Recommended CMS For a Static HTML5 Blog

Normally I use Wordpress for blogging but I don't like it very much. I would prefer making my blog static offline, then deploy to Amazon S3 or any other platform to distribute my blog. But I am not good in coding, so I am finding some cool CMS for my HTML5 website.

I Googled many times, I read many books then found some solutions. They are all similar, simple and flexible. Once you've understood the basics, they all kill Wordpress for what you want to do. It will help enormously to understand a minimal amount of code. You need to get past the initial stage of everything looking like a Moon language though. Once you're there, it's much faster to go from install to something that matches what you envisaged. Everything ends up much cleaner as well.

Here are various Solutions with different technologies:

PHP: Staceyapp.com is a good platform for PHP users. Stacey is a lightweight Content Management System. No database setup or installation files, simply drop the application on a server and it runs. Your content is managed by creating folders and editing text files. No login screens, no admin interface.

It provides a good, simple structure. Kirby is also good, but it costs a minimal fee for the license. Because you'll be generating a static site locally, you lose the great benefit PHP has over Ruby, Python, JavaScript and so on (easy deployment on basic hosting).

Node: Docpad.org is an excellent, good set of plugins as well. DocPad removes limitations and closes the gap between experts and beginners. Designers and developers can create websites faster than ever before. Harp markets itself as a web server that processes whatever you chuck at it and turns it into HTML/CSS/and so on. It does the same as the preceding and does it well. Winter Smith has been getting some good press, but I haven't used it.

Ruby: Jekyll.com is the most popular and has a huge ecosystem. You have to remember that it's just a parsing engine. The core of it doesn't come with anything resembling a blogging engine or templates, you need to make them. That said, everything you're likely need is available as a plugin. Octopress is a fork of Jekyll built to quickly generate blogs. Middleman is more complete out-of-the-box than Jekyll, smaller and more focussed, but it's great.

The preceding is the list of Static Site Generators. Ordering by stars will provide you the most joy. You also want projects under constant maintenance, so check how long they've existed and when the last update was.

You can use more top open-source static site generators like: Middleman, Hugo, Metalsmith, Roots, Hyde and so on.