About Nikola

Nikola: It Generates Static!

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Nikola is a static website and blog generator. The very short explanation is that it takes some texts you wrote, and uses them to create a folder full of HTML files. If you upload that folder to a server, you will have a rather full-featured website, done with very little effort.

Its original goal is to create blogs, but it supports most kind of sites, and can be used as a CMS, as long as what you present to the user is your own content instead of something the user generates.

(That last bit is no longer entirely true, thanks to Coil CMS).

Nikola can do:

Nikola can't do:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • An Issue tracker
  • Anything with forms, really (except for comments!)

Since Nikola-based sites don't run any code on the server, there is no easy way to process user input in forms.

Keep in mind that "static" doesn't mean boring. You can have animations, slides or whatever fancy CSS/HTML5 thingie you like. It only means all that HTML is generated already before being uploaded. On the other hand, Nikola sites will tend to be content-heavy. What Nikola is good at is at putting what you write out there.

Send any feedback or questions you might have about Nikola to info@getnikola.com!

The author of Nikola hopes you enjoy his software and the many websites it powers!