vfile VS Gatsby

file (required): a virtual file format.

Static websites are so good that they even have their own three-letter abbreviation: SSG (Static Site Generation). And of course, there are plenty of frameworks that generate them for you, no need in manual labour: Next.js supports SSG, Gatsby is still pretty popular, lots of people love Docusaurus, Astro promises the best performance, and probably many more.

Mastra (a newer framework, built by the team behind Gatsby)

I initially built the site using a static site technology called Gatsby, not realizing that it was actually a dead project. After a little research, I found that Next.js is a pretty popular alternative for building a static site, so I set myself to the task of porting it.

After Netlify’s acquisition of Gatsby, the framework’s development trajectory shifted. With a focus on integrating with Netlify’s ecosystem, Gatsby’s innovation appears to be gone. Throughout the entire 2024 we’ve seen only 1 minor update in the 5.x branch and even that consists mainly of bumped dependencies and small fixes:

Marking the first days and months of 2024 I started a site to host articles and blogs and what I called uploadz and missivz. I am using Astro having migrated from Gatsby in years previous. Astro is arguably faster to compile static sites and has a simpler, cleaner, in my view, way of creating simple component based web pages. It has the capability of embedding 'islands' of react, svelte, even plain Javascript and far more without having to go full on SPA if you don't want to. This was too tempting not to take a look and quite frankly I got hooked. Whilst I don't use a fraction of what Astro has to offer it has become a go-to for me for not just static sites but also to create POCs, quick Demos and more. It also has become the basis of a lightweight content management system I am developing and have implemented this year for clients and a non-profit. The CMS I refer to uses a back-end written in Laravel.

Gatsby: Primarily a static site generator, but also supports SSR.

It is a collection of beautifully designed user interface (UI) components that you can easily copy and paste into your applications. Developers can use it with any framework that supports React, like Next, Gatsby, Remix, and others.

Gatsby Official Documentation

My previous website used the Gatsby framework, for a simple reason: I am very familiar with React, so I thought customization would be easier. However, I later realized I didnt have time to maintain a bunch of Typescript and Javascript, which made me reluctant to update my website. This time, I choose Hugo. Maintaining a small amount of Go Template is easier, and I am familiar with Golang, too.

Gatsby: A static site generator ideal for content-heavy websites, offering performance optimizations out of the box. Gatsby Documentation