There are several use cases for static sites that are not docs. It is true though, that the user base is more developer oriented. This is because we don't have this easy/rich "install a theme" for the static site world (yet).

When you want to have a custom, well performing and secure site with a server-side CMS that renders HTML you need developers, too. And you have to maintain the system constantly.

Static sites have low maintenance, are fast and don't need updates. These are things only developers care about. ;)

And with services like e.g. Contentful (disclaimer – I work for Contentful) you can edit the content in a familiar interface, rebuild your site immediately when content changes (via web hooks) and don't have to worry about any system updates or response times. And it doesn't feel static. ;)

The most famous example I can think of is https://www.smashingmagazine.com. You can find a few more here: https://jamstack.org/examples/

So I guess they will gain more and more popularity in the near future.

Ueno is a well known design agency in San Francisco, and the recently wrote about how they convince clients to use Contentful and Static over Wordpress: https://loremipsum.ueno.co/the-wordpress-question-355b4a2b75....

We're doing the exact same thing and have built quite a few sites to date: http://htmlcolorcodes.com/ https://wordcounter.io/

Exactly my concern as well. But then, there are projects like this that are starting to appear:

Netlify CMS | Open-Source Content Management System: https://www.netlifycms.org/

Isn't "developers, and sites that developers set up for other people" ~all of the websites in the world?

No, hasn't been true for years now.

Putting aside sites like Wix, you can easily start a wordpress site these days in a few clicks.

I've used https://www.metalsmith.io to make a few static sites for local events and small local businesses. It's really great for that type of thing but I am also a developer. I don't see static site generators gaining mass appeal unless they can be configured and published from a gui.

Do they have to be your average markdown template mass generators or do older "HTML helpers" that used e.g. m4, cpp or some ad hock template language count?

I think blosxom had a static output mode way back when.

(And regarding this one: Still not a fan of JSX, it's basically PHP/JSP all over again)

There are a few WordPress plugins to generate static sites, but I haven't heard much about them here on HN. I don't know if any are specifically intended to be easy to use by non-developers.

These plugins tend to die due to lack of maintenance.

Gatsby has a unique data system that let's you easily build static sites with WordPress/Drupal/other CMSes

* https://www.gatsbyjs.org/packages/gatsby-source-wordpress/

* https://using-wordpress.gatsbyjs.org/

This doesn't pull the layout over, does it?

It looks like it can grab the content (including images) from the WordPress API which is nice.

Yeah exactly — it lets you grab content/data/images via the WordPress API.

I use Hugo for a blog. Works well, decent free themes available.

https://gohugo.io/

It seems also to me that Wordpress is still king.