CMS.js – The Newest Free JavaScript Site Generator

By Jake Rocheleau. in Toolkit. Updated on December 26, 2018.

Static site generators are the hottest tools for fast web development. A small site doesn’t always need a database or CMS, and sometimes it’s just easier to generate static pages instead.

With a platform like CMS.js you can build static sites on JavaScript without any backend language. This JavaScript-powered site generator can run in your browser without any dependencies like Node or Ruby.

On the official project page you’ll find some basic terminal commands that you can copy/paste to install a brand new CMS.js project. After you create a new project you can add pages and customize features to suit your needs.

All new project details can be edited from the config.js file which contains the site name, navigation links, post content, and other related settings. If you’re even vaguely familiar with JavaScript and/or JSON then you’ll have no trouble using CMS.js.

The name itself is somewhat disingenuous because it’s not a full CMS. But it’s meant to mimic a CMS and instead output static pages like you get with Jekyll. The difference is Jekyll relies on Ruby, but with CMS.js you can run everything locally without any dependencies.

This is one of the simplest tools for managing a static website. Whether you want a simple personal site or a static blog you can manage everything from the CMS.js system.

All page content is edited through Markdown so you’ll never need to touch any raw HTML/CSS code. And you can even customize the design or rely on the default Jekyll Poole theme.

To get started check out the GitHub repo and follow the install directions. From there you can tinker with settings and start writing Markdown pages with ease.