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Ask HN: Do you suggest static site generators to your customers?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you suggest static site generators to your customers?

#11

Post by thijsvandien »

bitzero wrote: post #8
fimdomeio wrote: post #4

No. It's very easy/cheap to setup something like wordpress. Teaching a client how to generate a static site is dificult and clients will have to go back to the documentation if they don't use it for a while. If you have a ui you only have to remember the /admin url and everything else is just looking at the screen and clicking the right thing.

a static site CMS would provide the same functionality. Something like https://forestry.io/

Another option is https://www.getlektor.com of Armin Ronacher fame.

Re: Ask HN: Do you suggest static site generators to your customers?

#13

Post by xiaoma »

BeetleB wrote: post #10
fimdomeio wrote: post #4

No. It's very easy/cheap to setup something like wordpress. Teaching a client how to generate a static site is dificult and clients will have to go back to the documentation if they don't use it for a while. If you have a ui you only have to remember the /admin url and everything else is just looking at the screen and clicking the right thing.

The issue with any dynamic site is security. You can't set up Wordpress and forget about it. There has to be some mechanism for updating to the latest version for security (which may break any plugins/themes).

WordPress has had one-click updates for years and makes it easier than any other CMS I've seen. It's been doing a fine job and powering 25% of all pages on the net and growing.

Re: Ask HN: Do you suggest static site generators to your customers?

#14

Post by qznc »

xiaoma wrote: post #13
BeetleB wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue with any dynamic site is security. You can't set up Wordpress and forget about it. There has to be some mechanism for updating to the latest version for security (which may break any plugins/themes).

WordPress has had one-click updates for years and makes it easier than any other CMS I've seen. It's been doing a fine job and powering 25% of all pages on the net and growing.

The problem is that updating plugins very often breaks stuff.

Re: Ask HN: Do you suggest static site generators to your customers?

#17

Post by michaelt »

I use a static site generator for my blog - but as I only post once or twice a year, I generally find I'm fixing broken static site generation about as often as I'm writing a blog post.

Using a mac? I hope you've got xcode installed to give you command line tools. No, you can't get that to work without logging into your Apple account. Right, now just install these tools using homebrew. Oh, homebrew's giving some git error? Sorry, you're on your own. Got homebrew working? Right, better make sure you've got ruby and gem and python and nodejs installed. Still doesn't work? Oh, that's because you're missing redcarpet, just gem install redcarpet. It didn't work? Oh, guess I actually need a development version of ruby.

Moved to Linux? Good news, there's a jekyll package right there. Bad news is it's outdated and won't build your site. Time to install ruby and gem then use them to install jekyll. Didn't work? Oh, you don't want that version of ruby, you need the development version, gotta have the right files so you can compile things as they download.

So no, I don't recommend static site generation to anyone who isn't a veteran error-message-googler.

Re: Ask HN: Do you suggest static site generators to your customers?

#18

Post by [deleted] »

gwbas1c wrote: post #3
bigmanwalter wrote: post #2

If the client is somewhat technical, and doesn't mind mucking around in markdown and the occasional html then sure, why not? But most of my clients prefer having a simple to use backend for updating the site.

But can a web-based updater can still generate a static back-end?

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Do you suggest static site generators to your customers?

#19

Post by cacozen »

Definitely yes. It's performant and safe by default, and you have lot's of free or cheap quality hosting with CDN (example: Netlify.com).

The developer experience is great in static site generators such as Hugo, Gatsby, among others.

And finally, if your client needs to update content, you can use headless CMS such as Contentful, NetlifyCMS, Dato etc.

Re: Ask HN: Do you suggest static site generators to your customers?

#20

Post by caseysoftware »

Depends on the use case.

For a general site that's going to be maintained by a non-technical audience? Absolutely not. They need a WYSIWYG editor instead of markdown. "Deploy" for them has to be a "publish" button. Keep it simple with a self-updating WordPress on WPEngine or similar.

For API documentation sites, I use Jekyll and Slate all the time. They're going to be maintained by developers so markdown is easy. Version control is key. And syntax highlighting is important. We use Jekyll at Okta and it's easy but powerful enough to solve the big problems quickly and easily.

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