About

Cecil is a modern static site generator (SSG), written in PHP, distinguished by its ease of use and its ability to transform Markdown files into complete, ultra-fast websites.

Cecil's strengths:

• Optimal loading speed (Zero-Overhead): Unlike a traditional CMS (like WordPress), Cecil generates static HTML files. Since there is no database or server-side script execution during the visit, pages load instantly, delivering performance scores (Lighthouse/Core Web Vitals) close to 100%.

• Modern and lightweight workflow: Based on the Twig template engine, it allows you to create complex architectures (blogs, documentation, portfolios) while remaining extremely lightweight and inherently secure (no security vulnerabilities related to dynamic PHP on the final site).

• Intelligent asset management: The engine processes and optimizes resources (CSS, JavaScript) to minimize the number of requests and the size of the files transferred.

• Automatic image optimization: Cecil natively handles responsive images by automatically generating several modern sizes and formats such as WebP or AVIF. This drastically reduces page weight without manual intervention from the developer.

Cecil is designed for creators who want a website where performance is a technical priority, while maintaining great design flexibility.

History

The first functional version of Cecil (then named PHPoole) was published in Sep 2013 and was a simple PHP 5.3 script powered by Zend Framework Console component and Twig.

Authors

• Cecil is maintained by Arnaud Ligny, a Web & eCommerce consultant
• The logo has been created by Cécile Ricordeau, an amazing creative director ❤️

License

• Cecil is a free software distributed under the terms of the MIT license
• The website cecil.app is distributed under CC BY-SA 4.0