If you’re new to programming, you might be excited about the powerful tools available in 2026 that help you skip all the work. But what if I tell you this despite the miracle LLMsAren’t they best in class tools for creating a static website?
LLMs aren’t the best classroom tools for most professions, and web development is no different. Each token costs money and they are a bit of a gamble – results may vary. In comparison, static site generators (SSGs) are just-in-time solutions that address a very specific problem: scalability.
The main differences
Static site generators and LLMs are diametrically opposed to each other
SSG is a program that compiles a set of templates into multiple HTML files. Templates consist of domain-specific syntax (like curly braces), placeholder variables, and HTML—a mixture of markup and code. Typically, you write your text content in another markup format (such as Markdown), install your templates, and SSG will render your content in HTML. Consequently, the results are very deterministic (predictable), with no difference between outputs other than their content.
LLM is a combination of vectors, math and a bit of magic. The exact scope eludes me, but I am confident when I say they are non-deterministic. They are models of human language that statistically predict the next sign. Mixing them with multiple contexts changes their output, which varies between responses.
This contrast between deterministic and non-deterministic represents an obvious conflict. So which one do you choose to build a static website and why?
Scalability
LLMs will fold as the static website grows
If you’re building a small landing page, a simple HTML document may be enough. Displaying information or generating leads doesn’t require a lot of code reuse, but publishing content does. A typical blog can have hundreds of posts, and larger organizations can have tens of thousands. Code reuse is one of the earliest fundamental lessons you learn as a programmer, I think some (newbies) vibe encoders I don’t understand. LLMs promote disposable code by making it incredibly cheap to produce in large quantities, or simply forget it. It is difficult to judge the exact result.
A client can accept a simple landing page and that might work for you, but it’s not necessarily the most responsible option. For example, they may want to expand business-specific content from a simple landing page or include additional contact/about pages. A small website can quickly become dozens of web pages, which creates a dilemma: which approach do you use? Are you coding multiple custom pages or looking for a more scalable solution?
By scalable, I mean designing a system to handle growing workloads. Take, for example, a new website you’re writing for a client. It has several pages. Now the client wants to display a call to action in the sidebar on every page. LLM can certainly update all 12 pages, but what about the next change or the change after that? Are you going to redo everything from here 12 times until the website stops working?
A website can scale to hundreds or thousands of pages. Of course, you see how the workload starts to pile up. Every small change requires iterating over many pages, and when using a non-deterministic tool like LLM, subtle errors will be hidden. I’ve seen LLMs remove entire blocks of code for no reason or for reasons I don’t fully understand; either way, the change is completely beyond my understanding. Will you check every change? I’m assuming you won’t have automated tests either, so you’ll be manually checking each file?
SSGs
What works for one works for all
Building a simple website with a static site generator can take 20-30 minutes using Hugo. What you get is a deterministic tool that guarantees that the code is repeated on all pages – what works for one works for all. When making extensive changes, you simply update and recompile a template file, which only takes a second. You can even use an LLM to make a change, so the options are not mutually exclusive and LLMs can be very much part of your workflow.
SSG is a tool that solves a specific problem. The emergence of LLMs does not change the existence of this problem. However, LLMs are not the right tool for the job. Coding a Vibe multi-page website without the proper tools is a gross waste of resources, and if you’re going to build a static website, there’s no better way than SSG.
SSGs and LLMs are instruments at opposite ends of the spectrum. There’s no reason they can’t work together, but there’s a strong case against using LLMs to build a static website. If you do, and it’s more than a few pages, you need to stop and rethink your approach. Some may say this is subjective, but so is putting square wheels on a car. If a person wants to do this, who do I tell? Scratch that; it’s stupid. Like square wheels, use the right tool for the job.
8/10
- Operating system
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Windows 11 Pro
- CPU
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Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor (8 cores, 8 threads, 12 MB cache)
- GPU
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Intel Arc Xe2 GPU with >60 TOPS
- RAM
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32GB LPDDR5x 8533MT/s soldered, dual channel
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