Jekyll
Ruby static site generator for blogs and simple sites, with built-in GitHub Pages support.
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About Jekyll
Jekyll is one of the original static site generators, written in Ruby and released under the MIT licence. You write content in Markdown with front matter, design layouts in Liquid templates, and Jekyll builds plain HTML that can be hosted anywhere. It is blog-aware out of the box, with posts, permalinks, categories and feeds, and it powers GitHub Pages, which can build and host a Jekyll site for free straight from a repository. That makes it a common choice for personal blogs, project pages and documentation. The trade-offs are slower builds on large sites than Go- or Rust-based generators, a Ruby toolchain that can be fiddly on Windows, and a project that now moves slowly with fewer modern features than Astro or Eleventy. Themes and plugins are plentiful but many are old. It is free and runs on macOS, Linux and Windows.
Best for: Bloggers and project pages hosted free on GitHub Pages.
Pros and cons
What works
- Native GitHub Pages support with free hosting
- Simple, blog-aware defaults
- Mature with plenty of themes and documentation
Why people leave
- Slow builds on large sites
- Ruby setup can be fiddly, especially on Windows
- Slow-moving project with many dated plugins
Top Jekyll alternatives
See all 5- 1
Hugo66.5Much faster builds and a single binary with no Ruby setup.
- 2
Eleventy62.6Similar simplicity in JavaScript, with Liquid templates supported.
- 3
Astro59.6Modern framework for content sites with components and islands.
- 4
Decap CMS57.2Free editing interface for Jekyll content in Git.
- 5
Pages CMS55.3Simple hosted editor for Jekyll sites on GitHub.
Why people left Jekyll
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Jekyll: common questions
Is Jekyll free?
Yes. Jekyll is free, open-source software that you can host yourself.
Is Jekyll open source?
Yes. The source code is on GitHub at jekyll/jekyll. You can also run it on your own server.
What platforms does Jekyll run on?
Jekyll is available for macOS, Linux and Windows.
What are the best alternatives to Jekyll?
The highest-ranked Jekyll alternatives right now are Hugo, Eleventy and Astro. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.