a variety of extensions and plugins, has a smaller community compared to Jekyll. However, Middleman does offer some unique plugins that are not available in Jekyll, such as asset compression and sitemap generation.

  4. Live Reloading and Development Server: Jekyll provides a built-in development server and live reloading feature, which automatically refreshes the browser whenever a change is made to the source files. This makes the development process efficient and allows for quick feedback on changes. Middleman also has a development server, but the live reloading feature requires an additional gem to be installed.

  5. Asset Pipeline and Build Process: Jekyll has a simple asset pipeline, which allows developers to manage and optimize their assets, such as CSS and JavaScript, during the build process. Middleman, on the other hand, has a more extensive asset pipeline with features like asset concatenation, minification, and fingerprinting. This enables better performance and optimization for the final website.

  6. Ease of Use and Learning Curve: Jekyll follows a convention-over-configuration approach, making it easy to get started for beginners. It has a relatively simple folder structure that is familiar to many developers. Middleman, on the other hand, provides more customization options and allows for a greater degree of control over the project structure. While this offers flexibility, it also introduces a steeper learning curve for new users.

In summary, Jekyll and Middleman differ in their installation and configuration process, default templating languages, availability of extensions and plugins, live reloading and development server capabilities, asset pipeline and build process, as well as the level of ease of use and learning curve. These differences should be considered when choosing between the two static site generators.

Decisions about Jekyll and Middleman
Manuel Feller
Frontend Engineer at BI X · | 4 upvotes · 161.4K views

As a Frontend Developer I wanted something simple to generate static websites with technology I am familiar with. GatsbyJS was in the stack I am familiar with, does not need any other languages / package managers and allows quick content deployment in pure HTML or Markdown (what you prefer for a project). It also does not require you to understand a theming engine if you need a custom design.

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Pros of Jekyll
Pros of Middleman
  • 74
    Github pages integration
  • 54
    Open source
  • 37
    It's slick, customisable and hackerish
  • 24
    Easy to deploy
  • 23
    Straightforward cms for the hacker mindset
  • 7
    Gitlab pages integration
  • 5
    Best for blogging
  • 2
    Low maintenance
  • 2
    Easy to integrate localization
  • 1
    Huge plugins ecosystem
  • 1
    Authoring freedom and simplicity
  • 20
    Rails for static sites
  • 18
    Erb, haml, slim
  • 17
    Live reload
  • 7
    Easy setup
  • 3
    Emacs org-mode integration by middleman-org
  • 1
    Make front-end easy and rock solid again

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Cons of Jekyll
Cons of Middleman
  • 4
    Build time increases exponentially as site grows
  • 2
    Lack of developments lately
  • 1
    Og doesn't work with postings dynamically
    Be the first to leave a con

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    What is Jekyll?

    Think of Jekyll as a file-based CMS, without all the complexity. Jekyll takes your content, renders Markdown and Liquid templates, and spits out a complete, static website ready to be served by Apache, Nginx or another web server. Jekyll is the engine behind GitHub Pages, which you can use to host sites right from your GitHub repositories.

    What is Middleman?

    Middleman is a command-line tool for creating static websites using all the shortcuts and tools of the modern web development environment.

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    What tools integrate with Jekyll?
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    What are some alternatives to Jekyll and Middleman?
    WordPress
    The core software is built by hundreds of community volunteers, and when you’re ready for more there are thousands of plugins and themes available to transform your site into almost anything you can imagine. Over 60 million people have chosen WordPress to power the place on the web they call “home” — we’d love you to join the family.
    Hugo
    Hugo is a static site generator written in Go. It is optimized for speed, easy use and configurability. Hugo takes a directory with content and templates and renders them into a full html website. Hugo makes use of markdown files with front matter for meta data.
    Hexo
    Hexo is a fast, simple and powerful blog framework. It parses your posts with Markdown or other render engine and generates static files with the beautiful theme. All of these just take seconds.
    Ghost
    Ghost is a platform dedicated to one thing: Publishing. It's beautifully designed, completely customisable and completely Open Source. Ghost allows you to write and publish your own blog, giving you the tools to make it easy and even fun to do.
    Sphinx
    It lets you either batch index and search data stored in an SQL database, NoSQL storage, or just files quickly and easily — or index and search data on the fly, working with it pretty much as with a database server.
    See all alternatives