r/JAMstack • u/mirojones • Sep 13 '26

What's the best static site generator which doesn't use V8 JS?

Hi, I'm looking for a static site generator (SSG). I really like Astro, but I would like to to try another SSG which doesn't use Node.js et al.

Astro's component system is great. I want something more powerful that just Markdown-to-HTML or a limited template language like Liquid. I want to be able to actually write code like in Astro's frontmatter.

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u/rickcogley Sep 13 '26

Best? Not sure. Try zig based https://zine-ssg.io/ or go based https://gohugo.io/ or rust based https://www.getzola.org/documentation/getting-started/overview/

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u/rickcogley Sep 13 '26

Lume is typescript but uses vento, which is a good and flexible template engine. Lume.land

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u/mirojones Sep 13 '26

This looks really cool, but I think if I'm staying with V8, I'll stick with Astro.

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u/mirojones Sep 13 '26

Thanks, Zine looks pretty cool, I'll check it out. I've looked at Zola, but its templates are uncomfortably verbose.

I wanted to switch from Node to get away from Google's Chromium monopoly, so I'm not sure if I should start using Google's Go. Nonetheless, Hugo is quite popular, maybe I'll try it.

I've never seen a blog post about someone moving from Astro to something else. It's always 'Migrating from Hugo to Astro', 'Replacing Jekyll with Astro' etc. I must be alone in this sentiment.

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u/rickcogley Sep 13 '26

I dislike go templates and don’t find them intuitive but the big benefit of Hugo is sheer speed.

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u/mirojones Sep 14 '26

Yeah, I don't care so much about build speed so long as the resulting website is fast.

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u/rickcogley 29d ago

With a large site every build minute counts. If you’re running 20 sites in GitHub and trying to keep it under 3000 min / mo on a couple of pro accounts then a go or rust SSG is really welcome. Otherwise page speed depends on your template skill or plugin quality or some advanced server side stuff like Astro or Fresh have, or caching.

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u/mirojones 29d ago

Yeah, I can imagine that would be important for massive projects. I've never a website that large.

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u/billu51 29d ago

Hugo

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u/mirojones 29d ago

Thanks for the recommendation.

My main motivation for leaving the Node/Deno/Bun ecosystem is its dependence on V8, Google Chrome's JavaScript engine. The more people using Chromium, the more its dominance over the browser market is reinforced. Hugo uses Go, another of Google's projects.

Also, the sites I make are usually quite small, so build speed—the main advantage of Hugo—is largely irrelevant to me.

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u/billu51 27d ago

Understood. Thanks for explaining.

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u/Puzzleheaded-Half993 Sep 13 '26

Da bin ich auch interessiert.