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Jekyll vs Squarespace: What are the differences?
Developers describe Jekyll as "Blog-aware, static site generator in Ruby". 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. On the other hand, Squarespace is detailed as "Everything You Need To Create An Exceptional Website". Whether you need simple pages, sophisticated galleries, a professional blog, or want to sell online, it all comes standard with your Squarespace website. Squarespace starts you with beautiful designs right out of the box — each handcrafted by our award-winning design team to make your content stand out.
Jekyll can be classified as a tool in the "Static Site Generators" category, while Squarespace is grouped under "Website Builder".
Some of the features offered by Jekyll are:
- 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.
On the other hand, Squarespace provides the following key features:
- SELL ANYTHING- Easily add a store to any Squarespace website and start selling physical and digital goods immediately.
- PAINLESS STORE MANAGEMENT- Manage your inventory, process customer orders, print packing slips, and customize emails all in one intuitive interface.
- BUILD BETTER PAGES WITH LAYOUTENGINE- LayoutEngine technology gives you the freedom to create visually rich pages with any configuration of text, images, products, and content blocks. Simply drag and drop your content exactly where you want and we'll automatically align them in a perfect grid.
"Github pages integration" is the primary reason why developers consider Jekyll over the competitors, whereas "Easy setup" was stated as the key factor in picking Squarespace.
Jekyll is an open source tool with 38K GitHub stars and 8.28K GitHub forks. Here's a link to Jekyll's open source repository on GitHub.
According to the StackShare community, Squarespace has a broader approval, being mentioned in 418 company stacks & 23 developers stacks; compared to Jekyll, which is listed in 110 company stacks and 123 developer stacks.
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.
Pros of Jekyll
- Github pages integration74
- Open source54
- It's slick, customisable and hackerish37
- Easy to deploy24
- Straightforward cms for the hacker mindset23
- Gitlab pages integration7
- Best for blogging5
- Low maintenance2
- Easy to integrate localization2
- Huge plugins ecosystem1
- Authoring freedom and simplicity1
Pros of Squarespace
- Easy setup35
- Clean designs31
- Beautiful responsive themes8
- Easy ongoing maintenance6
- Live chat & 24/7 support team3
- No coding necessary1
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Cons of Jekyll
- Build time increases exponentially as site grows4
- Lack of developments lately2
- Og doesn't work with postings dynamically1
Cons of Squarespace
- Hard to use custom code1
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