Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Backdrop CMS VS Jekyll

Compare Backdrop CMS VS Jekyll and see what are their differences

Backdrop CMS logo Backdrop CMS

A free and Open Source CMS for small to medium sized businesses and non-profits.

Jekyll logo Jekyll

Jekyll is a simple, blog aware, static site generator.
  • Backdrop CMS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-05
  • Jekyll Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-17

Backdrop CMS features and specs

  • Affordability
    Backdrop CMS is a cost-effective solution for small to medium-sized businesses or individuals who need a comprehensive content management system without a hefty price tag.
  • Ease of Use
    It is designed to be user-friendly, making it accessible for users who may not have extensive technical knowledge, which simplifies website management.
  • Drupal Compatibility
    Backdrop CMS is a fork of Drupal, which means it has many of Drupal’s features and benefits, but with a simplified and streamlined approach.
  • Active Community
    The Backdrop community is active and engaged, providing a variety of modules, themes, and a wealth of support resources for users.
  • Customizability
    Backdrop CMS allows for extensive customization with its numerous add-ons and modules, enabling developers to meet specific project requirements.
  • System Requirements
    Backdrop has lower system requirements than some other CMS platforms, allowing it to run on more cost-effective servers.

Possible disadvantages of Backdrop CMS

  • Smaller Community
    Compared to larger platforms like WordPress or Drupal, Backdrop has a smaller user base which could lead to fewer resources or third-party integrations.
  • Limited Modules
    While Backdrop has a fair number of modules, it doesn't compare to the vast library available in more established platforms like Drupal.
  • Less Suitable for Complex Projects
    Backdrop is well-suited for simple to moderately complex sites, but may not offer the depth and scalability needed for extremely large or complex web projects.
  • Migration Complexity
    Migrating to Backdrop CMS from other systems might require significant effort and technical expertise, particularly if coming from heavily customized Drupal sites.
  • Marketing and Awareness
    Backdrop CMS has less market recognition compared to giants like WordPress or Drupal, which might be a concern for stakeholders prioritizing mainstay solutions.

Jekyll features and specs

  • Speed and Performance
    Jekyll generates static websites, which means they load faster compared to dynamic websites. No database queries are required, reducing server overhead and improving performance.
  • Security
    Static sites have a smaller attack surface compared to dynamic sites because they don't rely on databases or server-side code. This means fewer vectors for potential compromises.
  • Simplicity
    Jekyll setups are relatively straightforward, especially if you are comfortable writing in Markdown and HTML. This can make it easier to manage and maintain your website.
  • Integration with GitHub Pages
    Jekyll is designed to work seamlessly with GitHub Pages, allowing you to host your website for free with automatic deployment directly from your GitHub repository.
  • Customizability
    Jekyll allows for extensive customization through its support for plugins, themes, and templates. This can be helpful to create a unique look and functionality for your website.

Possible disadvantages of Jekyll

  • Learning Curve
    While Jekyll is simpler than some other static site generators, it does require some familiarity with the command line, version control (Git), and YAML configuration.
  • Build Time
    For large websites, the build times can become lengthy, which can slow down the development process, especially if you are making frequent updates.
  • Lack of Real-time Content Updates
    Since Jekyll generates static sites, real-time content updates (e.g., comments, dynamic forms) aren't natively supported and require third-party services or additional tooling.
  • Dependence on Ruby
    Jekyll is built with Ruby, so you will need to have Ruby installed and occasionally deal with Ruby-specific issues. This might be a drawback for developers who are not familiar with the Ruby ecosystem.
  • Limited Built-in Functionality
    While Jekyll is very flexible, it doesn’t have built-in support for many features out of the box, which might require you to manually implement or rely on plugins.

Backdrop CMS videos

Moving to Backdrop CMS

More videos:

  • Review - Session: Moving from Drupal 7 to Backdrop CMS
  • Demo - The Drupal Fork: Backdrop CMS (live demo)

Jekyll videos

Getting Started With Jekyll, The Static Site Generator

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Backdrop CMS and Jekyll)
CMS
6 6%
94% 94
Blogging
5 5%
95% 95
Blogging Platform
8 8%
92% 92
Static Site Generators
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Backdrop CMS and Jekyll

Backdrop CMS Reviews

We have no reviews of Backdrop CMS yet.
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Jekyll Reviews

Best Gitbook Alternatives You Need to Try in 2023
Jekyll is a static site generator often used to create blogs and websites, similar to Gitbook in its ability to generate documentation from markdown files. Jekyll is built in Ruby and is known for its flexibility and ease of use. It also has a large community and a wide variety of plugins and themes available. Jekyll's main advantage is that it is highly customizable,...
Source: www.archbee.com
11 Popular Free And Open Source WordPress CMS alternatives in 2021
Unlike some listed alternatives, Jekyll is also a static site generator so it lays in the same category. It uses Ruby and we would say it's simpler, free, and open-source CMS software.
Source: medevel.com
10 static site generators to watch in 2021
Perhaps most conveniently described as Jekyll implemented with JavaScript rather than Ruby, Eleventy has now moved beyond that while retaining a clear and simple on-ramp, and only shipping to the browser what you tell it too. As with Jekyll and Hugo, no JavaScript frameworks are auto-baked in.
Source: www.netlify.com
Hugo vs Jekyll: an Epic Battle of Static Site Generator Themes
Jekyll isn’t strict with its content location. It expects pages in the root of your site, and will build whatever’s there. Here’s how you might organize these pages in your Jekyll site root:
9 Reasons I Think Craft is the Best CMS on the Market Today
Craft CMS is simple, minimalistic, agile and has every capability a modern CMS framework needs. Over the past ten years we have worked with every CMS you could think of (Wordpress, Drupal, Rails+ActiveAdmin, Ghost, Weebly, DjangoCMS, Jekyll, Joomla, Tumblr, Squarespace, Expression Engine, Statamic, Blogger)… here are the reasons why we’ve landed firmly with Craft as our №1...
Source: hackernoon.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Jekyll seems to be a lot more popular than Backdrop CMS. While we know about 194 links to Jekyll, we've tracked only 13 mentions of Backdrop CMS. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Backdrop CMS mentions (13)

  • So Long WordPress
    Have you checked out Backdrop CMS? https://backdropcms.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Cold-Blooded Software
    Https://backdropcms.org/ ? D7 fork. If you want to stay there. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Alternatives to Laravel?
    Https://backdropcms.org was a fork of Drupal before the rewrite. It was pretty decent when I tried it (admittedly several years ago). Source: almost 2 years ago
  • The Magic of Small Databases
    I see you decided on Wordpress, if you were going to use a CMS I think Drupal 7 would have been a good choice. Drupal has concept of entities and views. An entity as the name suggests is essentially a table and you can add all sorts of different fields to it. From simple text and number fields to images and fields that lookup other entities thus creating relationships between entities. Views is another construct... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Doing some research on technologies: Why are a large portion of Drupal downloads still the Drupal 7 version?
    I think some smaller biz and nonprofits jumped off to https://backdropcms.org. Source: over 2 years ago
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Jekyll mentions (194)

  • How to create a blog with Quartz, GitHub, and Cloudflare
    If you don't want to use Jekyll as your static site generator for GitHub Pages and you want to have a custom domain for your GitHub Pages. This post is for you! - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Blogging with Obsidian and Jekyll
    Jekyll is a static site generator that transforms Markdown files into a fully functional website. Everything is generated into plain HTML, which makes it simple to deploy on platforms like GitHub Pages. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Create a Blogging Platform With No Backend (Zero Hosting Fee)
    Obviously, there are a dozen choices for generating static websites (efficiently and quickly), from the classic Jekyll to the new Next.js. And you are good to go with any of them as long as your confident with it. I choose 11ty because:. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • It's easy to dev blog
    In your repository settings you need to turn on GitHub Pages to make it pull Jekyll content (that's the magic✨ default GitHub Pages build tool) from your GitHub repository. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • How to build a blog with NodeJS
    If you're looking to start a blog (or if you're thinking of redesigning yours although you haven't posted in 2 years), you'll stumble upon a lot of options and it can be incredibly daunting; and if you stumble with the newest Josh's post about his stack it is easy to feel overwhelmed with the shown stack. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Backdrop CMS and Jekyll, you can also consider the following products

Grav - The modern open source flat-file CMS

Hugo - Hugo is a general-purpose website framework for generating static web pages.

Mastodon - Mastodon is a decentralized, open source social network. This is just one part of the network, run by the main developers of the project It is not focused on any particular niche interest - everyone is welcome!

Ghost - Ghost is a fully open source, adaptable platform for building and running a modern online publication. We power blogs, magazines and journalists from Zappos to Sky News.

Blogger - Publish your passions, your way. Create a unique and beautiful blog. It’s easy and free.

WordPress - WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.