Jekyll vs Metalsmith

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.

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.