Nanoc is a flexible static-site generator written in Ruby, aimed at developers and publishers who want to build blogs and personal sites from source files into static output rather than run a dynamic publishing stack.

What it is

Nanoc is a static-site generator written in Ruby, published as the nanoc gem on RubyGems and licensed under MIT. It takes source content and produces static output, which fits the Content & Publishing / Blogging & Personal Sites category it is filed under in this registry. The project is developed in the open on GitHub, where it holds 2,158 stars, 250 forks, and 17 open issues, and it points to nanoc.app as its web home.

The concrete problem it addresses is that a blog or personal site does not need a running application server, a database, or a request-time rendering path. Nanoc replaces that class of dynamic publishing setup with a build step: source is turned into static files that can be served as-is. Because the tool is written in Ruby, teams already working in that ecosystem can add it to an existing toolchain instead of adopting a separate language runtime. Its own description calls it flexible, which reflects that it is positioned as a general site generator rather than a single-purpose blog engine.

Key capabilities

• Static-site generation: compiles source content into static output, per the static-site-generator topic and the README line "Nanoc is a flexible static-site generator written in Ruby."
• Ruby implementation, listed under the nanoc and ruby topics, so it runs on a Ruby toolchain.
• Distribution as the nanoc gem on RubyGems, with version and download badges in the README.
• MIT licence, stated in the repository metadata.
• Project home and documentation at nanoc.app, with the README also pointing to nanoc.denisdefreyne.com.
• Contributing guidelines published at nanoc.denisdefreyne.com/contributing/.
• Maintained activity: last push on 2026-08-30, with 17 open issues.

Who uses it and how

• Ruby developers who want a site generator that matches the language and packaging they already use.
• Publishers of blogs and personal sites, the category the project is listed under, producing static files instead of serving pages from an application.
• Maintainers and contributors working through the guidelines at nanoc.denisdefreyne.com/contributing/; the README credits a long list of individual contributors by name.
• Teams that need self-hosted, static publishing output, such as documentation or content sites deployed without a dynamic backend.

Getting started

Nanoc is distributed as the nanoc gem on RubyGems, so installation comes through the Ruby packaging system; the README links directly to http://rubygems.org/gems/nanoc and to the project site at nanoc.app for further information.

How it compares

The facts provided name no other tools in this category, so Nanoc stands alone in this registry entry: no competing generator is listed for comparison, and no list of paid products it replaces is supplied. What can be said is that it is MIT-licensed and self-hosted, so there is no vendor account, subscription, or hosted control plane involved in its use.

When to use it — and when not to

Choose Nanoc when a Ruby-based static build fits the environment and static output is acceptable. Be aware that the README in the repository is thin: it carries badges and an extensive contributor roll-call, but the usage and configuration material lives off-repo at nanoc.app and nanoc.denisdefreyne.com, so anyone expecting in-repo documentation will have to follow those links. Anyone who needs a dynamic backend, a hosted service with a support contract, or a non-Ruby runtime should look elsewhere.