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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Frameworks
  4. Static Site Generators
  5. Middleman vs Wintersmith

Middleman vs Wintersmith

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Middleman
Middleman
Stacks170
Followers192
Votes66
GitHub Stars7.1K
Forks757
Wintersmith
Wintersmith
Stacks7
Followers12
Votes1
GitHub Stars3.5K
Forks327

Middleman vs Wintersmith: What are the differences?

  1. File Structure: Middleman uses a convention over configuration approach, where the file structure is predefined for organizing different types of content. In contrast, Wintersmith allows more flexibility in organizing files and content within the project, giving users more control over the file structure.

  2. Templating Languages: Middleman primarily supports ERB (Embedded Ruby) templates while Wintersmith offers support for multiple templating languages such as Jade, Handlebars, and Markdown. This provides a wider range of options for developers to choose from when building websites using Wintersmith.

  3. Plugin Ecosystem: Middleman has a more extensive plugin ecosystem with a variety of plugins available for extending the functionality of the static site generator. On the other hand, Wintersmith has a smaller community and fewer plugins in comparison, limiting the options for adding additional features to the generator.

  4. Live Reload: Middleman comes with built-in live reload functionality, allowing developers to see changes in real-time without manually refreshing the browser. Wintersmith, however, does not have native live reload support, requiring users to rely on external tools or plugins for this feature.

  5. JavaScript Integration: Middleman offers better integration with JavaScript frameworks like jQuery, AngularJS, and React, making it easier to incorporate interactive elements into the website. Wintersmith also supports JavaScript but may require additional configuration for seamless integration with popular libraries and frameworks.

  6. Community Support: Middleman has a larger and more active community with frequent updates, documentation, and online resources available for users. Wintersmith, while maintained and supported, has a smaller community which may result in slower responses to issues or fewer community-contributed resources.

In Summary, Middleman and Wintersmith differ in their file structure, templating language support, plugin ecosystem, live reload functionality, JavaScript integration, and community support.

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Detailed Comparison

Middleman
Middleman
Wintersmith
Wintersmith

Middleman is a command-line tool for creating static websites using all the shortcuts and tools of the modern web development environment.

Wintersmith is a simple yet flexible static site generator. It takes contents (markdown, less, scripts, etc), transforms them using plugins and outputs a static website (html, css, images, etc) that you can host anywhere.

Sass for DRY stylesheets;CoffeeScript for safer and less verbose javascript;Multiple asset management solutions, including Sprockets;ERb & Haml for dynamic pages and simplified HTML syntax
Flexible - Wintersmith tries not to put any limitations on how you work with your content. You can transform it using plugins and structure it as you please.;Templating - Use your favorite templating engine, it comes bundled with a Jade plugin and there is community made plugins for most other node.js templating engines.; Markdown - No more fiddling around with WYSIWYG editors. Once you start using Markdown to author your content you'll never look back!;More than blogging- Write web applications using the latest technologies without having to host your own node.js servers, or use it to increase speeds on large-scale sites.
Statistics
GitHub Stars
7.1K
GitHub Stars
3.5K
GitHub Forks
757
GitHub Forks
327
Stacks
170
Stacks
7
Followers
192
Followers
12
Votes
66
Votes
1
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 20
    Rails for static sites
  • 18
    Erb, haml, slim
  • 17
    Live reload
  • 7
    Easy setup
  • 3
    Emacs org-mode integration by middleman-org
Pros
  • 1
    Easy setup
Integrations
No integrations available
Markdown
Markdown

What are some alternatives to Middleman, Wintersmith?

Jekyll

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.

Hugo

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.

Gatsby

Gatsby

Gatsby lets you build blazing fast sites with your data, whatever the source. Liberate your sites from legacy CMSs and fly into the future.

Hexo

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.

Gridsome

Gridsome

Build websites using latest web tech tools that developers love - Vue.js, GraphQL and Webpack. Get hot-reloading and all the power of Node.js. Gridsome makes building websites fun again.

Pelican

Pelican

Pelican is a static site generator that supports Markdown and reST syntax. Write your weblog entries directly with your editor of choice (vim!) in reStructuredText or Markdown.

DocPad

DocPad

Empower your website frontends with layouts, meta-data, pre-processors (markdown, jade, coffeescript, etc.), partials, skeletons, file watching, querying, and an amazing plugin system. DocPad will streamline your web development process allowing you to craft full-featured websites quicker than ever before.

Metalsmith

Metalsmith

In Metalsmith, all of the logic is handled by plugins. You simply chain them together. Since everything is a plugin, the core library is actually just an abstraction for manipulating a directory of files.

11ty

11ty

A simpler static site generator. An alternative to Jekyll. Written in JavaScript. Transforms a directory of templates (of varying types) into HTML. Works with HTML, Markdown, Liquid, Nunjucks, Handlebars, Mustache, EJS, Haml, Pug, and JavaScript Template Literals.

MkDocs

MkDocs

It builds completely static HTML sites that you can host on GitHub pages, Amazon S3, or anywhere else you choose. There's a stack of good looking themes available. The built-in dev-server allows you to preview your documentation as you're writing it. It will even auto-reload and refresh your browser whenever you save your changes.

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