
Ask HN: Best Node.js static blog generator? - diegorbaquero
I&#x27;m interested in the various views for the best NodeJS static blog generator.<p>Which is the best?<p>Why are you giving your recommendation?
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drinchev
I'm using metalsmith [1]. It's quite "Do it yourself", but very flexible on
the result.

1: [http://metalsmith.io](http://metalsmith.io)

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gotofritz
It's nice because simple, but the quality of the plugins and the documentation
is not very good. You end up wasting a bit of time discovering how to do even
simple stuff.

The nice thing is that you can easily knock together a plugin to do what you
need

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drinchev
> The nice thing is that you can easily knock together a plugin to do what you
> need

Precisely. I guess one of the reasons why metalsmith doesn't have any pre-
installed plugins is that. Fortunately with a combination of metalsmith & gulp
you can do wonders and it's quite flexible, compared to any other
`blackbox`-utility on the market.

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whsheet
I am also looking into this space and found
[https://www.staticgen.com/](https://www.staticgen.com/) quite helpful.

You can filter by language and then, you get Hexo, GitBook and Gatsby as the
front runners for Javscript ranked by Github stars.

~~~
diegorbaquero
Nice site! Has really helped me know what the "market" looks like. Thanks for
sharing

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tvjames
Does it have to be node.js? Are you looking to expand your JS skills, or do
you just want a decent static site generator? (If B, then hugo is awesome, and
awesome fast)

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diegorbaquero
I want to be able to understand and modify if needed. Although I do program in
other languages, I want to focus in NodeJS for now.

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itamarst
Just pick the most popular one. The differences will be minor enough that what
matters is documentation and support.

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rattray
Try Gatsby. Pretty full featured and works well. Also very easy to get up and
running quickly.

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whsheet
While Gatsby looks good, I remember that the last time I looked at it Gatsby
was always loading all blog posts. This isn't a problem for a small blog but
with a blog with hundreds of posts this wouldn't be efficient. Plus there are
some SEO issues because of its SPA nature. Are this issues still valid or did
Gatsby changed in these regards?

~~~
rattray
It's not SPA, it's static. You can load without any JS on the frontend if you
want I believe.

Code splitting is an expected part of an upcoming 1.0 release I believe (may
be misremembering)

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aloisdg
Hexo is by far the most popular. Easy to use, lot of themes, I really like it.

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jorgthuijls
Yeah hexo is pretty good

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fariz_
Try phronomic.io, the front end use react.

