Which is Better Static Site Generators?
gatsby vs vuepress vs hexo
1 Year
gatsbyvuepresshexoSimilar Packages:
What's Static Site Generators?

Static site generators (SSGs) are tools that compile source files into static HTML pages, which can be served directly to users without the need for server-side processing. They are designed to improve performance, security, and ease of deployment by pre-rendering content at build time. SSGs are particularly useful for blogs, documentation sites, and portfolios, as they allow developers to focus on content creation while leveraging the benefits of static hosting. Each of the listed packages has its unique strengths and use cases, catering to different developer preferences and project requirements.

NPM Package Downloads Trend
Github Stars Ranking
Stat Detail
Package
Downloads
Stars
Size
Issues
Publish
License
gatsby271,90355,2676.99 MB3898 days agoMIT
vuepress99,45922,58114.5 kB618a year agoMIT
hexo25,67139,519630 kB934 months agoMIT
Feature Comparison: gatsby vs vuepress vs hexo

Framework Integration

  • gatsby: Gatsby is built on top of React, allowing developers to leverage the entire React ecosystem, including components, hooks, and state management libraries. This integration facilitates the creation of highly interactive and dynamic web applications with a static site generator's performance benefits.
  • vuepress: VuePress is designed specifically for Vue.js applications, enabling developers to create Vue components within their Markdown files. This allows for a seamless integration of interactive elements and dynamic content, making it particularly suitable for documentation sites that require both static content and interactivity.
  • hexo: Hexo is a standalone static site generator that does not rely on any front-end framework. It is designed primarily for blogging, making it straightforward for users who want a simple setup without the overhead of a framework. Hexo uses a templating engine to render pages, which can be customized with themes and plugins.

Performance Optimization

  • gatsby: Gatsby excels in performance optimization through features like automatic code splitting, image optimization, and pre-fetching resources. It generates static HTML at build time, ensuring fast load times and improved SEO. Gatsby's GraphQL data layer allows for efficient data fetching, reducing the amount of data sent to the client.
  • vuepress: VuePress generates static HTML files and optimizes them for performance, but its strength lies in the ability to create interactive Vue components. This allows for a balance between static content and dynamic features, making it suitable for documentation that requires user interaction while maintaining good performance.
  • hexo: Hexo generates static HTML pages quickly, making it one of the fastest static site generators available. It uses caching to speed up the build process and serves pre-rendered pages, ensuring minimal load times. However, Hexo's performance optimizations are less extensive compared to Gatsby, focusing primarily on simplicity and speed.

Content Management

  • gatsby: Gatsby supports various content management systems (CMS) through plugins, allowing developers to pull in data from headless CMSs, Markdown files, or APIs. This flexibility makes it suitable for projects that require dynamic content updates and complex data structures.
  • vuepress: VuePress uses Markdown as its primary content format, making it easy to write and manage documentation. It supports custom themes and plugins, allowing for enhanced functionality and styling, but is primarily focused on documentation rather than complex content management.
  • hexo: Hexo uses Markdown files for content management, making it easy for users to write and publish blog posts. It has a simple directory structure and supports various plugins for additional functionality, but it lacks the advanced content management features found in Gatsby or VuePress.

Learning Curve

  • gatsby: Gatsby has a moderate learning curve, especially for developers unfamiliar with React. Understanding the concepts of GraphQL and React components is essential, but the extensive documentation and community support help ease the learning process.
  • vuepress: VuePress is relatively easy to learn for those familiar with Vue.js. Its integration of Vue components within Markdown files allows for a smooth transition for Vue developers, but those new to Vue may face a steeper learning curve compared to Hexo.
  • hexo: Hexo is easy to learn and set up, making it ideal for beginners who want to start a blog quickly. Its straightforward configuration and use of Markdown make it accessible, but it may lack advanced features for more complex projects.

Extensibility

  • gatsby: Gatsby offers a rich plugin ecosystem that allows developers to extend its functionality easily. With a wide variety of plugins available for SEO, image optimization, and data sourcing, developers can customize their Gatsby sites to meet specific needs without extensive coding.
  • vuepress: VuePress allows for custom themes and plugins, enabling developers to extend its capabilities. While it is primarily focused on documentation, the ability to create interactive Vue components adds a layer of extensibility for technical documentation.
  • hexo: Hexo supports a range of plugins and themes, allowing users to customize their blogs. However, its extensibility is more limited compared to Gatsby, focusing primarily on blogging features rather than complex application needs.
How to Choose: gatsby vs vuepress vs hexo
  • gatsby: Choose Gatsby if you are looking for a powerful framework that integrates seamlessly with React, offers a rich plugin ecosystem, and excels in performance optimization through features like code splitting and image optimization. It's ideal for complex sites that require dynamic data fetching from various sources.
  • vuepress: Choose VuePress if you are building documentation or a content-heavy site that benefits from Vue.js components. VuePress provides a default theme optimized for documentation, supports Markdown, and allows for the creation of interactive components, making it great for technical documentation and project showcases.
  • hexo: Choose Hexo if you prefer a simple, fast, and minimalistic blogging platform that is easy to set up and use. Hexo is particularly suited for developers who want to create a blog quickly with Markdown support and a straightforward templating system, making it ideal for personal blogs or small projects.
README for gatsby

Gatsby

Gatsby

The future of web development is here.

Gatsby is a free and open source framework based on React that helps developers build blazing fast websites and apps.
It combines the control and scalability of dynamically rendered sites with the speed of static-site generation, creating a whole new web of possibilities.

Gatsby is released under the MIT license. Current CircleCI build status. Current npm package version. Downloads per month on npm. Total downloads on npm. PRs welcome! Follow @GatsbyJS

Quickstart · Tutorial · Plugins · Starters · Showcase · Contribute
Support: Twitter, Discussions & Discord

Gatsby helps professional developers efficiently create maintainable, highly-performant, content-rich websites.

  • Load Data From Anywhere. Gatsby pulls in data from any data source, whether it’s Markdown files, a headless CMS like Contentful or WordPress, or a REST or GraphQL API. Use source plugins to load your data, then develop using Gatsby’s uniform GraphQL interface.

  • Go Beyond Static Websites. Get all the benefits of static websites with none of the limitations. Gatsby sites are fully functional React apps, so you can create high-quality, dynamic web apps, from blogs to e-commerce sites to user dashboards.

  • Choose your Rendering Options. You can choose alternative rendering options, namely Deferred Static Generation (DSG) and Server-Side Rendering (SSR), in addition to Static Site Generation (SSG) — on a per-page basis. This type of granular control allows you to optimize for performance and productivity without sacrificing one for the other.

  • Performance Is Baked In. Ace your performance audits by default. Gatsby automates code splitting, image optimization, inlining critical styles, lazy-loading, prefetching resources, and more to ensure your site is fast — no manual tuning required.

  • Use a Modern Stack for Every Site. No matter where the data comes from, Gatsby sites are built using React and GraphQL. Build a uniform workflow for you and your team, regardless of whether the data is coming from the same backend.

  • Host at Scale for Pennies. Gatsby sites don’t require servers, so you can host your entire site on a CDN for a fraction of the cost of a server-rendered site. Many Gatsby sites can be hosted entirely free on Gatsby Cloud and other similar services.

  • Use Gatsby's Centralized Data Layer Everywhere. With Gatsby's Valhalla Content Hub you can bring Gatsby's data layer to any project. Making it accessible via a unified GraphQL API for building content sites, eCommerce platforms, and both native and web applications.

Learn how to use Gatsby for your next project.

🚀 Ship your first Gatsby site in 5 Minutes

Click the link below to quickly try the workflow of developing, building, and deploying websites with Gatsby and Gatsby Cloud.

Deploy to Gatsby Cloud

At the end of this process, you'll have

  1. a site working on Gatsby Cloud
  2. a new repository that is linked to that new site
  3. as you push changes to your new repository, Gatsby Cloud will automatically rebuild and redeploy your site!

💻 Get started with Gatsby locally in 5 Minutes

You can get a new Gatsby site up and running on your local dev environment in 5 minutes with these four steps:

  1. Initialize a new project.

    npm init gatsby
    

    Give it the name "My Gatsby Site".

  2. Start the site in develop mode.

    Next, move into your new site’s directory and start it up:

    cd my-gatsby-site/
    npm run develop
    
  3. Open the source code and start editing!

    Your site is now running at http://localhost:8000. Open the my-gatsby-site directory in your code editor of choice and edit src/pages/index.js. Save your changes, and the browser will update in real time!

At this point, you’ve got a fully functional Gatsby website. For additional information on how you can customize your Gatsby site, see our plugins and the official tutorial.

🎓 Learning Gatsby

Full documentation for Gatsby lives on the website.

  • For most developers, we recommend starting with our in-depth tutorial for creating a site with Gatsby. It starts with zero assumptions about your level of ability and walks through every step of the process.

  • To dive straight into code samples head to our documentation. In particular, check out the “How-to Guides”, “Reference”, and “Conceptual Guides” sections in the sidebar.

We welcome suggestions for improving our docs. See the “how to contribute” documentation for more details.

Start Learning Gatsby: Follow the Tutorial · Read the Docs

🚢 Release Notes

Wondering what we've shipped recently? Check out our release notes for key highlights, performance improvements, new features, and notable bugfixes.

Also, read our documentation on version support to understand our plans for each version of Gatsby.

💼 Migration Guides

Already have a Gatsby site? These handy guides will help you add the improvements of Gatsby v5 to your site without starting from scratch!

❗ Code of Conduct

Gatsby is dedicated to building a welcoming, diverse, safe community. We expect everyone participating in the Gatsby community to abide by our Code of Conduct. Please read it. Please follow it. In the Gatsby community, we work hard to build each other up and create amazing things together. 💪💜

🤝 How to Contribute

Whether you're helping us fix bugs, improve the docs, or spread the word, we'd love to have you as part of the Gatsby community!

Check out our Contributing Guide for ideas on contributing and setup steps for getting our repositories up and running on your local machine.

A note on how this repository is organized

This repository is a monorepo managed using Lerna. This means there are multiple packages managed in this codebase, even though we publish them to NPM as separate packages.

📝 License

Licensed under the MIT License.

💜 Thanks

Thanks go out to all our many contributors creating plugins, starters, videos, and blog posts. And a special appreciation for our community members helping with issues and PRs, or answering questions on Discord and GitHub Discussions.

A big part of what makes Gatsby great is each and every one of you in the community. Your contributions enrich the Gatsby experience and make it better every day.