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Jekyll vs Read the Docs: What are the differences?
Jekyll: Blog-aware, static site generator in Ruby. 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; Read the Docs: Create, host, and browse documentation. Read the Docs hosts documentation, making it fully searchable and easy to find. You can import your docs using any major version control system, including Mercurial, Git, Subversion, and Bazaar. We support webhooks so your docs get built when you commit code. There's also support for versioning so you can build docs from tags and branches of your code in your repository.
Jekyll can be classified as a tool in the "Static Site Generators" category, while Read the Docs is grouped under "Documentation as a Service & Tools".
Some of the features offered by Jekyll are:
- Simple - No more databases, comment moderation, or pesky updates to install—just your content.
- Static - Markdown (or Textile), Liquid, HTML & CSS go in. Static sites come out ready for deployment.
- Blog-aware - Permalinks, categories, pages, posts, and custom layouts are all first-class citizens here.
On the other hand, Read the Docs provides the following key features:
- Github and Bitbucket Integration
- Auto-updating
- Internationalization
"Github pages integration" is the top reason why over 65 developers like Jekyll, while over 10 developers mention "GitHub integration" as the leading cause for choosing Read the Docs.
Jekyll and Read the Docs are both open source tools. Jekyll with 38.1K GitHub stars and 8.31K forks on GitHub appears to be more popular than Read the Docs with 5.25K GitHub stars and 2.87K GitHub forks.
According to the StackShare community, Jekyll has a broader approval, being mentioned in 111 company stacks & 125 developers stacks; compared to Read the Docs, which is listed in 9 company stacks and 4 developer stacks.
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.
Pros of Jekyll
- Github pages integration75
- Open source54
- It's slick, customisable and hackerish37
- Easy to deploy24
- Straightforward cms for the hacker mindset23
- Gitlab pages integration7
- Best for blogging5
- Low maintenance2
- Easy to integrate localization2
- Huge plugins ecosystem1
- Authoring freedom and simplicity1
Pros of Read the Docs
- GitHub integration13
- Free for public repos7
- Automated Builds2
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Cons of Jekyll
- Build time increases exponentially as site grows4
- Lack of developments lately2
- Og doesn't work with postings dynamically1
Cons of Read the Docs
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What is Jekyll?
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