static site generators, ranked by regret

six months in, this is how much i wished i'd picked differently. order is the whole point

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zero regret. no framework opinions, no build magic i can't explain. still using it

islands architecture actually delivered. the only regret is not switching sooner

Zola

single rust binary, no npm install ever. would've ranked #1 if the theme ecosystem wasn't so thin

Hugo

fast build, sure. but the templating language fights you the second you want anything custom

Docusaurus

Gatsby

the graphql layer for a static blog was never necessary and i knew it at the time

Jekyll

ruby version hell every single deploy. i lost a whole saturday to bundler once and i'm still mad

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