Products · Broad category
Static site generators
Raised as a usability problem by 49 people on Hacker News over 14 years (2013–2026), in 46 threads.
This is a broad category rather than one product, so its issues aren't ranked on the home page.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Non-technical people find static site generators hard to set upUnreviewed
20132026- Non-technical users find static site generators hard to set up and use2025-06-30
- People forget how to use their static site generator setup after time away2022-08-05
- Static site generators become hard to use beyond simple publishing2022-06-08
Non-technical people can't write Markdown to build a websiteUnreviewed
20132026- Non-technical users can't write Markdown, so they can't make a website2024-12-22
- Hard to install and use for non-technical users; adding tables in Markdown is cumbersome2022-01-31
- Too difficult for non-technical users to operate, even though markdown is fine for the commenter2019-08-27
Publishing articles via git is too cumbersome for non-technical contributorsUnreviewed
20132026- Non-technical users must write markdown, compile, upload to a server, and add git to collaborate2026-09-08
- Marketers find text editors and git too hard to use for content editing2024-10-09
- Publishing articles via git is too cumbersome for non-technical contributors2018-10-11
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Non-technical users must write markdown, compile, upload to a server, and add git to collaborate2026-09-08
- Irregular Markdown syntax must be looked up every time; setup feels overwhelming and discouraging2026-04-12
- Toggle and search buttons stay visible with JavaScript disabled, even though they can't work2026-03-30
- Editing the navigation menu on every page each time a page is added is tedious2025-09-16
- Editing and previewing a page requires local setup, commits, pushes and waiting for a pipeline2025-07-15
- Non-technical users find static site generators hard to set up and use2025-06-30
- Every post requires running a generator step before it goes live2025-02-13
- Non-technical users can't write Markdown, so they can't make a website2024-12-22
- Counterintuitive config issues make tools take too long to get working2024-12-13
- Marketers find text editors and git too hard to use for content editing2024-10-09
- Non-programmers struggle to install tooling, learn shortcodes, and commit changes2024-10-08
- Adding an image means copying it manually and linking it through a separate assets folder2024-07-21
- Steep learning curve and many build steps and dependencies to get a simple site2024-03-23
- Project websites don't make sense to people unfamiliar with the tool category2024-03-23
- Editing a git repo forces manual linking of images and other media2023-09-12
- Indentation-based markup hides where tags end, so it is harder to read than HTML2023-08-13
- Documentation rendering tools add maintenance burden and fail on simple things2022-11-22
- Old SSG test sites won't run again; build needs excessive dependencies and setup2022-08-09
- People forget how to use their static site generator setup after time away2022-08-05
- Static site generators become hard to use beyond simple publishing2022-06-08
- Misplaced space in metadata breaks output, requiring triple-checking before every upload2022-04-20
- Too much technical friction; no visual editor, point-and-click layouts, or easy asset management2022-04-03
- Requires learning conventions and fiddly theme setup, which frustrates non-technical users2022-02-08
- Committing and waiting for remote builds is too slow for iterating and hard to debug2022-01-31
- Advanced feature docs are hit-or-miss and hard to find the info in2022-01-31
- Hard to install and use for non-technical users; adding tables in Markdown is cumbersome2022-01-31
- Documentation is unclear and conventions form a labyrinth that is hard to navigate2022-01-31
- Most run via command line and deploy via git, not simple saving2022-01-26
- Features buried behind developer-oriented config files and flags, unusable by non-technical users2021-03-07
- Writing raw markdown in a code editor is harder than a nice writing interface2021-02-07
- Very hard to get the generator to produce the exact markup wanted, last 5% brutal2020-11-29
- Getting a static site running takes weeks of tedious setup steps2020-08-17
- Getting a static site running takes many tedious steps over weeks2020-08-16
- Static-site generators are nerdy and hard for most people to use2020-08-01
- Themes either constrain layout or require lots of effort to customize2020-06-24
- Editing in WordPress but publishing to a static site is unbelievably complicated to set up2020-02-17
- Publishing a post now takes many steps, so the author writes far less often2019-12-22
- Posting is much harder without a web front end; no preview and clunky image uploading2019-10-06
- Previewing posts requires running build script and local server, unlike WordPress2019-09-18
- Pages appear blank without JavaScript and give no hint to enable it2019-09-12
- Too difficult for non-technical users to operate, even though markdown is fine for the commenter2019-08-27
- Publishing articles via git is too cumbersome for non-technical contributors2018-10-11
- Plugins don't work well together, so the user keeps fighting the framework2018-09-17
- Configuring static site generators is complex and error-prone, with hard-to-manage config and plugins2018-09-11
- Too much config and glue code needed to make plugins work together2018-09-11
- Image thumbnails and sizes must be converted by hand for each new image, which is tedious2018-09-11
- Clients cannot export and upload static WordPress copies to hosting on their own2018-01-16
- Too configuration-dependent, so the commenter disliked using them2017-09-29
- Bad documentation makes changes hard to figure out; too many config options to remember2017-07-29
- Searching right after page load feels slow because pages must be downloaded first2017-07-07