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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
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  4. Static Site Generators
  5. Jekyll vs Nikola

Jekyll vs Nikola

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Jekyll
Jekyll
Stacks2.0K
Followers1.4K
Votes230
GitHub Stars51.0K
Forks10.2K
Nikola
Nikola
Stacks26
Followers27
Votes5
GitHub Stars2.7K
Forks466

Jekyll vs Nikola: What are the differences?

Introduction: Jekyll and Nikola are both static site generators but have key differences in their features and functionalities.

  1. Programming Language: Jekyll is written in Ruby, while Nikola is written in Python. This difference in programming languages may affect the ease of customization and the familiarity of developers with the tools.

  2. Themes and Plugins: Jekyll has a larger community with a wider range of themes and plugins available for users to customize their sites. On the other hand, Nikola has a smaller community, which may limit the choices of themes and plugins.

  3. Configuration Complexity: Jekyll has a more straightforward configuration process compared to Nikola. Users may find setting up Jekyll sites easier due to its simplicity, while Nikola may require more technical knowledge to configure.

  4. Workflow and Automation: Jekyll has built-in support for Sass and CoffeeScript, which can streamline the development process. Nikola, on the other hand, may require additional setup for these features, leading to a potentially more manual workflow.

  5. Built-in Features: Jekyll comes with features like drafts, posts, and pages out of the box, making it easier for beginners to start creating content. In contrast, Nikola might require more manual setup for these basic functionalities.

  6. Community Support: Jekyll has a larger and more active community compared to Nikola, providing users with more resources, tutorials, and help forums. This can be advantageous for users seeking assistance or looking to connect with other developers using the same platform.

In Summary, Jekyll and Nikola differ in programming languages, themes, configuration complexity, workflow automation, built-in features, and community support.

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Advice on Jekyll, Nikola

Manuel
Manuel

Frontend Engineer at BI X

Jul 22, 2020

Decided

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.

178k views178k
Comments
Kazim
Kazim

Founder & Developer at Devkind

May 13, 2020

Needs advice

Fastest and quickest way to do static HTML site which is extremely fast? Do you consider above tools or is there anything more quicker or better? This is just a one time one pager site for now, no backend required. I might have such projects in future, having something to get familiar with which can immediately come into action to develop would be great advise!

53.5k views53.5k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Jekyll
Jekyll
Nikola
Nikola

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.

It is a Python package that allows the user to create static websites using Python metadata. Static websites are safer, use fewer resources, and avoid vendor and platform lock-in.

Simple - No more databases, comment moderation, or pesky updates to install—just your content.;Static - Markdown (or Textile), Liquid, HTML & CSS go in. Static sites come out ready for deployment.;Blog-aware - Permalinks, categories, pages, posts, and custom layouts are all first-class citizens here.
Host anywhere; Fast rebuilds; Multiple input formats; Batteries included
Statistics
GitHub Stars
51.0K
GitHub Stars
2.7K
GitHub Forks
10.2K
GitHub Forks
466
Stacks
2.0K
Stacks
26
Followers
1.4K
Followers
27
Votes
230
Votes
5
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 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
Cons
  • 4
    Build time increases exponentially as site grows
  • 2
    Lack of developments lately
  • 1
    Og doesn't work with postings dynamically
Pros
  • 1
    Open Source
  • 1
    Jinja2
  • 1
    Implemented in Python
  • 1
    Themes and templates with Mako or Jinja2
  • 1
    IPython (Jupyter) Notebooks
Integrations
No integrations available
WordPress
WordPress
Python
Python
Travis CI
Travis CI
Markdown
Markdown
HTML5
HTML5
GitLab Pages
GitLab Pages

What are some alternatives to Jekyll, Nikola?

Hugo

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.

Gatsby

Gatsby

Gatsby lets you build blazing fast sites with your data, whatever the source. Liberate your sites from legacy CMSs and fly into the future.

Hexo

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.

Middleman

Middleman

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

Gridsome

Gridsome

Build websites using latest web tech tools that developers love - Vue.js, GraphQL and Webpack. Get hot-reloading and all the power of Node.js. Gridsome makes building websites fun again.

Pelican

Pelican

Pelican is a static site generator that supports Markdown and reST syntax. Write your weblog entries directly with your editor of choice (vim!) in reStructuredText or Markdown.

DocPad

DocPad

Empower your website frontends with layouts, meta-data, pre-processors (markdown, jade, coffeescript, etc.), partials, skeletons, file watching, querying, and an amazing plugin system. DocPad will streamline your web development process allowing you to craft full-featured websites quicker than ever before.

Metalsmith

Metalsmith

In Metalsmith, all of the logic is handled by plugins. You simply chain them together. Since everything is a plugin, the core library is actually just an abstraction for manipulating a directory of files.

11ty

11ty

A simpler static site generator. An alternative to Jekyll. Written in JavaScript. Transforms a directory of templates (of varying types) into HTML. Works with HTML, Markdown, Liquid, Nunjucks, Handlebars, Mustache, EJS, Haml, Pug, and JavaScript Template Literals.

MkDocs

MkDocs

It builds completely static HTML sites that you can host on GitHub pages, Amazon S3, or anywhere else you choose. There's a stack of good looking themes available. The built-in dev-server allows you to preview your documentation as you're writing it. It will even auto-reload and refresh your browser whenever you save your changes.

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