---
title:                                  Site Generators
title_extention:                        Top open source Tools
tagline:                                Top open source Tools

#date:                                  2023-01-01
#last_modified:                         2023-01-01

categories:                             [ Jekyll ]
tags:                                   [ Generators ]

image:
  path:                                 /assets/image/modules/attics/machine-generator-1920x1280.jpg
  width:                                1920
  height:                               1280
  alt:                                  Site Generators

group:                                  Featured
series:                                 Featured

#tts:                                    false
fab_menu_id:                            open_toc
comments:                               false
regenerate:                             false

resources:                              [ lightbox ]
resource_options:
  - attic:
      padding_top:                      630
      slides:
        - url:                          /assets/image/modules/attics/machine-generator-1920x1280.jpg
          alt:                          Photo by Isis Françal on Unsplash
          badge:
            type:                       unsplash
            author:                     Isis França
            href:                       //unsplash.com/@isisfra
---

// Page Initializer
// =============================================================================
// Enable the Liquid Preprocessor
:page-liquid:

// Set (local) page attributes here
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// :page--attr:                         <attr-value>

// Place an excerpt at the most top position
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[role="dropcap"]
This article highlights the top Open Source projects providing static site
generators, so-called SSGs, in many different programming languages. You will
find Jekyll one of them.

A SSG is a software tool that assists in creating websites by generating
static HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. Unlike dynamic websites that generate
content on the server side in response to each request of a user, static sites
pre-generate the content upfront it is served to users.

excerpt__end

//  Load Liquid procedures
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
{% capture load_attributes %}themes/{{site.template.name}}/procedures/global/attributes_loader.proc{%endcapture%}

// Load page attributes
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
{% include {{load_attributes}} scope="all" %}


// Page content
// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
mdi:clock-time-five-outline[24px, md-gray mr-2 mt-4]
*3 Minutes* to read

// Include sub-documents (if any)
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[role="mt-5"]
== Dynamic Webs

A typical website driven by a CMS works by building each and every page
*dynamically*. That means fetching the content from a database to pass them
over to a an middleware engine to load the content, add the required
structure information, for example CSS styles, and Javascript components if
needed. This means every page is assembled *on demand*.

.Accessing Scheme for a CMS
lightbox::kickstart-wiad--dynamic-web-access[800, {data-kickstart-wiad--dynamic-web-access}]

callout::1["Web Browser"]
callout::2["Web Server"]
callout::3["Rendering Engine (e.g. PHP-based)"]
callout::4["Database (e.g. MySQL, Postgres)"]
callout::5["Static content (Images, Videos, JS- and CSS files) and Caches", ml-2 mb-3]


[role="mt-5"]
== Are CMS required?

For many websites, dynamic page generation is entirely unnecessary and adds
unwanted risks in terms of complexity, performance losses, and security
issues. After all, the content of most websites changes, when the content
authors make changes. Why the hell should a web page always be assembled on
demand if there are no changes?

[NOTE]
====
To be fair, most CMS are providing caching systems for web pages to
prevent unnecessary creation processes. It is not easy to implement such
a caching strategy, and in the very end, it adds the next level of
complexity.
====

A static site generator takes a different approach and generates all the pages
of the website *upfront*. That does not necessarily mean that a static website
is always built from scratch. Modern generators support a so-called
incremental build. When there are changes detected to the content, only
selected pages are rebuild.

.Accessing Scheme for a Static Web
lightbox::kickstart-wiad--static-web-access[800, {data-kickstart-wiad--static-web-access}]

callout::1["Web Browser"]
callout::2["Web Server"]
callout::3["Server-side rendered (prepared) static content", ml-2 mb-3]


[role="mt-5"]
== Static Webs

Overall, statically build web pages having no moving parts in the deployed
website. This results in browser-side caching only, the performance
goes up, and static sites are far more secure because they *build* already
and cannot be modified.

To find out what Open Source SSG are available today and their ranking in
terms of popularity, go for Jamstack. You'll find a comprehensive list of
static site generators used today.

[role="mb-4"]
Check the most popular site generators available at the
{url-jamstack--generators}[Jamstack, {browser-window--new}]
site.

.Top Ratings at Jamstack of October 2022
image::/assets/image/posts/featured/jamstack-generators.jpg["SSGs at Jamstack"]