[WaitWaitWha]

This may sound counter intuitive, but I am befuddled with all these static site generators always CLI. Yet, I delight in static sites.

Why is are all static site generators (that I am aware of) are CLI? What prevent simplistic drag and drop GUI/WYSIWYG that generates those clean static files?

All the static generators I have tested are way over-complicated for the "general public", yet I think static sites are probably the best option for most sites.

[_xivi]

> Why is are all static site generators (that I am aware of) are CLI? What prevent simplistic drag and drop GUI/WYSIWYG that generates those clean static files?

Check:

- Tina CMS: https://tina.io/

- Primo CMS: https://primocms.org/

More generally, try looking for `git-based cms` or `CMS+SSG`, you'll find a diverse set of solutions.

Anyway, you had it in reverse. Static generation is the easy part, while what you're looking for is a subset category of CMSs. So you should be looking under the CMS umbrella. You can also setup any generic Headless CMS to trigger generation for a static site. There's not much incentive to build a full fledged CMS, only to clip its wings and limit it to "static site only".

[redeux]

I agree with you. There’s even an ecosystem of plugins for WordPress that will generate static assets from your site.

[WhyNotHugo]

Ironically, the first link has setup instructions which use the cli:

    npx create-tina-app@latest

[mikae1]

Try https://getpublii.com

[lecarore]

I've set this up for my parents, they have a small bed and breakfast in the countryside, and they love it. It's much more responsive then their past WordPress install when editing, because their desktop is faster than a cheap PHP hosting. Some things are needlessly complicated in publii though, I'd like to make a more minimal version one day

[liampulles]

Ditto, I've used this for my mother's website. She probably could use something even simpler but mostly I'm pretty happy with it.

[Jaxkr]

Anyone who wants a GUI for a static site generator would be better served by a CMS.

Static sites are really only loved in the developer community among people who think it’s crazy to run a whole backend to generate pages for unchanging blog posts.

The people who want a GUI do not think this is crazy and use WordPress or similar software.

[mikae1]

> Static sites are really only loved in the developer community

...because they usually require extensive technical know-how to achieve a rather simple thing?

Perhaps you want own your domain and website setup.

Perhaps you don't have time to be a server admin keeping a public facing CMS up to date and secure.

https://getpublii.com runs on any cheap shared hosting and is zero maintenance. Your website will also be an easy to backup directory on your computer. Static site generators can be simple and attractive to the average user.

[firecall]

There is Rapid Weaver for the Mac!

https://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/

Im also a huge fan of Cloud Cannon. Which puts a CMS of sorts on top of static site generators.

[statquontrarian]

Yellow is nice: https://github.com/datenstrom/yellow

[tenken]

also php driven https://getgrav.org has a webui admin panel which can replace it's CLI admin tool chain.

[mbirth]

For Mac or iPad/iPhone, there’s e.g. blocs - https://blocsapp.com/