How fast is Blades compared to Hugo?

Blades is benchmarked to render sites in milliseconds, often over 20 times faster than Hugo, thanks to zero-copy deserialization and Ramhorns templating. However, actual performance depends on site complexity and hardware.

How to write a plugin for Blades in Python?

Blades plugins use standard I/O; write a script that reads JSON-serialized page data from stdin and outputs processed data to stdout. For example, a transform plugin can modify pages, and Blades handles the serialization automatically.

Does Blades support LaTeX math equations?

Yes, Blades renders LaTeX formulas between $ or $$ delimiters into MathML, which is supported by all major browsers. This makes it ideal for academic or technical content without extra JavaScript.

What themes are available for Blades?

Blades has a list of themes on its documentation site, but most are minimal and require overriding. Users often need to customize or build their own to achieve specific designs.

Blades or Zola for a Rust-based static site?

Blades focuses on speed and simplicity with mustache templates, while Zola offers more features like built-in Sass and Tera templates. Choose Blades for raw performance, Zola for a richer out-of-the-box experience.

How to set up taxonomies like categories in Blades?

Define taxonomies in the config file (e.g., tags or categories), and assign them to pages in frontmatter. Blades automatically generates listing pages for each taxonomy term.

Can Blades optimize images in galleries?

Blades generates image galleries but doesn't include built-in image optimization. For optimization, use output plugins or external tools, as the plugin system allows integration with image processing libraries.

Open-Awesome

blades

GPL-3.0Rustv0.6.0

A blazing fast, dead simple static site generator built in Rust with mustache templates.

Visit Website GitHub

347 stars17 forks0 contributors

What is blades?

Blades is a static site generator built in Rust that creates HTML files from content and templates. It solves the problem of slow site generation by using zero-copy deserialization and efficient templating to render sites in milliseconds, making it significantly faster than many alternatives. The tool emphasizes simplicity with mustache templates and a focused feature set.

Target Audience

Developers and content creators who need a fast, straightforward static site generator for blogs, documentation, or personal websites, especially those who value performance and minimal configuration.

Value Proposition

Developers choose Blades for its exceptional speed—often 20x faster than Hugo—and its dead-simple approach with mustache templates. Its plugin system and theme support offer flexibility without bloat, making it ideal for projects where performance and ease of use are priorities.

Overview

Blazing fast dead simple static site generator

Use Cases

Best For

Generating static blogs or documentation sites quickly
Projects requiring LaTeX math rendering to MathML in web content
Developers who prefer mustache templates for their simplicity
Sites needing customizable taxonomies like categories and tags
Users who want a plugin-based static site generator without lock-in
Content-heavy sites where fast build times are critical

Not Ideal For

Projects needing built-in live reload and file watching during development (Blades requires external tools like caretaker for this).
Teams wanting polished, pre-styled themes with minimal customization effort (Blades themes are minimal and require significant overriding).
Applications requiring a large ecosystem of plugins and community support (Blades has a smaller community compared to established SSGs like Hugo).

Pros & Cons

Pros

Exceptional Rendering Speed

Uses zero-copy deserialization and Ramhorns templating to render sites in milliseconds, benchmarked as over 20 times faster than Hugo.

Simple Mustache Templates

Employs mustache templates with only 7 rules, making it easy to learn and use for quick content-focused development.

Flexible Plugin Architecture

Supports input, output, transform, and content plugins in any language via standard I/O, allowing for extensible functionality without lock-in.

Built-in Advanced Features

Includes image gallery generation, LaTeX to MathML rendering, syntax highlighting, taxonomies, and automatic sitemap and feed generation.

Cons

No Development Server

Lacks built-in file watching and live reload; users must integrate external tools like caretaker for real-time development updates.

Themes Require Customization

Themes are minimal and not pre-styled, necessitating significant CSS and template work for polished designs, as admitted in the documentation.

Limited Plugin Ecosystem

As a newer project, Blades has fewer available plugins and community themes compared to alternatives, which can limit out-of-the-box functionality.

Open Source Alternative To

blades is an open-source alternative to the following products:

Hugo

Hugo is a fast and modern static site generator written in Go, designed to build websites quickly using Markdown files and templates, with built-in support for themes and multilingual sites.

Frequently Asked Questions

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