Bengal vs Pelican vs MkDocs — Python Static Site Generators Compared

Three Python static site generators. Three different design philosophies.

TL;DR

Build speed and parallelism

Bengal is built for free-threaded Python. Pelican and MkDocs run on traditional Python; build times scale roughly linearly.

Content model

Object models

Each SSG has its own object model — the types it uses to represent content and structure.

Batteries included

All three ship with useful defaults, but the kind of batteries differs.

Bengal — built-in (no plugins):

• Sitemap, RSS, search indexes (Lunr, index.json)
• Canonical URLs, Open Graph, Twitter cards
• Machine outputs: index.json, llm-full.txt

MkDocs — built-in for docs:

• Search (Lunr), sitemap
• No RSS (docs-only)
• Social metadata: theme-dependent (e.g. Material)

Pelican — built-in vs plugins:

• Built-in: RSS/Atom feeds
• Plugins: sitemap, search
• Strength: plugin ecosystem; you add what you need

Templating

Incremental builds

Same page, three templates

A production-style layout with null coalescing and optional metadata. Kida supports ?. (optional chaining) and ?? (null coalescing); Jinja2 uses | default() and defensive conditionals.

{% extends "base.html" %}
{% block title %}{{ page.title | default(site.title) }}{% end %}
{% block content %}
<article>
  <h1>{{ page.title ?? 'Untitled' }}</h1>
  {% if page.date %}
  <time>{{ page.date | dateformat("%Y-%m-%d") }}</time>
  {% end %}
  {{ page.content | safe }}
  {% set links = params?.quick_links ?? [] %}
  {% for link in links %}
  <a href="{{ link?.href ?? link?.url ?? '#' }}">{{ link?.title ?? 'Link' }}</a>
  {% end %}
</article>
{% end %}

{% extends "base.html" %}
{% block title %}{{ article.title | default(site.title) }}{% endblock %}
{% block content %}
<article>
  <h1>{{ article.title | default('Untitled') }}</h1>
  {% if article.date %}
  <time>{{ article.date.strftime('%Y-%m-%d') }}</time>
  {% endif %}
  {{ article.content }}
  {% set links = (article.quick_links if article else []) or [] %}
  {% for link in links %}
  <a href="{{ (link.href or link.url) or '#' }}">{{ link.title | default('Link') }}</a>
  {% endfor %}
</article>
{% endblock %}

# Page Title

Page content in Markdown. Material theme handles layout.
Nav comes from mkdocs.yml — no template inheritance.
No optional chaining or null coalescing in templates.

Where each shines (and stumbles)

Config comparison

# bengal.yaml
site:
  title: My Site
  base_url: https://example.com

# pelicanconf.py
AUTHOR = "You"
SITENAME = "My Site"
SITEURL = "https://example.com"

# mkdocs.yml
site_name: My Site
site_url: https://example.com

When to choose Bengal

• You have hundreds of pages and care about build speed
• You want incremental rebuilds for a fast editing loop
• You're on Python 3.14 and want to use free-threading
• You need docs, blog, or product site with sitemaps, feeds, and search indexes

See Best Python Static Site Generators for 2026 for the full roundup.

When to choose Pelican or MkDocs instead

Related

• Bengal — Built for Python's Free-Threaded Future
• Best Python Static Site Generators for 2026
• How to Build a Static Site with Free-Threaded Python
• How to Migrate a Pelican or MkDocs Site to Bengal