Cecil vs Middleman
Cecil
cecil.appMiddleman
middlemanapp.comSide by side
| Figure | Cecil | Middleman |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Static site generators | 8.8 (#3) | 7.5 (#26) |
| Content sources | markdown | markdown |
| Deployment | The maker documents deployment recipes for platforms including Netlify, Vercel, GitHub Pages, and GitLab Pages. | The maker describes `middleman-deploy` as a deployment tool that supports rsync, FTP, SFTP, or Git. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Installation | Cecil can be downloaded as a PHAR file and installed globally through Homebrew on macOS, Scoop on Windows, PHIVE, or a manual Linux command. | Middleman is distributed through RubyGems and requires the Ruby runtime and RubyGems. |
| Localization | Cecil supports multilingual content localization and template translation. | The i18n extension can build localized pages from locale YAML files and localized templates. |
| Multilingual support | Yes | Yes |
| Local preview server | Yes | Yes |
| Product | Cecil is a command-line PHP application that combines Markdown pages, media, and Twig templates to generate static websites. | Middleman is a static site generator built as an easy-to-use framework for building websites. |
| Supported languages | PHP | Ruby |
| Templates | Cecil uses the Twig template engine and supports themes. | Middleman ships with ERB, Haml, Sass, SCSS, and CoffeeScript template engines, and supports more through Tilt-enabled gems. |
| What it does | Cecil is a PHP command-line static site generator that combines Markdown pages, media, and Twig templates to generate static websites. | Middleman is a static site generator for building websites with tools used in modern web development. |
Plans
In their own words
Cecil
Cecil is a free command-line PHP application that generates static websites from Markdown pages, media, and Twig templates. It stores content in Markdown files with front matter and supports themes for changing site design. The generator can create pagination, sitemaps, redirects, robots.txt, taxonomies, RSS, and SEO metadata such as Open Graph tags, Twitter cards, and structured data. It can also produce responsive WebP and AVIF images and compress them. Multilingual content and template translation are supported, as is a local preview server. Cecil generates static HTML; its maker says site visits do not require a database or server-side script execution. Installation is documented for macOS, Windows, and Linux, but PHP 8.2 or later is required. Deployment recipes cover services including Netlify, Vercel, GitHub Pages, and GitLab Pages. The project is distributed under the EUPL-1.2 license and maintained by Arnaud Ligny. Cecil is free software at free, with no cost or usage limits stated.
Middleman
Middleman has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.