What are the difference of buying a theme vs using static site generator?
Recently I am researching different static site generator and cms.
Just wonder what is the difference of buying a theme on envato market vs using static site generator and the provided themes?
Is it simpler to buy a theme (say bootstrap) and change based on it?
Hi Benny,
I maybe a little off here in terms of what you are asking but the difference between using Envato market vs a static site generator theme is a little apple and oranges. If you understand the differences then sorry about that and please skip down to the bottom of this comment.
Envato market generally deals in Wordpress themes (I believe). To use one of these themes you need an instance of Wordpress running which acts as your CMS. With Wordpress all data is stored in a database and it is "dynamic". When someones visits a page, Wordpress goes off and asks the database for the information about the page, combines it with your theme and displays it to the user using HTML. When you want to update any data or say add a new blog article, you can do that via Wordpress admin and you will see the new blog instantly once published.
A static site is quite different. It is not backed by a database but instead is just a bunch of files on your computer to start. All of the different pages are created ahead of time (pre-rendered) by taking the files of content and combining it with a theme to create some HTML files. Generally to update a website you need to create a new file in a certain folder on your computer, run your static site generator which will turn the new file into a HTML file and then publish it to your website.
This makes Wordpress sound a lot easier to use but the thing I have not mentioned yet is how much work it is to keep running etc.
Because Wordpress requires a database it is a lot more complex and thus a lot more expensive to run. You also need to be aware that your database should be backed up as it has all of your content on it etc, it it's lost you have nothing. On the other hand a website which is created by a static site generator is just are bunch of HTML files in the end. They can be hosted very easily, for very little money and there is very little risk of anything going wrong in terms of reliability. But it then means if you want to make changes you need to knowledge and ability to do so.
It's all about where you want you complexity and how much you are comfortable doing. There are a ton of other differences between them so I would try and read some articles on the different between say Wordpress, Jekyll and Hugo.
After all that
If you are trying to pick a static site generator and a theme you probably first want to pick the static site generator you want to use then a theme. I would look at each generator and try and understand how it's theming works as most of the time you will want to make a tweak at some point in the future.
A good option for using static sites and make it into a CMS is to use Hugo and Netlify CMS together. This can have the advantages of a static site but can be updated via a web UI. It then actually writes and commits the content back down to Github. This youtube video shows how it works quite well.
No, envato market and themeforest are selling different kind of themes. WordPress is only one kind of templates they are selling which needs a server to run it.
Bootstrap theme is another type of frontend theme without the need to run on a server. You can download it and edit in your computer. There are basically only js, jquery, css and html in bootstrap.
I understand the difference between wp site and static site
Ah my bad then, I didn't realise the Envato Market had moved away from Wordpress.
I was just trying to be helpful, I didn't mean to offend.
Static site generator wise I've only used Hugo. Each of the Hugo themes that I have used have been written quite differently, although they were all from the free Hugo themes. I ended up getting the most out of creating my own simple theme first, it made editing others later a lot easier as I understood the core concepts better.
Nvm, I am just researching how people are doing things related to static sites. Thanks for your opinion. I am going to play around jerkyll and hugo soon
Dear @sillycube
the difference is if you're looking for a theme you usually have a CMS already in mind or already setup. If you're looking for a site generator you are probably still thinking about what's the best solution for your project.
To me it sounds like you're asking the second question before the first one. A theme will always be limited in versatility in case you want to do adjustments or you spend quite a lot time adjusting it to your needs instead of tailer-made one based on your requirements. Site generators instead are made to customise for specific needs (front and backend). The available themes for site generators are mostly a starting point.
Your website requirements should give you a clear answer which way to go.
Previously, I usually bought a bootstrap theme to build a Saas landing page or internal dashboard for a SaaS product. The need was primarily SEO and lead generation for landing pages, easy to customize interfaces for dashboard.
For a landing page, I would buy a theme from themeforest. Change texts and images. Put it on my server. Set up SSL.
I was just thinking if I put a bootstrap theme on a CDN. The performance should be more or less the same as a static site generator from SSG?
So what's better in this case?
Maybe it will help to look at it from a business perspective. If your current way of handling things (editing themes) works fine for your projects, stick to it and if you have challenges with versatility due to limitation of certain themes, go for the bootstrap solution. It will be more effort in the beginning but you will be more flexible on the future.
How BaferCMS seems to you? It has unique approach and it is very ease to test it.
I found most themes very difficult to edit.
I spoke to a lot of other founders/developers and they all had similar experiences.
https://tailwindui.com/ is the only UI kit I have heard good things about and it costs $249.
themes are difficult to edit, but it is easy [read: it helps] to create a website "from scratch".
IMHO, even for developers, creating a website from scratch is difficult (in some areas, each person different), but easy to customize for the long run.
I think it depends on the changes I want to make on the theme. If I just want to change the images and texts of a landing page theme, it won't be too difficult.
If the change is about the theme of a system, a dashboard, a long form, it will be much more difficult.
I tried to edit a bootstrap theme to have a login page, table view, a form. These pages are typically Saas product pages. When I adopt vue to the theme, it is getting very difficult. I realize I may go the wrong way now
Years ago had the exact same problem and ended up picking one that was very bare bones and just had nice colors, fonts and some extra classes.
Well, buying a theme would make it easier to change and edit parts you don't like or want to improve while using a generator is quicker.
I am selling themes on BuildFaster right now. Let me know if interests you 😉