Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

GatsbyJS VS VuePress

Compare GatsbyJS VS VuePress and see what are their differences

GatsbyJS logo GatsbyJS

Blazing-fast static site generator for React

VuePress logo VuePress

A static site generator by Vue.js 🛠️
  • GatsbyJS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-12
  • VuePress Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-01-30

GatsbyJS features and specs

  • Performance
    GatsbyJS pre-builds your site into static files for fast load times and instantaneous page loads thanks to features like code splitting, PRPL pattern, and Asset Optimization.
  • SEO-Friendly
    GatsbyJS generates static HTML, which helps search engines to index your site more effectively. Additionally, you have fine-grained control over metadata and other SEO optimizations.
  • Rich Plugin Ecosystem
    GatsbyJS boasts an extensive plugin ecosystem that covers a wide array of functionalities such as sourcing data from CMSs, adding analytics, integrating with various APIs, and much more.
  • Strong Community Support
    Gatsby has a robust and active community that provides ample documentation, tutorials, and support to help you get started and troubleshoot issues.
  • Secure and Scalable
    Since Gatsby sites are static, they are inherently more secure against traditional web-based vulnerabilities and can be scaled easily by deploying to a CDN.

Possible disadvantages of GatsbyJS

  • Build Time
    For larger sites, build times can become noticeably long as Gatsby rebuilds the entire site. This can be a bottleneck for frequent updates.
  • Less Suitable for Dynamic Content
    Since Gatsby generates static pages, it's less suited for applications that require real-time data updates or dynamic content unless they are integrated with client-side JS or third-party services.
  • Initial Setup Complexity
    Getting started with Gatsby can be complex for beginners unfamiliar with React and GraphQL, as it requires knowledge of these technologies.
  • GraphQL Learning Curve
    A significant part of customizing and extending Gatsby sites involves GraphQL queries, which can be a barrier for developers who are not yet familiar with GraphQL.
  • Plugin Quality Variability
    While Gatsby has a rich plugin ecosystem, the quality and maintenance of plugins can vary, requiring developers to vet the plugins they choose to integrate into their projects.

VuePress features and specs

  • Markdown-Centric
    VuePress is designed to work seamlessly with Markdown, offering a simple and intuitive way to create and manage documentation.
  • Vue.js Integration
    Being built on Vue.js, VuePress allows for easy integration of custom components, which can enrich the documentation with interactive elements.
  • Default Theme
    VuePress comes with a well-designed default theme which is optimized for technical documentation out-of-the-box.
  • Static Site Generation
    VuePress generates static HTML files for every page, which can be deployed easily and offer better performance and SEO.
  • Extensive Plugin Ecosystem
    A wide array of plugins is available, making it easy to add extra functionalities like search, analytics, and much more.
  • Hot Reloading
    Thanks to Vue.js, VuePress enjoys hot-reloading, providing a fast and interactive development experience.
  • Ease of Deployment
    Static files generated by VuePress can be deployed on any static site hosting services like GitHub Pages, Netlify, or Vercel.

Possible disadvantages of VuePress

  • Learning Curve
    Users not familiar with Vue.js might find it challenging to fully leverage VuePress's capabilities.
  • Limited Default Themes
    While the default theme is robust for documentation, there are limited built-in themes, which may require custom development for more diverse needs.
  • Plugin Management
    Managing a large number of plugins can become complex and may introduce compatibility issues or bloat.
  • Configuration Complexity
    Advanced configurations can become complex and may require a deeper understanding of both Vue.js and the VuePress ecosystem.
  • Community Size
    VuePress's community is smaller compared to some other static site generators like Jekyll or Hugo, which might limit the available support and resources.
  • Performance for Large Sites
    For very large sites with thousands of pages, build times can become considerably long, requiring additional configuration and optimization.
  • SEO Limitations
    While static HTML improves SEO, dynamically generated content through Vue components may require additional configuration and optimization to be SEO-friendly.

GatsbyJS videos

The Great Gatsby - Movie Review by Chris Stuckmann

More videos:

  • Review - The Great Gatsby movie review
  • Review - The Ultimate Gatsby Moving Rubber Review!

VuePress videos

VuePress - Static Site Generator

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to GatsbyJS and VuePress)
CMS
59 59%
41% 41
Blogging
64 64%
36% 36
Developer Tools
67 67%
33% 33
Blogging Platform
66 66%
34% 34

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare GatsbyJS and VuePress

GatsbyJS Reviews

Top JavaScript Frameworks in 2025
Gatsby JS is a free, open-source, React-based framework that is used to create static websites. It has a great ecosystem of plugins that serve various needs like sourcing data from CMSs, integrating tools, managing images using lazy loading, and more.
Source: solguruz.com
Top 10 Next.js Alternatives You Can Try
Gatsby allows you to add plugins with versatile functions and customization to increase your efficiency when developing websites. Here, you can use multiple styling approaches like Sass and CSS-in-JS library solutions to build web pages more smoothly. Moreover, using Gatsby as an alternative to Next.Js provides you with a complete learning guide to enhance your developing...
20 Next.js Alternatives Worth Considering
A React-based maestro, Gatsby transforms the way sites come to life by hooking into a rich set of data sources. Picture this: a web that’s blazing fast, where your creations go live almost before you hit ‘publish’. That’s Gatsby for you. Inside its engine, it’s got GraphQL superpowers, making data dancing across your pages a breeze.
10 Best Next.js Alternatives to Consider Today
A React-based framework, Gatsby excels in crafting static websites renowned for their exceptional performance. Leveraging GraphQL, Gatsby efficiently pulls data from diverse sources, empowering developers to build dynamic, data-driven websites effortlessly. Its expansive plugin ecosystem allows seamless integration with various data providers, content management systems...
20 Best JavaScript Frameworks For 2023
Gatsby lets users pull data from any data source imaginable – CMS like WordPress, Drupal, Netlify, Contentful, etc., or APIs, databases, or simple markdown. Unlike Next.js, which we discussed above, Gatsby does not perform server-side rendering. Instead, it generates HTML content on the client side during build time. As a result, Gatsby delivers blazing-fast performance,...

VuePress Reviews

Top 10 Next.js Alternatives You Can Try
VuePress prioritizes simplicity to increase your project’s workflow without hassling into complex methods. It allows you to generate pre-rendered static HTML to present responsive pages. Moreover, you can customize your site without any configuration; just run the commands to create the directory inside your docs directory.
15 of the Most Interesting Vue UI Component Libraries for 2023
The use of VuePress opens up a lot of possibilities for your project — like automating your documentation process. It is easy to integrate into your existing application, too. However, a considerable drawback is that SEO support is still new, and the documentaiton does not focus on this topic yet.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, VuePress should be more popular than GatsbyJS. It has been mentiond 33 times since March 2021. 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.

GatsbyJS mentions (16)

  • React SEO: How to Build Search-Friendly Pages in React
    The most famous frameworks for developing SSR applications are Gatsby and Next.js. Although there are differences between them, their main goal is similar: to allow next-generation web applications to remain blazing-fast. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • External content for GatsbyJS
    If you enjoy React and want a standard-compliant and high performance web, you should look at GatsbyJS. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Replatforming from Gatsby to Zola!
    Since around 2019 I have used Gatsby as my static site generator. Its plugin system makes it super feature extensible. It uses React under the hood which makes components easy to write and has tons of community support. Once I had a Gatsby site styled and running, publishing blog posts is fairly trivial:. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Build a Documentation Website with Gatsby in 10 Mins
    Smooth DOC is a ready-to-use Gatsby theme to create a documentation website. Creating a pro-quality website like this one takes weeks. Smooth DOC saves you time and lets you focus on the content. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Where to begin?
    I'd start with learning HTML and CSS first, then Javascript after those. There are a lot of free online resources for learning those. For websites, I use jekyll which is a great way to start off because there are a lot of community website templates that you can customize, which is great for beginners and learning. Then I'd recommend learning/moving to React. The Gatsby website generator would be good for React... Source: over 2 years ago
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VuePress mentions (33)

  • Top 10 Vue.js libraries you should be using in 2025
    VuePress is a minimalistic Vue-powered static site generator optimized for technical documentation and websites with a focus on content. It is suitable for creating documentation websites, blogs, and other content-focused projects. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Fusion – a hobby OS implemented in Nim
    I use VuePress[0]. You can find the source code for the site here[1]. [0] https://vuepress.vuejs.org [1] https://github.com/khaledh/khaledh.github.io. - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
  • Free project idea - documentation framework!
    VuePress - when I searched if it's supporting what I want (conditional rendering), the first result is a bug issue opened 4 years ago, so it doesn't seem to be a good option. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Using links in markdown to navigate files through directories.
    I'm new to IA Writer, and I'm wanting to use it to draft posts for my Vuepress site. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Create a Static Site using VitePress for Beautiful Help Documentation
    VitePress is listed in the documents as VuePress' little brother, and it is built on top of Vite. For those that don't know Vite is a build tool that aims to provide a faster and leaner development experience for modern web projects so it might sense to pair it with a static site generator such as VitePress. One of the original problems with VuePress was that it was a Webpack app and it took a lot of time to spin... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing GatsbyJS and VuePress, you can also consider the following products

Jekyll - Jekyll is a simple, blog aware, static site generator.

Forestry.io - A simple CMS for Jekyll and Hugo sites.

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

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.

Sanity.io - Sanity.io a platform for structured content that comes with an open-source editor that you can customize with React.js.

Hexo - A fast, simple & powerful blog framework, powered by Node.js