To choose the best static site generator for a project, first, you should know what type of website is required. Is it a blog or a collection of landing pages? In that case a simple SSG that generates pages using Markdown files is suitable. Or do you need a web app or an online store? In that case, it’s worth considering a component-oriented SSG based on React or Vue. Alternatively, you can also fall back on a static side generator that supports server-side rendering, such as Next.
The experience of the developers involved should be taken into account when choosing the best static site generator. Depending on the SSG, only one template language may be available and developers would need to be familiar using that language. Other SSGs are more flexible in this respect; developers can choose from a variety of template languages. It is also important to distinguish whether the template language is only used during the build process (Twig, Liquid) or is closely connected to the frontend (React, Vue).
Another important point to clarify is where the content for the site will come from. If a site is being built from scratch, the content may be entirely in Markdown. Or is it an existing site that contains lots of content? Here a static site generator should be used, which can access content from different sources via defined interfaces such as GraphQL.
Hosting also plays a role in choosing the best static site generator. Because depending on the server environment, not all languages or execution environments are necessarily available. However, when hosting in a container, this point becomes negligible.
Last but not least, when selecting the best static site generator, keep in mind the respective ecosystem. It is important to distinguish niche solutions from industry standards. A larger community automatically leads to a larger pool of documentation, tutorials, and helpful reports on bugs. The familiarity of the SSG among developers and content contributors is an important factor in decision making.