gelato-ui VS Gatsby

My goal was to try a few new libraries and get experience under my belt (cause isn’t that what dev blogs are for?). I’d swap out Gatsby for **Astro,** and Styled Components + Styled System for **Vanilla Extract**. I was interested in trying Astro as it just hit 1.0, and I’ve been experimenting for a while with Vanilla Extract as a way to write Typescript powered styles and export to CSS.

You can find the design system I was experimenting with on Github, I called it Gelato UI in honor of the Vanilla Extract it takes to make it.

The first time I started building static websites is when I discovered Gatsby. I built several projects using Gatsby and hosted it on Netlify free tier. It felt like a really robust architecture and I loved that it was free.

A Gatsby site uses Gatsby, which leverages React and GraphQL to create fast and optimized web experiences. Gatsby is often used for building static websites, progressive web apps (PWAs), and even full-blown dynamic web applications.

While Next.js is a powerful framework for building server-rendered React applications, it's not the only option for developers looking to create high-performance websites. One notable alternative is Gatsby, a static site generator that leverages React and GraphQL.

The other piece of important information to acknowledge here is that when we say RSCs need a framework, “framework” effectively just means “Next.js.” There are some smaller frameworks (like Waku) that support RSCs. There are also some larger and more established frameworks (like Redwood) that have plans to support RSCs or (like Gatsby) only support RSCs in beta. We will likely see this change once we get React 19 and RSCs are part of the Stable version. However, for now, Next.js is currently the only framework recommended in the official React docs that supports server components.

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Babel plugins are everywhere. From being used to remove unwanted exports from files in Gatsby to being used to disallow users from doing re-exports in Nextjs.

In terms of GitHub stars, SSGs like Next.js, Hugo, Gatsby, Docusaurus, Nuxt.js, and Jekyll top the list. Some popular SSGs even host conferences and workshops, providing resources and networking opportunities for those looking to explore more advanced topics in depth.

Flexibility : Developers have complete control over the frontend so they can use their preferred tools and frameworks like React, Next.js, Gatsby, or Remix.