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SPECIFICTION
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Jigsaw vs Metalsmith

Jigsaw

jigsaw.tighten.co

Metalsmith

metalsmith.io

Side by side

FigureJigsawMetalsmith
Price fromFreeFree
Free planYesYes
Free trial——
Open source——
Windows—Yes
macOS—Yes
Linux—Yes
API—Yes
Self-hostedYes—
Plans published11
Spec score · Static site generators7.6 (#21)8.6 (#9)
Content sourcesmarkdownmarkdown
DeploymentThe documentation describes deploying Jigsaw sites to GitHub Pages, Netlify, Amazon S3, Kinsta Application Hosting, or an existing server.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
Supported languagesPHP,Node.jsJavaScript,TypeScript,Node.js

Plans

Jigsaw

  • JigsawFree

Jigsaw pricing →

Metalsmith

  • Metalsmith.jsFree

Metalsmith pricing →

In their own words

Jigsaw

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

Visit jigsaw.tighten.co

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