4 Top Static Site Generators for Vue.js

Your project may not need a micro-service or a serverless API. In fact, it’s far more likely that all you really need is a simple, scalable, and performant static site generator. Rather than using heavy, bloated frameworks like WordPress or Drupal, a static site generator lets you write your content as static HTML files and handle dynamic components (variables, content blocks, etc.) separately. You can also get out of the web dev game and move onto more important things.

In this post, I’ve compiled a list of the most popular options for Vue static site generation along with a comprehensive comparison — all in one place.

Nuxt.js

Nuxt.js is a framework built with Vue.js that helps to create application architecture for web applications and features a flexible hands-off development style.

Nuxt.js is highly configurable and flexible, but it is not a fully proven solution for static site generation. The framework is not able to be used by itself on one project.
Pros

• Nuxt.js is very simple to get started with. It is easy to learn and get started with. To use the framework, you have to install vue-cli and execute vue init nuxt/starter <project-name>. In general, installation takes around 5 minutes to complete.
• Nuxt.js can be easily extended, and plugins can be ported easily. Cons
• Nuxt.js is not production-ready — although it has been in development for over a year.
• As an immature framework, it has the chance to change with each update, with the potential risk of breaking client apps.
• As it is a Vue.js extension, developers are beholden to the core Vue developers.
• Nuxt.js is not framework independent.

 VuePress

VuePress is a static site generator based on Vue.js.
VuePress compiles your project folder right to the build directory. It does not use any third-party code and stays very small.
Pro

• VuePress is very easy to use and takes minimum configurations. Because of this reason, it can be used to create a simple personal blog without the need to look for third-party plugins. Con
• It is a minimal static site generator. As a result, things like the featured image and header logo are not supported.
• VuePress does not provide any options in its framework to build a solid landing page.

Gridsome

Gridsome is a development tool that can compile static sites from different file formats featuring an online catalog and live automatic compilation. Gridsome is an open-source project and its most notable features include a built-in marketplace and the ability to support content and content-related features in a variety of markup languages and frameworks.
Pro

• Gridsome is built on top of React, which comes with an excellent developer community.
• Gridsome is a fully-functional framework that can be extended.

Con

• Gridsome is not developed by Vue or Nuxt.js and therefore, it is hard to say it is “native” to Vue.
• Gridsome isn’t a complete Vue.

Saber

Saber is based on the Gatsby framework, a static site generator that was created with React.
Saber can be used as a standalone site generator as a Gatsby plugin. Gatsby’s main features include:

This list has been created based on the popularity and community, but it's important to re-emphasize that the popularity is largely arbitrary.
Pros

• Saber has a great ecosystem of packages.
• Saber has a simple installation process.
• Saber has a vast range of options in addition to the core features such as blog posts.
• Saber offers solid development tools.
• If you run into trouble, the community is large and responds quickly. Cons
• Saber is hard to get started with.
• Saber lacks a good landing page generator.

Conclusion

You can try Vuepress, Gridsome, Nuxt and Saber if you want to start with a static site generator. Nuxt.js and Gridsome are popular for small sites. VuePress is more suitable for big projects. Saber is great for creating Gatsby project templates. Choose saber for quickly generating a template that uses Gatsby.