I am currently using Hugo as a static site generator for my blog. It’s not bad but rather limited. Does anybody know about something that would be equally as lightweight but offer some more flexibility. I just don’t know what is out there so anything you guys could come up with would be appreciated.
There’s a big filterable list here: https://staticgen.com/
I’ve been using Pelican for a few years. It’s reasonably lightweight and very flexible, although the configuration could be prettier.
My blog is hosted on GitHub pages and it supports Jekyll. I use the MinimalMistakes template.
What do you find limited about Hugo?
The only limiting factor is really that if I am, say, in a public place that bans SSH access or SFTP access. I am starting to see more of this as deep packet inspection becomes available to the masses now. I could be composing my blog post on my laptop but be unable to otherwise publish it if I am on such a network that combines deep packet inspection with locking down ports.
That is a networking issue which is not specific to Hugo. You need to solve this as most of the suggestions also involve SSH.
One way is to use a VPN like openvpn or wireguard that can use a common port like 80 or 443.
No, of course it is not specific to Hugo. Solid point on OpenVPN because I forgot it can use TCP. However, does OpenVPN’s negotiation look like a TLS handshake from a browser to a client? Again, deep packet inspection is my enemy here.
Jekyll is great with a bunch of narrow tailored plugins to add only functionality you need. You can self host or use GitHub Pages (they only allow approved list of plugins).
I found this article questioning the future of Jekyll. It says one of the maintainers of Jekyll suggested 11ty as an alternative.
I have zero experience with either, tough; YMMV.
It’s still being developed 🤷 and as it’s an open-source project it can always be forked if the maintainers decide to stop.
I recall eleventy being pretty good.
I had one issue with it, re how it generated links, that didn’t match how I needed it to in order to migrate my site, which was a dealbreaker for me. But other than that, it was solid.
I despise jekyll, purely from the standpoint of the state of their documentation.
There was another, that was extremely lightweight and configurable, at the cost of requiring much configuration - I think it was called “metal” - if I can find it I’ll report back
Edit: Hexo and Metalsmith. Hexo scratches my javascript itch; metalsmith is extremely versatile - it’s more of an erector set than a finished thing.
