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Jekyll vs Read the Docs: What are the differences?

Introduction: This Markdown code focuses on highlighting the key differences between Jekyll and Read the Docs, two popular tools used for website documentation.

  1. Design and Structure: Jekyll allows users to create static websites using templates and Markdown, giving full control over the design. On the other hand, Read the Docs primarily focuses on hosting and deploying documentation that is automatically generated from your codebase, offering limited customization in terms of design.

  2. Hosting Environment: Jekyll requires hosting on a web server to serve its static content, allowing for greater flexibility in terms of hosting options. In contrast, Read the Docs hosts documentation directly on their platform, simplifying the hosting process but limiting control over the hosting environment.

  3. Workflow Automation: Jekyll provides a command-line interface to build and deploy the website, allowing for automation of the build process through scripts or CI/CD pipelines. Read the Docs, on the other hand, automatically builds documentation from code repositories whenever changes are pushed, reducing the need for manual intervention in the deployment process.

  4. Support for Multiple Languages: Jekyll supports multilingual websites through plugins or custom configurations, enabling the creation of documentation in different languages within the same site. Read the Docs also supports multiple languages but may require additional setup and configuration to achieve the same result as Jekyll.

  5. Community and Ecosystem: Jekyll has a strong community of developers and a wide range of plugins and themes available for customizing websites, providing a rich ecosystem for users to leverage. Read the Docs also has a supportive community but may offer fewer customization options compared to Jekyll, especially in terms of design and layout.

  6. Integration with Version Control: Jekyll seamlessly integrates with version control systems like Git, allowing users to track changes to their website content and collaborate with team members effectively. Read the Docs also integrates with version control but focuses more on automating the deployment of documentation rather than managing website content changes.

In Summary, Jekyll and Read the Docs differ in design and structure, hosting environment, workflow automation, support for multiple languages, community, and integration with version control systems, offering distinct advantages and limitations for website documentation projects.

Decisions about Jekyll and Read the Docs
Manuel Feller
Frontend Engineer at BI X · | 4 upvotes · 160.9K views

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.

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Pros of Jekyll
Pros of Read the Docs
  • 74
    Github pages integration
  • 54
    Open source
  • 37
    It's slick, customisable and hackerish
  • 24
    Easy to deploy
  • 23
    Straightforward cms for the hacker mindset
  • 7
    Gitlab pages integration
  • 5
    Best for blogging
  • 2
    Low maintenance
  • 2
    Easy to integrate localization
  • 1
    Huge plugins ecosystem
  • 1
    Authoring freedom and simplicity
  • 13
    GitHub integration
  • 7
    Free for public repos
  • 2
    Automated Builds

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Cons of Jekyll
Cons of Read the Docs
  • 4
    Build time increases exponentially as site grows
  • 2
    Lack of developments lately
  • 1
    Og doesn't work with postings dynamically
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    - No public GitHub repository available -

    What is Jekyll?

    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.

    What is Read the Docs?

    It 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.

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    What tools integrate with Jekyll?
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    What are some alternatives to Jekyll and Read the Docs?
    WordPress
    The core software is built by hundreds of community volunteers, and when you’re ready for more there are thousands of plugins and themes available to transform your site into almost anything you can imagine. Over 60 million people have chosen WordPress to power the place on the web they call “home” — we’d love you to join the family.
    Hugo
    Hugo is a static site generator written in Go. It is optimized for speed, easy use and configurability. Hugo takes a directory with content and templates and renders them into a full html website. Hugo makes use of markdown files with front matter for meta data.
    Hexo
    Hexo is a fast, simple and powerful blog framework. It parses your posts with Markdown or other render engine and generates static files with the beautiful theme. All of these just take seconds.
    Ghost
    Ghost is a platform dedicated to one thing: Publishing. It's beautifully designed, completely customisable and completely Open Source. Ghost allows you to write and publish your own blog, giving you the tools to make it easy and even fun to do.
    Sphinx
    It lets you either batch index and search data stored in an SQL database, NoSQL storage, or just files quickly and easily — or index and search data on the fly, working with it pretty much as with a database server.
    See all alternatives