What is a Static Site Generator?

Publised on Saturday, 5 May 2025

We need to place ourselves in the deployment and service phase of your application, when you have content to make available on the internet.

The Difference from a CMS

A static site generator creates HTML files for each page in order to serve them to visitors, whereas a CMS uses a complex URL recognition and page generation system to deliver content.

This makes the process of rendering a web page instantaneous
Since there is no recognition and generation of the page

Because each page is already generated

The Power of Hosting

Frameworks require powerful hosting to provide a fast and pleasant service to their users.

The fact is, more code must be read and therefore more resources must be mobilized to achieve a roughly equivalent result.

Furthermore, in the case of WordPress, which evolves with its plugins and is the most widely used CMS in the world, if there is a security breach, your site will inevitably be affected.

What Makes Hugo Special

Hugo manages the dependencies (JavaScript and HTML files) of web pages in a simple way during the development phase, and is very secure during the production phase (when your web application is online and in production).

• Development with Hugo is simple
• Dependency management in production is secure

Managing Web Assets

Hugo also makes it possible to compile web resources such as CSS and JavaScript from extension languages like Sass and TypeScript.

Hugo also supports advanced languages such as JSX (for React) and the use of npm packages.

These resources can be signed by Hugo using a SHA512 algorithm to ensure the integrity of the code sent over the internet for use by your website’s visitors. This increases the security of your users.

Loading Speed

Because the HTML files—which are the language used by web browsers to display web pages—are pre-generated, each page is optimized for performance and therefore loads instantly.

The additional resources used alongside HTML files to enhance the browsing experience are also optimized to be as lightweight as possible, both in their design and in their preparation for use.

Access to a Database

A database is necessary to store new information and make a website interactive.

A database can be accessed during site generation to populate the various pages with data.

In addition, information can be added through JavaScript requests to record your users’ interactions.