Jekyll was released in 2008. It was innovative a static site generator that worked natively with GitHub Pages. In 2008, if you wanted a developer blog, you either ran WordPress on a VPS or you built your own system. Jekyll was a genuine breakthrough.
Jekyll still uses Ruby, Bundler, and Liquid templates. That stack remains a good fit for developers who want theme and template control, but it is not the only way to publish a blog on GitHub Pages in 2026.
The Ruby Problem Is Real
If you're on macOS Sequoia and you try to set up a Jekyll blog from scratch, here's what's likely to happen: macOS ships with a system Ruby that is explicitly not meant for user applications. You'll need to install rbenv or rvm to manage Ruby versions. You'll install a Jekyll-compatible version of Ruby. You'll run gem install bundler jekyll. Then a gem dependency will conflict with a native extension, and you'll spend 45 minutes on Stack Overflow.
The setup is manageable if you already work in Ruby. For everyone else, it introduces a second toolchain before the first post is written.
The Liquid Template Trap
Once you've survived the Ruby setup, you have to maintain Jekyll's Liquid templating system. Liquid is a templating language designed to be sandboxed and secure. It's also extremely unforgiving: an unclosed tag in a layout file silently breaks every page that extends it. A configuration error in _config.yml prevents the build from running entirely.
For a personal blog with 12 posts, this complexity overhead is architectural overkill. You don't need a templating system. You need a write → publish loop.
The CI Pipeline Maintenance Tax
Modern GitHub Pages deployments typically require a .github/workflows/ YAML file to run the Jekyll build and deploy. That file requires maintenance. GitHub Actions versions change. Runner images update. Jekyll versions update. Each of these can silently break your deploy and you'll find out when a reader tells you your blog is showing a 404.
This is overhead that a 10-post blog about your side projects simply does not justify.
What Developers Are Using Instead
The clearest alternative for developers who want Jekyll's output static HTML on GitHub Pages without Jekyll's setup complexity, is a tool that handles the build layer invisibly.
Thooval does exactly this. It's a native macOS app that:
- Provides a WYSIWYG Markdown editor (live rendering no raw syntax)
- Builds clean static HTML from your posts locally
- Pushes directly to your GitHub Pages repository via a Personal Access Token
- Requires zero terminal commands ever, including for every subsequent publish
The output is the same as Jekyll: static HTML on GitHub Pages. The process is write → click Publish instead of write → fix Ruby → build → commit → push → wait for CI.
Get Jekyll's output without Jekyll's setup.
Thooval publishes clean static HTML to GitHub Pages directly from your Mac. It is free to download and open source on GitHub.
macOS 12+ · Free and open source · No subscriptionsWhen Jekyll Still Makes Sense
Jekyll isn't obsolete for every use case. If you're building a documentation site with deep customization needs custom themes, plugins, complex taxonomies Jekyll's templating power is genuine. If you're a Ruby developer who's comfortable in the ecosystem, the tooling feels natural.
For a personal blog focused mainly on writing, a desktop app can offer a shorter path: keep the posts local, build the website automatically, and publish it to GitHub Pages when you are ready.
See the full Jekyll alternative comparison →