In recent years, static site generators (SSGs) have experienced a surge in popularity among developers because of their simplicity, speed, and security benefits. They’re often used for blogs, documentation, portfolios, and ecommerce sites.
Take a closer look at several static site generators that use Svelte and discuss why they could be a game-changer for your next web development projects.
Top 3 Svelte Static Site Generators
Before we review some of these static site generators, you should understand that SSGs will always generate static files, which you’d need to host online for your users to have access to the website.
With Kinsta, you can host your static website through our Application Hosting solution which offers you scalability, reliability, and security. We’re currently working on adding new, dedicated static site hosting services that will allow you to deploy your SSGs more efficiently and serve your content even faster.
Let’s now explore some best static site generators that use Svelte and what makes them stand out.
1. SvelteKit
SvelteKit
SvelteKit is a popular SSG built on top of the Svelte framework that takes advantage of Svelte’s unique features, such as:
Compiler-based approach
Reactive updates
Component-based architecture
Smaller bundle sizes
Easy to learn
It was built by the Svelte team and is widely considered one of the best SSGs that use Svelte for the following reasons:
SvelteKit has built-in serverless functions, making it easy to add backend functionality to your website. For example, you could use a serverless function to handle form submissions, process payments, or interact with a database.
SvelteKit automatically code-splits your application, which means that it only loads the code that’s needed for each page. This results in faster load times and better performance.
SvelteKit can pre-fetch data for a page before it’s loaded, which means that the page can be rendered faster.
SvelteKit comes with built-in routing, which makes it easy to create complex multi-page applications.
SvelteKit is used by many popular websites, including Yarn and Brilliant. If you’re looking for a Svelte SSG, SvelteKit is definitely worth a try. Make sure to check out their official documentation which provides comprehensive documentation on how to get started and more.
How To Deploy a SvelteKit Static Site on Kinsta
SvelteKit quick start
You can set up a SvelteKit static site on Kinsta by forking our quick start example and deploying it to our Application hosting. This will provide you with a URL that loads up your SvelteKit static site within minutes.
2. Astro
Astro
Astro is a modern static site generator that provides a flexible and efficient way to build static websites. It is designed to be fast, lightweight, and easy to use, making it a great choice for developers who want to build performant and easy-to-maintain websites.
Astro is designed around a component-driven development model, which makes it easy to create reusable components and manage their state and data flow. You also have the ability to use your favorite frontend frameworks like Svelte, React, and Vue to create components that you can easily integrate into Astro pages and templates.
It also utilizes the Island architecture, a unique approach that separate pages and components into isolated “islands” of code (CSS, JavaScript, and HTML).
Astro also gives you access to so many integrations, such as:
MDX Integration
Image optimization Integration
Tailwind Integration
Sitemap Integration
Astro is used by many popular websites like The Guardian Engineering. You can check out other popular platforms that use them on their showcase page.
The documentation for Astro provides detailed information on how to use the framework, including its integration with the Svelte framework.
How To Deploy an Astro Static Site on Kinsta
Astro quick start
You can easily set up an Astro website by forking Kinsta’s hello-world quickstart example on GitHub. Then deploy it to Kinsta’s Application hosting, which would provide you with a unique URL.
3. Elder.js
Elder.js
Elder.js is a static site generator built with SEO in mind. A small team of SEOs and developers designed it from the ground up to solve the unique challenges and complexities of building flagship SEO sites with 100k+ pages.
One of the key features of Elder.js is its ability to work seamlessly with Svelte, giving developers the possibility to create reusable UI components and use them across multiple pages or even projects.
On top of being able to integrate with Svelte, Elder.js has other interesting features:
Elder.js uses a highly optimized build process that utilizes as many CPU cores as possible, making it incredibly fast and efficient. For instance, according to their documentation, it can easily generate a data-intensive 18,000-page site in just 8 minutes using only a 4-core VM.
With Elder.js, developers have complete control over how they fetch, prepare, and manipulate data before sending it to their Svelte template.
Elder.js supports a range of official and community plugins that can be added to a site to extend its functionality.
Elder.js supports shortcodes, which are smart placeholders that can be used to future-proof content whether it lives in a CMS or static files. These shortcodes can be asynchronous, making it easy to include dynamic content on a site.
Elder.js allows developers to hydrate just the parts of the client that need to be interactive, reducing payload size and improving site performance.
Check the official Elder.js documentation for more information.
Summary
Static site generators (SSGs) are becoming increasingly popular due to their speed, simplicity, and enhanced security. They are particularly useful for building websites that don’t require dynamic content or functionality from a server.
Using Svelte-based SSGs could give you even more advantages because it provides additional features from the Svelte framework, including a smaller bundle size and rapid rendering. As a result, Svelte-based SSGs are an excellent choice for creating static sites that load quickly and operate efficiently.
You can host your static website with Kinsta’s Application Hosting for free, and if you like it, upgrade to our Hobby Tier plan.
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