A couple of weeks ago we (Bejamas) published beginners guide to static site generators. A comprehensive overview of the top, most popular SSGs on the market. For each one, we’ve covered its history and state of the project at the moment. The best features and strengths. Ecosystem and most popular websites built with SSG in question. And finally how to start a basic project and deploy it.
With speed and performance being one of the key selling points for jamstack I was, as usual, interested in the performance scores of those websites we chose to showcase for each of the SSGs mentioned in the post. The results:
As you can see Eleventy, followed by Bridgetown, on average, has the best results. But the thing is, and I can't emphasize this enough, it really depends on each use case ie the complexity of the website in question.
Still, SSG space looks promising :-)
What would be your takeaway from this? Would love to get some feedback. Let's discuss it in the comment section below👇
Top comments (6)
I don't want to be rude, but for me its total bullshit, like 10/10 bullshit.
There is 0 comparaison here. How can you compare totally different websites, with different hosting ?? Putting data in a table will not make this a comparison
You want to make something relevant, maybe start with making the same website, on the same hosting, that sounds like a good start to me.
Thanks man but I don't compare them and I don't give any conclusion as to what is what etc. Laying out the results that I've found interesting.
"As you can see Eleventy, followed by Bridgetown, on average, has the best results"
Sounds like conclusion to me.
I think the other comments are not worded the best to be constructive, but they are spot on.
Looking at Lighthouse scores is not a reflection of the SSG in most cases. There are exceptions, like how Gatsby ties itself to React and tries to solve some of the front end.
The reflection of Lighthouse scores is only the front end code. The raw HTML, CSS, etc.
It’s one thing to argue that the default output of the site meets these scores because of how it solves issues like ensuring preload links are setup, or applying async/defer.
But these are production sites with teams of engineers working to make the code the best they can. And a team of marketing looking for customizations, crazy designs, and more third party tracking software.
It’s a good study of who is doing what well. But it’s not more of a reflection of eleventy vs any other.
To compare SSG look at the compile speed, ability to partially generate. How easy is it to maintain? How many lines of code? Etc.
Maybe my wording is off. The intention was not to compare them as in 'this over that' hence the meaning of "As you can see Eleventy, followed by Bridgetown, on average, has the best results" is not a conclusion (or intended as one) but merely stating the results.
And I totally agree with your point. Thx.
Yeah, agree with the other comment that it'd be difficult to do a meaningful comparison.
Anyway, I use Zola (github.com/getzola/zola) and it's quite fast.