Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Hexo VS WP2Static

Compare Hexo VS WP2Static and see what are their differences

Hexo logo Hexo

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

WP2Static logo WP2Static

Static site generator for WordPress
  • Hexo Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-14
  • WP2Static Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-23

Hexo features and specs

  • Speed
    Hexo is a static site generator, meaning it can generate and serve content rapidly compared to traditional CMS (Content Management Systems). This results in faster page load times and better performance.
  • Markdown Support
    Hexo uses Markdown for content creation, making it simple for users to write and format text easily. Markdown is widely used and allows for a clean separation of content and formatting.
  • Customization
    Hexo provides a high degree of customization through its robust plugin system and theme capabilities. Users can easily extend functionality and change the look and feel of their site.
  • SEO Friendly
    Hexo generates clean, static HTML files which are easily indexable by search engines. This makes it an SEO-friendly solution for creating websites and blogs.
  • Open Source
    Hexo is an open-source project, which means it's free to use, and you can contribute to the project or modify the source code to suit your needs.
  • Deployment Flexibility
    Hexo supports a variety of deployment methods including GitHub Pages, Heroku, Netlify, and others, making it easy to publish your site.

Possible disadvantages of Hexo

  • Learning Curve
    While Markdown is easy to use, the overall setup of Hexo and understanding its configuration files can be challenging for beginners, especially those unfamiliar with static site generators.
  • Dependency on Node.js
    Hexo relies on Node.js and npm (Node Package Manager), so you need to have these installed on your machine. This dependency can be a barrier for people not familiar with JavaScript or the Node.js ecosystem.
  • Content Management
    Unlike traditional CMS platforms like WordPress, Hexo does not provide a built-in content management interface. All content is managed through files, which can be less convenient for non-technical users.
  • Build Times on Large Sites
    For very large websites with lots of pages and posts, the build times in Hexo can become lengthy as all files need to be regenerated each time a change is made.
  • Limited Ecosystem
    While Hexo has a decent number of plugins and themes, its ecosystem is not as vast as some other static site generators or CMS platforms like Jekyll or WordPress. This could limit your options for extending your site.
  • Version Compatibility
    Updates to Hexo or its plugins can sometimes lead to compatibility issues, requiring users to spend time debugging and resolving conflicts, which can be frustrating.

WP2Static features and specs

  • Performance
    By converting a dynamic WordPress site into a static one, WP2Static eliminates the need to query the database or execute PHP code, resulting in faster page load times.
  • Security
    Static sites have a reduced attack surface as they do not rely on server-side code execution. This significantly decreases the risk of vulnerabilities such as SQL injection and other attacks common to dynamic sites.
  • Scalability
    Static sites can handle a large volume of traffic without additional infrastructure because they serve pre-rendered files, greatly reducing the demand on the server.
  • Cost Reduction
    Without the need for a high-performance server or a database, hosting static sites can be much cheaper compared to dynamic sites.
  • Ease of Deployment
    Static files can be easily deployed to any web hosting platform, CDN, or file storage service, making it flexible in terms of hosting options.

Possible disadvantages of WP2Static

  • Limited Interactivity
    Static sites lack dynamic features such as user authentication and content management, which are inherent to WordPress by default.
  • Complex Updates
    Updating content on a static site requires regenerating and redeploying the static files, which is less straightforward compared to updating a dynamic WordPress site.
  • Plugin Compatibility
    Some WordPress plugins rely on dynamic content generation or server-side execution, which may not work as expected with static site generators.
  • Learning Curve
    Users may need to adapt to a different workflow for deploying updates and managing their site, especially if they are accustomed to a traditional WordPress setup.
  • SEO Concerns
    Certain SEO features, like dynamic XML sitemaps or real-time meta tags updates, require special handling or additional tools to implement in static sites.

Analysis of Hexo

Overall verdict

  • Hexo is a solid choice for those who want a lightweight and fast static site generator, especially if you need straightforward blogging functionality and are comfortable working with Node.js and Markdown.

Why this product is good

  • Hexo is a popular and powerful static site generator known for its simplicity, speed, and strong community support. It is built on Node.js, making it suitable for developers familiar with JavaScript. It offers a wide range of themes and plugins, allowing for flexible customization and extension. It's particularly favored for blogging due to its efficient content management and the ability to deploy quickly to platforms such as GitHub Pages.

Recommended for

  • Developers seeking a simple and fast static site generator.
  • Bloggers who prefer writing in Markdown and value speed in generation and deployment.
  • Users comfortable with Node.js looking for extensive community support and customizable themes.

Hexo videos

Tsunami by Hexo One Hitter Weed Review

More videos:

  • Review - Hexo Corp. Cannabis Original Stash OS.220 1 Ounce review Indica Blend
  • Review - HEXO Corp. - HEXO Stock Chart Technical Analysis for 06-16-2020

WP2Static videos

Simply Static Vs WP2Static - Creating Static Sites with Wordpress

More videos:

  • Tutorial - How to create a Static version of your Wordpress Website (DEPRECATED) PLEASE USE wp2static

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Hexo and WP2Static)
Blogging
74 74%
26% 26
CMS
75 75%
25% 25
Blogging Platform
77 77%
23% 23
Lifestyle
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using Hexo and WP2Static. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Hexo should be more popular than WP2Static. It has been mentiond 21 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.

Hexo mentions (21)

  • Crosspost! Publishing to Dev.to From My Personal Blog
    My website is a static site built with Hexo and served through GitHub Pages. Hexo's documentation isn't the best, but with a little digging, I found that, in the years since I last used it, they've provided a pretty robust first-party plugin for generating RSS and ATOM feeds. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: Looking for lightweight personal blogging platform
    There's also hexo [1]. I saw that on Matt Klein's website [2] and the theme looked pretty clean. [1] https://hexo.io [2] https://mattklein123.dev/2020/03/08/2020-03-07-new-website/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Hexo, WebFinger and better discoverability
    In my case, the latter is not possible because this blog is a static site, generated via Hexo and hosted on GitHub. It simply lacks a modifiable active server component. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • Nuxt 3 - showcase your sites
    Previously I've used Nuxt2 and even sooner - hexo.io. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Building a static blog using Jekyll & Strapi
    To make their creation easier, numerous open-source static websites generators are available: Jekyll, Hugo, Gatsby, Hexo, etc. Most of the time, the content is managed through static (ideally Markdown) files or a Content API. Then, the generator requests the content, injects it in templates defined by the developer and generates a bunch of HTML files. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
View more

WP2Static mentions (12)

  • WordPress plugin hole puts '2M websites' at risk
    > It is not actually that hard to run Wordpress securely. Stick to supported plugins and themes, and install security patches quickly when they are released. Depending on your site's functionality, it may also be possible to run a static WP site: * https://wordpress.org/plugins/simply-static/ * https://wp2static.com You do all your regular updates via the CMS, but, instead of putting the dynamic site on the... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Wordpress.org website creation and hosting
    The closest "free" option I can think of is Oracle Cloud, but /r/oraclecloud shows plenty of horror stories in registration and maintaining an instance. If you don't actually need interactive features, WP2Static on your local instance to be deployed to Cloudflare Pages might work. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Wp-SQLite: WordPress running on an SQLite database
    > Most WP sites should be static sites. https://wordpress.org/plugins/simply-static/ https://wp2static.com. - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
  • WordPress sites getting hacked โ€˜within secondsโ€™ of TLS certificates being issued
    Depending on the site, ask yourself "How dynamic does it actually have to be?". Perhaps using the GUI to update the content, and then creating static files and serving those may be an option: * https://wp2static.com. - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
  • Building a blog from scratch in 2022 using Hugo, Docker and a bit of Python
    What is wrong with using Wordpress? I believe now one can get Wordpress to have 'static site' capabilities these days [0] [0] https://wp2static.com/. - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Hexo and WP2Static, you can also consider the following products

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

Simply Static - Never worry about WordPress hacks again.

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

Staatic - Staatic is a platform to create an extremely fast and highly secure static version of your WordPress site without effort.

GatsbyJS - Blazing-fast static site generator for React

Web Reactionz - Global reactions for the Web