Using Jekyll in 2021

An article, posted almost 4 years ago filed in ssg, jekyll, review, ruby & static site generators.

I am currently selecting a static site generator for an upcoming project. I value technical simplicity (exit React based solutions), like ruby and in the Static Site Generator category Jekyll is an established name. But doesn’t the project that started in October 2008 show signs of age?

Pro’s:

  • It is ruby based (whether that is a pro for you depends on your aesthetics)
  • It is simple
  • It is easy to extend
  • Format for posts is Markdown
  • Hosting it is simple

Con’s:

  • Liquid (a templating language developed by Shopify) is limiting, I’d preferred ERB as a template language.
  • “There is a plugin for that” disappoints, many are pre-bundler era (hence requiring copying code) and quality differs a lot.
  • Lacks even a simple asset pipeline for JavaScript; hence bundle minified JS files together or build the final JS in a separate webpack-process.
  • The builds won’t be as quick as a go-based or other pre-compiled solutions

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