Bridgetown vs Jekyll
Bridgetown
bridgetownrb.comJekyll
jekyllrb.comSide by side
| Figure | Bridgetown | Jekyll |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 2 |
| Spec score · Static site generators | 8.0 (#12) | 8.8 (#5) |
| Deployment | Static output can be deployed to any server that supports HTML, CSS, and JavaScript; the site recommends Render for full-stack production setups. | Because output is static, Jekyll sites can be deployed manually, through automation or with third-party hosting. |
| License | The Bridgetown source code is licensed under MIT. | Jekyll is open source and distributed under the MIT License. |
| Origin | Bridgetown started as a Jekyll fork in early 2020. | Wikipedia records Jekyll's first release as November 5, 2008 and identifies Tom Preston-Werner among its developers. |
| Plugins | Plugins extend Bridgetown projects through gems and configuration initialization, and users can write and publish their own plugins. | A plugin system with hooks lets users generate custom content and extend the build process without modifying Jekyll itself. |
| What it does | Bridgetown is a Ruby-powered progressive site generator that compiles content, layouts, and components into a website. | Jekyll converts Markdown, Liquid, HTML and CSS source files into deployable static websites and blogs. |
Plans
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.
Jekyll
Jekyll is a free, open-source tool that turns plain text into static websites and blogs. It combines Markdown, Liquid, HTML, and CSS with layouts, producing static files ready for deployment. Blog features include permalinks, categories, pages, posts, and custom layouts. A plugin system with hooks can generate content and extend builds without changing Jekyll itself. Community-maintained themes provide templates and styles, and site content can override theme files. Generated sites may be deployed manually, through automation, or with third-party services. GitHub Pages is powered by Jekyll and offers free hosting with custom domain support. Jekyll supports Linux, macOS, Windows, and self-hosted use. Installation requires Ruby 2.7.0 or higher, RubyGems, GCC, and Make. Safe mode requires explicit plugin permission through a whitelist. A volunteer core team maintains the project.