Looking for a Minimal CMS
Micro blogs or static site generators, appropriate for shared hosting applications
Have used TiddlyWiki and seems to be the pick of single page applications.
Lists
http://siliconangle.com/blog/2012/03/20/5-minimalist-static-html-blog-generators-to-check-out/
http://www.subspacefield.org/~travis/static_blog_generators.html
http://evanmuehlhausen.com/a-few-static-blog-generators/
https://staticsitegenerators.net/
http://www.quora.com/Whats-the-best-available-static-blog-website-generator-in-Python
Lists of Static Website Generators
Dynamic websites certainly have their place on the internet, but you may find the enhanced security, performance and ease of hosting a static site to be just what you need. So here's the big list of static site generators (the sequel to Timo's original "32 static website generators for your site, blog or wiki") to get you started, sorted by language/platform.
Note: Writing a comprehensive list of static site generators would be nearly impossible (the quantity is astounding), and not all that useful, so the following list only contains generators that are actively being maintained and/or have a decent website. If you have anything to add to the list, just let us know via Twitter @iwantmyname.
Clojure
misaki - A Jekyll-inspired blog built in Clojure.
Git
Fugitive - A blog engine running on top of git using hooks to generate static html pages.
Go
Gostatic - A static site generator written in Go that tracks changes and works fast.
Hugo - Flexibly works with many formats and is ideal for blogs, docs, portfolios and more.
Haskell
Hakyll - A Haskell library that creates fast and secure small-to-medium sites and personal blogs.
yst - Generates static sites by filling string templates with data from YAML or CSV text files or SQLite 3 file-based databases.
Java
JBake - Structure your content any way you see fit with a Java-based site/blog generator.
Lisp
Coleslaw - Aims to be flexible blogware that replaces single-user static compilers like Jekyll.
Node.js
Blacksmith - Uses weld, jsdom and marked to turn JSON, Markdown and HTML/CSS into "awesome" static sites.
Codex - A simple tool built in Jade and themed in Stylus that uses Markdown documents.
DocPad - Allows for content management via the file system, rendering via plugins, and static site generation for deployment anywhere.
Harp - Harp serves Jade, Markdown, EJS, CoffeeScript, Sass, LESS and Stylus as HTML, CSS & JavaScript—no configuration necessary.
Hexo - A Node.js powered generator that supports multi-thread generating, allowing it to process hundreds of files in seconds.
Metalsmith - An extremely simple site generator with logic completely handled by plugins.
Poet - A blog generator in node.js that renders "markdown/jade/whatever posts" fast.
Punch - Create simple, intuitive sites with a publishing framework built for ease-of-use.
Roots - A light, super fast and intuitive static build system made for front end development and web apps.
Wintersmith - A flexible, multi-platform static site generator built on top of node.js.
Perl
Blosxom - A full-featured weblog application with a tiny footprint.
Dapper - Distributed as a Perl module, Dapper is a flexible (and fast) tool for creating static websites.
PHP
Dropplets - Write and publish content with Markdown, while cuttings all the clutter.
Phrozn - Static site generator written and extensible in PHP, designed with extensibility in mind.
PieCrust - A static site generator and lightweight CMS that's all managed with text files.
Second Crack - "Unsuitable and unnecessary for nearly everyone," but Marco Arment wrote and uses it to power Marco.org.
Sculpin - Converts Markdown, Twig templates or standard HTML into static HTML sites.
Stacey - A lightweight content management system managed simply by creating folders and editing text files.
Templeet - Can easily generate HTML, CSS, SVG pictures, SMIL and text files.
Tempo - Uses PHP-based templates, test files and images to build static HTML sites.
Python
acrylamid - A static blog generator with incremental rendering.
Blatter - Uses dynamic templates and copied-over static files to create and publish static sites.
Blogofile - A simple blogging engine using Python that requires no database and no special hosting environment.
Cactus - A powerful static site builder using Python and the Django template system.
Chisel - An incredibly lightweight (less than 8kb) blog generation utility.
Flask - A micro-framework for Python based on Werkzeug, Jija 2 and "good intentions."
Hyde - Generates static websites with Python and Django that provide instant refresh and tons of flexibility.
ikiwiki - Converts wiki pages into HTML pages for simple publishing.
Jinja - A widely used and BSD licensed template engine for Python.
Letterpress - A minimal blogging system built for a better writing experience.
Mako - A template library written in Python that's used by Reddit to deliver "over a billion page views per month."
Mynt - Designed to give all the features of a CMS with none of the rigid implementations.
Nikola - A themable, flexible static site and blog generator with a tidy codebase
PyGreen - Put all the files in a server, then it invokes the Mako template engine on all HTML files.
Pelican - Creates completely static output that requires no database or server-side logic.
Poole - A Markdown-driven static site generator that creates simple sites with navigation menus.
Radpress - "A simple blog application for Djangonauts."
Socrates - A simple static site generator geared towards blogging.
Sphinx - Makes it easy to create "intelligent and beautiful documentation."
Static Ninja - A library for easily deploying static sites using the jinja2 templating language.
Wok - Similar to Jekyll, Hyde and nanoc, but with a restricted focus of features.
Ruby
Assemble - The static site generator for Grunt.js, Yeoman and Node.js.
:awestruct - A framework for creating static HTML files, inspired by Jekyll.
Bonsai - Creates dynamic websites that focus on well-defined hierarchies without the need of a database or admin interface.
Frank - Builds static sites using Tilt, with support for Haml & Sass, LESS, Builder, ERB, and Liquid.
Hobix - A Ruby-based site generator for users who are "able to do a triple front-flip without using your legs at all." Or else "you will go to Federal prison."
Jekyll - A "blog-aware" tool that quickly transforms your plain text (or Markdown) into static websites.
Middleman - Uses all the shortcuts and tools in modern web development to generate static sites.
MObtvse - A blogging platform for people who want a clean web interface for creating Markdown posts.
Nanoc - Creates static sites of all kind with support for free-form metadata, various markup/templating languages and more.
NestaCMS - Simple, easy code for developers and designers that is easily extended using the Sinatra web framework.
Octopress - A "blog aware" static site generator based on mojombo/jekyll.
Ruhoh - Similar to Jekyll and Nanoc, while giving you the tools to "publish websites like a BOSS."
Stasis - A powerful static website generator using Ruby.
Toto - "The 10 second blog-engine for hackers."
Webby - Uses your favorite markup language to combine the contents of a page with a layout to produce HTML
Webgen - Lets you concentrate on writing content with support for any markup and built-in helper tools.
Scala
Monkeyman - A static site generator similar to Middleman that's built in Scala.
Not static, but in the same universe
Kirby - A PHP-built CMS that's "easy to setup, easy to use, flexible as hell."
Statamic - A flat-file CMS built on PHP with a beautiful and responsive control panel designed with clients in mind.
The list of sources
- Timo's original list of 32, sources included
- Klint Finley's "5 Minimalist Static Blog Generators to Check Out" on Silicon Angle
- Thorpe Obazee's "Complete List of Static Site Generators for Python" on gist.pages
- BitBalloon's static-site leaderboard, titled "Top Static Site Generators Comparison"
- The metric ton of comments and tweets we got from the last post. Thanks so much for helping us make this list great.
From http://www.mzlinux.org/?q=node/415
The static site generators are so numerous, that I will not try to list all of them, but some selection, excluding the software which are only targeted to blogs. My selection may also be biased toward python.
You can find a list on Nanoc Site or in the 32 Static Website Generators For Your Site, Blog Or Wiki (2011 post, a lot of new sites since then.).
Steve Kemp has put on GitHub a review of static site generators including gostatic, hakyll, jekyll, nanoc, pelican, poole, templer, webby, webgen, wintersmith.
A very complete list but limited to a list is Static Site Generators.
Lists by programming language
The site generators are written in various languages:
- in python: Acrylamid, Chisel, Cyrax, Elyse, Growl, Handcrank, Hyde, liquidluck, MarkDoc, MarkWiki, Nib, Nikola, Pelican, Mynt, Poole, simple-docs, StrangeCase, Soho, Webber, Wok.
- in Ruby: Awestruct, Bonsai, Jekyll, Gollum-site, Middleman, Nanoc, Ruho, shelob, many more referenced in the ruby toolbox .
- in Haskell: Hakyll
- in Php: Ewiki
- in node.js: docpad, BlackSmith, Codex, Punch, Wintersmith, A list of Node Based Static Site Generators
- in shell: simple-static, sw, werc
- in emacs-lisp o-blog, org-page, org-site
List by page format
- Markdown: Acrylamid, Awestruct, BlackSmith, Bonsai, Docpad Chisel, Codex, Elyse, Gollum-Site, Jekyll, Hakyll, Hyde, liquidluck, MarkDoc, MarkWiki, Middleman, Mynt, nanoc, Nib, Nikola, Pelican, Poole, Punch, Ruho, simple-docs, simple-static, sw, werc Wintersmith, Wok.
- ReSTructured text: Acrylamid, Flask-rst, Gollum-Site, Handcrank, Hyde, Jekyll, liquidluck, Nikola, Pelican, Soho, Wok,
- AsciiDoc: Awestruct, Gollum-Site, Hyde, Pelican,
- Org-mode: Gollum-Site, Hyde, Jekyll, o-blog, org-page, org-site
Site generators list
- Acrylamid (BSD License)
by Martin Zimmermann is a
static blog (and articles) generator written in python and using
Markdown, reStructuredText or textile.
GitHub: Acrylamid.
- Acrylamid includes a search engine.
- Awestruct (MIT License) is a ruby static website generator, that uses Asciidoc an Markdown (+Haml) formats.
BlackSmith (MIT License) is a node.js static site generator for markdown pages. It is developed by Nodejitsu people and the Nodejitsu site is a good exemple of the use of BlackSmith.
- BlackSmith allow to produce both blogs and documentations. The Nodejitsu Handbook which is an example of doc produced by BlackSmith and its source is available in GitHub.
- blacksmith-sites is a collection of templates for BlackSmith.
- winterSmith is derived from BlackSmith.
Blacksmith seems a very complete project, but it has high dependencies on the modules from Nodejitsu software, we may have hard time to migrate our site if Nodejitsu die before us.
- Bonsai (GitHub) (MIT License) is a ruby static site generator with Liquid templates and Markdown pages.
- Chisel is a minimal (100 lines) python static blog generation utility using jinja2 and Markdown.
- Codex (MIT License) is a node.js static site generator from Markdown files. It uses Jade for templating and Stylus for the style (css). Chai documentation is done with Codex.
- Cyrax is a static site generator in python using Jinja2 template engine
- Docpad (MIT License)
a node.js site generator for MarkDown pages.
- Docpad Documentation.
- DocPad can be deployed on many hosting solutions : S3, Google Storage, a node.js provider, GitHub pages, or as static pages on any server.
- Docpad Sunny (MIT License) is a Docpad plugin using Sunny to publish your DocPad site to Amazon S3 or Google Storage.
- Many pre-made DocPad skeletons are availables.
- Elyse is a very simple (450 SLOC) static site generator in python, using misaka to generate documentation from mardown sources. The documentation of misaka is an example of the use of elyse.
- Ewiki is a small Wiki written in PHP. It uses Git as backend and a custom markup.
- Flask You can transfom your Flask
application to a static site with
Frozen-Flask
(BSD License) by Simon Sapin.
- Hosting static Flask sites for free on Github Pages is a tutorial by Steven Loria accompanied by an example of static Flask app on Github pages , killtheyak - a larger example is also available.
- Flask-rst is a python tool to create a website from a source of reStructuredText that uses Flask.
- Gollum-Site
is a static site generator for Gollum
like Gollum it is written in Ruby with a git backend and accept pages written in
Asciidoc, Creole, Markdown, Org Mode, Pod, RDoc,
ReStructuredText, Textile, MediaWiki.
- Like Gollum Gollum-Site uses the Liquid Templating System.
- Riak had previously its wiki written in Gollum and Gollum-site, you can still find the source of the Riak-Wiki on GitHub. But now Riak switched to middleman
- Gollum-Site has not followed the Gollum new release and is still linked to Gollum 1.4. and many sites either changed of static generator or upgraded to Gollum 2, but dropped Gollum-Site
- Growl (GPL) an other python static site generator inspired by Jekyll. It uses MarkDown as markup language, and has Minimal dependencies python python-yaml and a templating engine like jinja2. It allows only a simple layout and has not changed since 2009.
- Hakyll is a Haskell library for generating static sites, aimed at small-to-medium sites and personal blogs. Integration with pandoc give Markdown and TeX support.
- Handcrank (BSD license) by Rob Madole is a python static site generator for converting reStructuredText into HTML5 and CSS3. Both the handcrank manual and Rob Madole Home page are built with handcrank.
Hyde (MIT License) is a python static website generator.
There are two Hydes (and the second one is not Jekyll ). Both are on GitHub the Legacy Hyde and the New Hyde. This last is said to be developed actively, but the repository activity, and the state of the manual, don't confirm this assertion.
We can use blocks of text formatted in Markdown, Textile, reStructuredText, AsciiDoc and use Pygments for source code.
- Hyde Starter Kit by Merlin Rebrović is a Hyde tutorial and example site; also included in an Hyde installation as a layout named starter. merlin.rebrovic.net the website of Merlin Rebrović is also an open source Hyde site
- The Documentation for Hyde is itself an open source Hyde site
- Hyde tutorial Setting up a static site using Hyde inside the Hyde site of Michael Grosner (source.
- Org-Hyde allow to push org content under Hyde. It is a fork of Org Jekyll
Among the many open source examples of Hyde sites:
- RingCe from the author of Hyde Lakshmi Vyas, has its source on GitHub.
- Vincent Bernat has switched to Hyde his site luffy.cx and the source is available at GitHub
- Steve Losh also explains how he moved from Django to Hyde and his Hyde settings. The source of his site is at GitHub.
- Jekyll (MIT License)
is a static site generator written in ruby that
uses Textile, Markdown or HTML as markup.
- Jekyll is the engine behind GitHub Pages
- Jekyll Wiki pages
- There is a huge list of jekyll plugins
- Jekyll Introduction from Jekyll-Bootstrap has itself its source on GitHub
- There are many examples sites to help you to boostrap your Jekyll powered site: Jekyll-Bootstrap, Lukasz Grzegorz Maciak: Sample-Jekyll-Site , Hendrik Kleinwaechter - jekyll-quickstart use Slim template
- Automated deployment for Jekyll with Git illustrate jekyll Deployment
- [Building a Docs Site with Jekyll + GitHub Pages ](by Max Lynch)
- Org-jekyll by Juan Reyero export jekyll blog posts from org-mode.
- There are number of Jekyll powered sites whose sources are available. The site git-ready is built with Jekyll and the source is available on GitHub. It is a good example of a simple Jekyll layout, .
- liquidluck (BSD License) aka Felix Felicis is a static blog generator in python using MarkDown and ReSTructured Text as markup languages.
- Markdoc (public license) is a wiki written in python and using the Markdown format that can export a static site. MarkDoc source is in zacharyvoase / markdoc GitHub repository. MarkDoc is abandoned the home site of the author Zachary Voase previously powered by Markdoc is now a blog using Nanodoc.
- MarkWiki (BSD License) is a Python + Flask wiki not static that uses Markdown to create pages. Markwiki has an option to freeze the wiki with Frozen-Flask and export it to a static site.
- Middleman (MIT License) is a static site generator written in ruby. It uses Haml, Sass, Less & Coffee Script. There is a huge list of sites built with middleman Riak Docs is not mentioned but has its source on GitHub.
- Mynt (BSD License)
a Python static site generator. It uses Jinja templates,
and Markdown.
- GitHub: Mynt
- Quick Start: A Static Site with Bootstrap and Mynt a tutorial by Sean Reifschneider from tummy.com.
- Nanoc is a static site generator written in ruby that can use formats such as Markdown, Textile, Haml… There are many examples of nanoc sites, and FOSDEM switched from Drupal to Nanoc
- Nib (MIT license)
is a static site generator, written in Python, geared toward creating a simple site or blog.
It uses inja2 and Markdown is inspired by
Poole.
- An example is John Reese noswap site (source at GitHub).
- Nikola
(MIT License) by Roberto Alsina is a Python static website
generator.
It is extensible via plugins, and uses Markdown or ReSTructured
text.
- Pypi: Nikola
- Nikola Home Page
- Nikola Handbook
- Lateral Opinion - Roberto Alsina Blog itself published with Nikola, gives Nikola development news.
- nikola-server allow to manage a remote Nikola site
- o-blog (Licence: WTFPL) by Sébastien Gross renard, is a static site generator managed from emacs. The pages are written in org-mode. It allows blogs and static pages. GitHub: o-blog.
- org-page (GPL) by Kelvin Hu is a static site generator based on Emacs org-mode. the Kevin's site ( source) and the site of Standino ( source) are examples of org-page sites.
- org-site (GPL) is a static site generator based on Emacs org-mode. It includes theme with Bootstrap default, mustache templating, index page generation, commenting using Disqus. GitHub:org-site.
Pelican (GNU Affero General Public License) is a static blog generator in python, that uses ReSTructured text, Asciidoc or Markdown. Themes are done using jinja2.
- Pelican GitHub repository.
- The Not My Idea blog of Alexis Metaireau has its source in GitHub, The Pelican Blog also has its source in GitHub
- Pelican hosts a huge list of themes on GitHub
- Pelican and Github Pages by Martin Brochhaus.
- Gabe Weatherhead has written three blog pages on setting up a Pelican site, they focus on the site design: Moving From WordPress and Initial Setup , Design Planning, About Properly Formatted Blog Posts
- Generate a Static Company Site and Blog with Pelican and Jinja by Hristo Deshev,an example site using these concepts is hosted in GitHub.
- Creating A Pelican-Powered Site on GitHub Pages by Kevin Richardson, explains how it generates his site magically.us whose source is available on GitHub . Pelican is a promising project, well maintained and with a very good documentation, both for the user and the developer. Alas, It is targeted to blogs and the support for pages is quite rudimentary.
- Poole (GPL)
a static site generator written in a single 800 lines python script.
It uses Markdown for page formatting.
- Pimp your Poole site with a free CSS template a recipe by Oben Sonne.
- The main example is the home page of the author Oben Sonne for which it provides the poole source, and generated html.
- There are some other examples of Poole sites with their source like Bert JW Regeer Website (source at GitHub), or the recipes in jcby.com site. Some interesting, while without given source: Thibault North, bertjwregeer.com and thpani.at for the css; Prof Gra site french exemple.
- See also the derived Nib.
- Punch (MIT License) is a node.js static site generator that uses Mustache for templating and mustache itself use Json for the data and Markdown to write pages.
- Ruhoh (MIT License)
is a static site generator in ruby, using mustache for templates
and MarkDown as text format.
- GitHub: Ruhoh
- Ruho is geared to blogs, but allow also pages, and the Ruhoh.com Site show that it is not limited to blogs. GitHub: Ruhoh.com source.
- Shelob (BSD License) is a static site generator extension for Smeagol which is a server that can run a read-only version of a Gollum wiki.
- Soho lets you build a static web site from a set of reStructuredText source files (the content) and a template file (the layout). The site of the author of Soho Damien Baty: noherring.com is an example of use of Soho.
- simple-docs (MIT license) is a Python Flask website for viewing Markdown documentation files online. It is not a static site generator, but can be used for this task with Frozen-Flask.
- simple-static is a site generator, using Markdown pages. It is mainly targeted to documentation. It is written in awk and shell using md2html.awk. It is based on sw.
- StrangeCase (BSD Like license) is the equivalent of Nanoc but written in Python.
- sw
is a minimal static site generator for Markdown pages using the
shell and common utilities grep, sed, awk (with
md2html.awk)...
sw mercurial repository.
simple-static is a fork of sw, wich itself is inspired by werc - Vee command line shell microblogging tool. Vee GitHub repository
- Webber is a static web-site generation tool, based on ideas from IkiWiki but written in Python. The code is at Gitorious Webber project. very low activity
- werc (Public domain or MIT license or ISC license) is a static site generator for html and Markdown written with the Plan9 shell rc, cat, grep, sed, ...
- WinterSmith is a node.js cofeescript static site generator for MarkDown pages inspired by BlackSmith. It uses marked to parse markdown and the jade node.js templating engine.
- Wok a static site generator written in python using a Jinja2 based templating system and syntax highlighting via Pygments. Pages can be written in Markdown or reStructuredText. Wok Source is hosted on GitHub, and the package is available in pypi.
