Bridgetown vs Grain
Bridgetown
bridgetownrb.comGrain
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Bridgetown | Grain |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 0 | 0 |
| Spec score · Static site generators | 8.0 (#12) | 7.0 (#33) |
| Content sources | markdown | markdown |
| Deployment | Static output can be deployed to any server that supports HTML, CSS, and JavaScript; the site recommends Render for full-stack production setups. | Grain can generate website files and deploy them manually or with its deploy command. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| License | The Bridgetown source code is licensed under MIT. | The README states that Grain is licensed under Apache License 2.0. |
| Local preview server | Yes | Yes |
| Requirements | Installation requires GCC and Make, Ruby 3.3 or newer, and Node 22.21 or newer. | Running a Grain project requires JDK 7 or later. |
| Support | The documentation directs users who need help to Bridgetown community channels, including Discord chat. | The README says SysGears offers commercial support and will respond to inquiries within one working day. |
| Supported languages | Ruby,JavaScript | Groovy,Java |
| What it does | Bridgetown is a Ruby-powered progressive site generator that compiles content, layouts, and components into a website. | Grain is a Groovy framework and static website generator for company websites and personal blogs. |
In their own words
Bridgetown
Bridgetown is a free site generator for building static sites, full-stack applications or a combination of both. It compiles Markdown, layouts and components into HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Static publishing features include permalinks, Git-based content deployment, atomic builds, data pipelines and pagination. Collections, taxonomies and content relationships organize material, which can be generated at build time or in real time and connected to a headless CMS or other web APIs. For full-stack applications, its Roda backend supports dynamic routes, server APIs and database connections such as PostgreSQL. Templates can use ERB, Serbea, Streamlined or Liquid; components support modular views, web components and Markdown inclusion. The frontend build system includes esbuild and PostCSS, and custom Ruby plugins can extend builds and content. Static output can be deployed anywhere that serves HTML, CSS and JavaScript files. Bridgetown supports Ruby and JavaScript, and its setup guides cover macOS, Fedora and Ubuntu Linux, and Windows through Windows Subsystem for Linux. Installation requires GCC and Make, Ruby 3.3 or newer, and Node 22.21 or newer.