Static site generator privacy ratings

Tools that build websites, blogs and documentation into static files. Some collect telemetry from developers.

17 static site generators are rated against 4 public criteria, and 17 have enough evidence for a letter grade. Of the 3 with a known jurisdiction, 3 are based in a Five Eyes country, and 3 in the wider Fourteen Eyes.

Open-source static site generators only · Criteria for this category · Suggest an addition · Markdown

Static site generators privacy ratings, sorted by pick and then by grade
Name	Grade	Score	Data	Jurisdiction	Open source	No trackers or telemetry	No ads or data sales	Independent audit
Bridgetown Ruby web framework and static site generator that builds sites from Markdown, Ruby templates and components, with optional server-side rendering through Roda.	Grade B	80	100%	–	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Eleventy Static site generator for Node.js that works with many template languages and outputs plain HTML. Maintained by Font Awesome and being renamed Build Awesome.	Grade B	80	100%	United States Five Eyes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Lume Static site generator for Deno that supports many template languages and processes assets through plugins.	Grade B	80	100%	–	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
mdBook Command-line tool written in Rust that builds online books from Markdown files, with search, themes and a preprocessor system.	Grade B	80	100%	–	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Pelican Static site generator written in Python that builds websites from Markdown or reStructuredText content with Jinja templates.	Grade B	80	100%	–	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
VitePress Static site generator built on Vite and Vue for documentation sites written in Markdown.	Grade B	80	100%	–	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Zola Static site generator written in Rust, shipped as a single binary with templates, Sass compilation, syntax highlighting and search built in.	Grade B	80	100%	–	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Nextra Static site and documentation framework built on Next.js and React, which turns Markdown and MDX files into websites with themes for docs and blogs.	Grade C	65	100%	–	Yes	Partial	Yes	No
Starlight Documentation website framework built on Astro, with navigation, search, internationalization and theming included.	Grade C	65	100%	United States Five Eyes	Yes	Partial	Yes	No
Sphinx Documentation generator written in Python that builds HTML, PDF, ePub and other formats from reStructuredText or Markdown, with cross-references and API docs extracted from code.	Grade D	55	100%	–	Yes	Partial	Partial	No
Docusaurus Static site generator from Meta, built on React, for documentation websites with versioning, search and translations.	Grade D	50	100%	United States Five Eyes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Hexo Blog framework and static site generator for Node.js that renders Markdown posts using themes and plugins.	Grade D	50	100%	–	Yes	No	Yes	No
Hugo Static site generator written in Go that builds websites from Markdown content and Go templates, distributed as a single binary.	Grade D	50	100%	–	Yes	No	Yes	No
Jekyll Static site generator written in Ruby that turns Markdown and Liquid templates into websites and blogs. It powers GitHub Pages.	Grade D	50	100%	–	Yes	No	Yes	No
Material for MkDocs Documentation theme for MkDocs with search, navigation and many Markdown extensions. The project is in maintenance mode and receives only critical bug and security fixes.	Grade D	50	100%	–	Yes	No	Yes	No
MkDocs Static site generator written in Python for project documentation, built from Markdown files and a single YAML configuration file.	Grade D	50	100%	–	Yes	No	Yes	No
Nikola Static site generator written in Python that builds blogs and websites from reStructuredText, Markdown, Jupyter notebooks and other formats.	Grade D	50	100%	–	Yes	No	Yes	No

Questions

What is the most private option among static site generators?

No pick has been made yet. The table above is sorted by score, based on public evidence.

How are static site generators rated?

Each entry answers 4 questions: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales and independent audit. Answers need links to evidence. See the full criteria.

Does jurisdiction matter?

Jurisdiction decides which laws can compel a provider to hand over data. Each entry shows its country and whether it is in the Five, Nine or Fourteen Eyes. The data a provider can hand over depends mostly on what it stores and who holds the keys. Read about jurisdictions and the CLOUD Act.