Review of Zola

2023-11-05

As revealed in the previous post this site is now migrated into the Zola SSG management system. Zola is based on rust and boasts performance. What really caught my eye though is the numerous readymade light-weight themes available for it. Which is a refreshing change from the heavy theme this site used previously in the Jekyll framework. With its simplicity and performance, Zola has gained recognition among developers and content creators as a powerful tool for creating websites with minimal effort.

Its key features are speed and efficiency; flexible theming; built-in shortcodes; taxonomies and sections.

Some of it's other pros are:

  1. Rust Powered: The use of Rust makes Zola incredibly fast and robust, ensuring that your site will be blazingly quick and reliable.

  2. Simple Setup: Zola is easy to set up and use, making it a great choice for both newcomers to static site generation and experienced developers.

  3. Great Documentation: Zola provides extensive documentation that covers all aspects of the tool, making it accessible and user-friendly.

  4. Active Development: The Zola project is actively maintained, with regular updates and improvements, ensuring it stays up to date with modern web development trends.

  5. Community and Support: Zola has an active community and forum, offering support and assistance to users.

Cons:

  1. Limited theme options: Zola has a limited number of pre-built themes available. On the other hand most of the options here are lightweight (which is my preference).

  2. Learning Curve: Zola is known to have a steeper learning curve, but in my experience it is on par with other SSGs such as Jekyll.

Zola is an impressive static site generator that combines the power of Rust with user-friendliness, resulting in a tool that's efficient and flexible. Its speed, extensibility, and built-in features make it an excellent choice for developers and content creators looking to build modern, performant static websites. While it may not have the largest ecosystem, Zola's strengths more than make up for it.

Many people now prefer Zola for thier SSG blog; and it's a current trend to migrate to it.. Read more about Zola on their website: https://www.getzola.org/. Various deployment methods are discussed on https://www.getzola.org/documentation/deployment/overview/.