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SPECIFICTION
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Grain vs Metalsmith

Grain

github.com

Metalsmith

metalsmith.io

Side by side

FigureGrainMetalsmith
Price from—Free
Free plan—Yes
Free trial——
Open source——
WindowsYesYes
macOSYesYes
LinuxYesYes
API—Yes
Plans published01
Spec score · Static site generators7.0 (#33)8.6 (#9)
Content sourcesmarkdownmarkdown
DeploymentGrain can generate website files and deploy them manually or with its deploy command.Builds are static folders that can be deployed to a CDN, Netlify, GitHub Pages, GitLab Pages, SFTP host or custom server over SSH.
Free planYesYes
Local preview serverYesNo
Runtime requirementRunning a Grain project requires JDK 7 or later.Metalsmith requires NodeJS and runs on all NodeJS Long-Term Support versions that are not end-of-life and some more.
Supported languagesGroovy,JavaJavaScript,TypeScript,Node.js

Plans

Grain

No plans published.

Grain pricing →

Metalsmith

  • Metalsmith.jsFree

Metalsmith pricing →

In their own words

Grain

Grain has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.

Visit github.com

Metalsmith

Metalsmith is a free, pluggable static-site generator for NodeJS that works more like a library than a framework. It transforms a directory tree into plain JavaScript objects that plugins can manipulate, without requiring a predefined project structure. Developers can use configuration over code or code over configuration, and access the package through either its JavaScript API or command-line interface. It works with npm, Markdown, JSON, YAML, and a templating language of choice. Example uses include static sites, scaffolding, backups, command-line and deployment tools, and eBooks made from Markdown for PDF, ePUB, or MOBI output. Starter repositories cover blog, company, resume, and clean-blog projects. Builds create static folders for deployment to CDNs, Netlify, GitHub Pages, GitLab Pages, SFTP hosts, or custom servers. Metalsmith requires NodeJS; the listed platforms include Linux, macOS, and Windows. The documentation says partial rebuilds are not available and suggests using a file watcher and browser synchronization package for automatic rebuilds. No billing terms or prices are stated on the supplied pages.

Visit metalsmith.io