{"slug": "zola", "name": "Zola", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 7, "warners": 0, "score": 3.801, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2025-11-04", "latest": "2026-10-27", "why": "Zola[1] is less well-known, but it's easy to install and fast.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 4, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Zola[1] is less well-known, but it's easy to install and fast.", "icon": true, "domain": "getzola.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.getzola.org", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Zola"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 803818241, "item_id": 50238640, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50238640", "by": "abound", "date": "2026-10-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Hugo for one blog [1] and Zola for another [2], I think they're both pretty simple to use", "excerpt": "I use Hugo for one blog [1] and Zola for another [2], I think they're both pretty simple to use once you wrap your mind around how they structure things. Astro is also great (as others have noted) esp if you want to leverage the JS ecosystem at large. [1] https://frominsidethebox.com [2] https://yakshed.com", "context": "", "use_case": "blog", "switched_from": "", "story": "Removing Next.js Got My Blog to 100 on Every Lighthouse Category"}, {"id": 779390640, "item_id": 48711915, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48711915", "by": "cjk", "date": "2026-06-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Zola[1] is less well-known, but it's easy to install and fast.", "excerpt": "In that case, I would consider a lightweight static site generator. It sounds like you're fairly new to programming, so I would suggest a static site generator that is easy to install and use. Zola[1] is less well-known, but it's easy to install and fast. I tend to use Hugo[2] the most these days, which is fast and has solid documentation, but its template syntax is really annoying compared to Zola. [1]: https://www.", "context": "", "use_case": "static site generation for beginners", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Is WordPress the best way to create new websites for beginner"}, {"id": 743882800, "item_id": 46492675, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46492675", "by": "stusmall", "date": "2026-01-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used Zola for my SSG and can't think of the last breaking change I've hit.", "excerpt": "This is the way. This is how I do it with mine but use channels instead of flakes because I'm a giant curmudgeon. My devshell can be found here and is dead simple: https://github.com/stusmall/stuartsmall.com/blob/main/default.nix I used Zola for my SSG and can't think of the last breaking change I've hit. I just use the pattern of locked nix devshells for everything by default. The extra tools are used for processing", "context": "", "use_case": "static site generator for website", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jeffgeerling.com has been Migrated to Hugo"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "benstigsen", "context": "runs personal website", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50265516", "date": "2026-10-27"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["static site generation", "blog", "static site generation for beginners", "generating static tutorial site", "static site generator for website", "blog static site generator"], "compared": [{"slug": "hugo", "name": "Hugo", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "astro", "name": "Astro", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50237712", "title": "Removing Next.js Got My Blog to 100 on Every Lighthouse Category", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48709796", "title": "Ask HN: Is WordPress the best way to create new websites for beginner", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48433756", "title": "Show HN: Lathe \u2013 Use LLMs to learn a new domain, not skip past it", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46487498", "title": "Jeffgeerling.com has been Migrated to Hugo", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46009894", "title": "Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45813221", "title": "Ask HN: What are you using for blogging?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 2}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804248259, "item_id": 50265516, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50265516", "by": "benstigsen", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "different SSGs (Astro, Hugo, Zola, Lume)", "excerpt": "I've tried so many things over the years, my own webservers with Python and Go, my own templating systems, various markdown converters, different SSGs (Astro, Hugo, Zola, Lume), in the end I've always found markdown limiting, when it comes to structuring and formatting content. Now I use a git repository with a simple git hook, which runs a tiny bash script on commit, allowing for basic HTML templating. The static si", "context": "runs personal website", "use_case": "static site generation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Removing Next.js Got My Blog to 100 on Every Lighthouse Category"}, {"id": 803818241, "item_id": 50238640, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50238640", "by": "abound", "date": "2026-10-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Hugo for one blog [1] and Zola for another [2], I think they're both pretty simple to use", "excerpt": "I use Hugo for one blog [1] and Zola for another [2], I think they're both pretty simple to use once you wrap your mind around how they structure things. Astro is also great (as others have noted) esp if you want to leverage the JS ecosystem at large. [1] https://frominsidethebox.com [2] https://yakshed.com", "context": "", "use_case": "blog", "switched_from": "", "story": "Removing Next.js Got My Blog to 100 on Every Lighthouse Category"}, {"id": 779390640, "item_id": 48711915, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48711915", "by": "cjk", "date": "2026-06-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Zola[1] is less well-known, but it's easy to install and fast.", "excerpt": "In that case, I would consider a lightweight static site generator. It sounds like you're fairly new to programming, so I would suggest a static site generator that is easy to install and use. Zola[1] is less well-known, but it's easy to install and fast. I tend to use Hugo[2] the most these days, which is fast and has solid documentation, but its template syntax is really annoying compared to Zola. [1]: https://www.", "context": "", "use_case": "static site generation for beginners", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Is WordPress the best way to create new websites for beginner"}, {"id": 775018625, "item_id": 48438664, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48438664", "by": "mobiuscog", "date": "2026-06-07", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "uses zola to turn it into a full static site", "excerpt": "I have been using a similar skill (built over a few iterations) that builds whatever I ask, through a series of milestones, and then creates a full tutorial to follow in markdown and uses zola to turn it into a full static site. 90% of my Claude usage is getting it to write me guides, that I can then spend most of my time following to build the end results. Keeps the brain healthy and also provides bespoke learning, ", "context": "", "use_case": "generating static tutorial site", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Lathe \u2013 Use LLMs to learn a new domain, not skip past it"}, {"id": 743882800, "item_id": 46492675, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46492675", "by": "stusmall", "date": "2026-01-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used Zola for my SSG and can't think of the last breaking change I've hit.", "excerpt": "This is the way. This is how I do it with mine but use channels instead of flakes because I'm a giant curmudgeon. My devshell can be found here and is dead simple: https://github.com/stusmall/stuartsmall.com/blob/main/default.nix I used Zola for my SSG and can't think of the last breaking change I've hit. I just use the pattern of locked nix devshells for everything by default. The extra tools are used for processing", "context": "", "use_case": "static site generator for website", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jeffgeerling.com has been Migrated to Hugo"}, {"id": 736233201, "item_id": 46014575, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46014575", "by": "bbkane", "date": "2025-11-22", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use it for my Zola blog.", "excerpt": "https://typora.io/ allows pasting images into markdown. I use it for my Zola blog.", "context": "", "use_case": "blog static site generator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?"}, {"id": 733017840, "item_id": 45813615, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45813615", "by": "genezeta", "date": "2025-11-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Zola to generate a couple of different sites, one of them a blog.", "excerpt": "I use Zola to generate a couple of different sites, one of them a blog.", "context": "", "use_case": "static site and blog generation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you using for blogging?"}]}