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Jekyll

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Jekyll vs Slate: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Jekyll and Slate are popular tools used for building websites. Despite serving the same purpose, they have key differences that set them apart. Below are the main differences between Jekyll and Slate.

  1. Static vs. Dynamic: Jekyll is a static site generator, which means it generates HTML files during the build process, resulting in faster loading times and easier hosting. On the other hand, Slate is a dynamic documentation tool that uses React to generate pages on the fly, providing a more interactive user experience but requiring server-side rendering.

  2. Theme Customization: Jekyll offers a wide range of themes that can be easily customized, making it suitable for those looking for a quick and straightforward website setup. In contrast, Slate provides fewer theme options but allows for more granular customization, making it ideal for users who want complete control over the design and functionality of their website.

  3. Community Support: Jekyll has a large and active community of developers and users, which means there are plenty of resources, plugins, and templates available for customization and problem-solving. While Slate has a smaller community, it is growing rapidly and offers a more specialized focus on documentation-related features, making it a great choice for projects that require robust documentation capabilities.

  4. Hosting Options: Jekyll websites can be easily hosted on platforms like GitHub Pages, making it a convenient choice for developers who prefer simplicity and integration with version control systems. On the other hand, Slate requires a server environment to run, which may involve more complex hosting setups and maintenance requirements.

  5. Ease of Use: Jekyll is known for its simplicity and ease of use, with a minimal configuration required to get started. In comparison, Slate may have a steeper learning curve due to its dynamic nature and React-based architecture, making it more suitable for users with prior experience in web development.

In Summary, Jekyll is a static site generator with a strong community support and simple hosting options, while Slate is a dynamic documentation tool with advanced customization capabilities and a specialized focus on documentation features.

Decisions about Jekyll and Slate
Manuel Feller
Frontend Engineer at BI X · | 4 upvotes · 163.8K views

As a Frontend Developer I wanted something simple to generate static websites with technology I am familiar with. GatsbyJS was in the stack I am familiar with, does not need any other languages / package managers and allows quick content deployment in pure HTML or Markdown (what you prefer for a project). It also does not require you to understand a theming engine if you need a custom design.

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Pros of Jekyll
Pros of Slate
  • 74
    Github pages integration
  • 54
    Open source
  • 37
    It's slick, customisable and hackerish
  • 24
    Easy to deploy
  • 23
    Straightforward cms for the hacker mindset
  • 7
    Gitlab pages integration
  • 5
    Best for blogging
  • 2
    Low maintenance
  • 2
    Easy to integrate localization
  • 1
    Huge plugins ecosystem
  • 1
    Authoring freedom and simplicity
  • 5
    Easy setup
  • 3
    Simple to Use

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Cons of Jekyll
Cons of Slate
  • 4
    Build time increases exponentially as site grows
  • 2
    Lack of developments lately
  • 1
    Og doesn't work with postings dynamically
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    - No public GitHub repository available -

    What is Jekyll?

    Think of Jekyll as a file-based CMS, without all the complexity. Jekyll takes your content, renders Markdown and Liquid templates, and spits out a complete, static website ready to be served by Apache, Nginx or another web server. Jekyll is the engine behind GitHub Pages, which you can use to host sites right from your GitHub repositories.

    What is Slate?

    Slate helps you create beautiful API documentation. Think of it as an intelligent, responsive documentation template for your API.

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    What companies use Jekyll?
    What companies use Slate?
    See which teams inside your own company are using Jekyll or Slate.
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    What tools integrate with Jekyll?
    What tools integrate with Slate?
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      What are some alternatives to Jekyll and Slate?
      WordPress
      The core software is built by hundreds of community volunteers, and when you’re ready for more there are thousands of plugins and themes available to transform your site into almost anything you can imagine. Over 60 million people have chosen WordPress to power the place on the web they call “home” — we’d love you to join the family.
      Hugo
      Hugo is a static site generator written in Go. It is optimized for speed, easy use and configurability. Hugo takes a directory with content and templates and renders them into a full html website. Hugo makes use of markdown files with front matter for meta data.
      Hexo
      Hexo is a fast, simple and powerful blog framework. It parses your posts with Markdown or other render engine and generates static files with the beautiful theme. All of these just take seconds.
      Ghost
      Ghost is a platform dedicated to one thing: Publishing. It's beautifully designed, completely customisable and completely Open Source. Ghost allows you to write and publish your own blog, giving you the tools to make it easy and even fun to do.
      Sphinx
      It lets you either batch index and search data stored in an SQL database, NoSQL storage, or just files quickly and easily — or index and search data on the fly, working with it pretty much as with a database server.
      See all alternatives