benefits of static sites

While each of the preceding features brings with it certain limitations, they also lead to some of the primary benefits of static sites:

• Performance

There is no server-side processing and no database to connect to, meaning that there is nothing to slow down getting a static page from the server to your end user. This also means that there are no bottlenecks that might cause slowness or outages should you encounter a significant traffic surge.

• Hosting

Since no server-side language is required, hosting requires no complicated setup or maintenance, making it cheap and easy. In fact, there are even free options, like GitHub pages or Surge, for instance (we’ll explore deployment options in a later chapter).

• Security

There are no server-side language issues to exploit and no data‐ base to hack. Basically, as long as the files on your host are secure, your static site is secure.

• Content versioning

Since your entire site, from configuration to content, is file-based, it is very easy to keep all aspects of it within a version control system like Git. This can be especially advantageous for things like documentation that you may want to allow commu‐ nity contributions, for example, using pull requests on GitHub.

Despite these benefits, static sites, even with the help of a static site generator, are not the solution for every type of site. In upcoming chapters, we’ll discuss more some of the limitations of static sites and the types of sites these solutions are best suited for.

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gem install jekyll

jekyll new [project_name]
cd project_name
jekyll serve

#http://localhost:4000