Pelican
Pelican is a popular open source static site generator written in Python. It is designed for flexibility and extensibility, allowing developers to customize it for different projects. Pelican takes Markdown or reST content and generates complete static HTML websites that can be e
python
static
site-generator
blogging
Pelican: Open Source Static Site Generator
Discover the flexible and customizable open source static site generator, Pelican, written in Python, ideal for creating complete static HTML websites from Markdown or reST content.
What is Pelican?
Pelican is a fast and flexible static site generator written in Python. It was created to power the Python community website, but has since expanded to support blogs, articles, documentation, and more. Some key features of Pelican include:
- Support for Markdown and reStructuredText content
- Theming & templating - Many themes available to customize look and feel
- Plugins - Extend functionality with plugins or write your own
- Flexible content organization and pages/articles workflow
- Categories and tags for organizing content
- Code syntax highlighting
- Atom/RSS feeds
- Easy deployment to any static web host
Pelican emphasizes modular design and extensibility. Developers can customize Pelican by creating themes to change its visual style completely. They can also create plugins to add features like support for new markup languages or content management systems. This flexibility makes Pelican a solid option for web developers looking for a static site generator framework to build upon.
Some popular sites using Pelican include the Programming Historian, MIT's MindHandHeart, and dozens of individual blogs. Pelican makes it easy to convert content to static files ready for any basic web server. It enables developers to focus on creating content rather than building infrastructure.
Pelican Features
Features
- Static site generator
- Supports Markdown and reStructuredText content
- Themes and plugins allow customization
- Built-in support for code syntax highlighting
- Automatic content pagination
- Supports tags, categories and archives
- Easy to deploy - generates static HTML files
- Good documentation and active community
Pricing
- Open Source
Pros
Flexible and extensible
Good performance for static sites
Lots of themes and plugins available
Easy to get started for beginners
Integrates well with Python ecosystem
Cons
Not ideal for very large or complex sites
Steeper learning curve than some website builders
Limited built-in CMS capabilities
Requires command line usage for many tasks
Official Links
The Best Pelican Alternatives
Top Development and Static Site Generators and other similar apps like Pelican
Here are some alternatives to Pelican:
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