Do you use the best static site tech stack?

Pure HTML pages are the fastest website around. However, server-side scripting languages enable richer functionality. Static sites solve this problem by providing the best of both worlds. Static sites are:

Cheap
Easy to use
Fast

On the other hand, complex functionality can be a bit more limited and time consuming to implement.

Here are some popular static site generators:

Features

Name	NextJS (Recommended)	Gatsby 🪦	Astro	Hugo	Builder.io
Language	React	React	Most major JS frameworks via islands	Go	Customizable
Data Handling	Fully customisable	GraphQL	Fully customisable	Customizable	Fully customisable
Data Sources	Fully customisable	Filesystems, CMS, APIs, Databases, Local files	Fully customisable	Filesystem	CMS, APIs, Customizable
GitHub Pages Integration	Requires setup	Seamless deployment via config files	Deployment via GitHub Actions	Deployment with GitHub Actions	Customizable
TinaCMS integration	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅

Note: 🪦 Gatsby is no longer being actively developed.

(Data captured in late 2024)

Name	Next.js (Recommended)	Gatsby	Hugo	Astro	Builder.io
GitHub Stars	127,000 👑	55,000	75,000	47,000	8,000
NPM Downloads (Weekly)	6,000,000 👑	260,000	N/A	247,000	N/A
Stack Overflow Questions	92,000 👑	15,000	6,000	2,000	100
BuiltWith Sites	1,400,000 👑	126,000	167,000	483,000	N/A
State of JS (2023)	57% used it 👑	17% used it	N/A	17% used it	N/A
Google Trends Rank	1st 👑	4th	3rd	2nd	5th (almost 0 data)

google trends nextjs — Figure: Google trends for the above SSGs. In a substantial lead is NextJS, followed by Gatsby

GatsbyVsNextjs — Figure: NextJS and Gatsby are the major competitors that have been duking it out, lately Next.js has exploded in popularity

Two examples of static sites in action are SSW People and SSW Rules.

There are a few hosting options to choose from including:

Name	Description	Pros	Cons
Vercel	A fast, developer-friendly platform optimized for frontend frameworks like Next.js, with built-in CI/CD and global edge deployment. Vercel is recommended for applications built using Next.js.	🚀 Automatic deployments, fast CDN, Next.js support, serverless functions.	❌ Limited free tier, can be costly for high traffic.
Azure static web apps	Microsoft's solution for deploying static sites with integrated APIs, authentication, and automatic GitHub/Azure DevOps deployments.	🔄 Integrated with Azure Functions, authentication, GitHub Actions, free tier available.	❌ More complex setup.
Azure static storage	A simple, cost-effective way to serve static files from Azure Blob Storage with CDN and custom domain support.	💰 Cheap storage costs, integrates with Azure CDN, scalable.	❌ No built-in CI/CD, manual setup needed.
Cloudflare	A high-performance static site host leveraging Cloudflare’s global CDN, DDoS protection, and edge computing capabilities.	🌍 Free global CDN, DDoS protection, edge functions, fast builds.	❌ Limited build minutes on free tier, less backend flexibility.
GitHub Pages	A free, GitHub-integrated static site hosting service, best suited for personal projects, documentation, and Jekyll-based blogs.	🆓 Free for public repos, easy integration with GitHub, supports Jekyll.	❌ Limited to static sites, no server-side processing, slower updates.
Surge.sh	A lightweight, CLI-based static hosting service that’s quick to deploy and great for simple, no-frills web apps.	⚡ Super simple CLI deployment, free tier available, custom domains supported.	❌ Fewer features, no built-in CI/CD, not ideal for large-scale projects.