Does Gatsby build fast enough for a large site though? I find their business model strange if I'm understanding it correctly - faster builds are a paid feature.
I also don't understand the hype. I think it's just good marketing, people don't know the alternatives, and it uses React.
I usually side with Hugo because it's so fast and simple to get running. I don't love the template language but the majority of sites don't need complex template logic anyway.
Fast enough depends on your needs. I work on a Gatsby site that builds ~9k pages in ~9 minutes in AWS CodeBuild. We're looking forward to implementing incremental builds at some point, but our current build time is acceptable.
I see Gatsby similar to Django in that it has "batteries included" for building a modern interactive site. It suits our needs quite well and I'm really happy with it.
For what it's worth, a quick test of Hugo with 10K posts with a minimal theme takes 40 seconds to build. Speed isn't everything but x10 faster is nice.
This sounds like the hype I mentioned earlier if I'm honest. I'd rather just use Hugo today and know most small sites I make are going to build in less than a second without having to pay extra.
I also don't understand the hype. I think it's just good marketing, people don't know the alternatives, and it uses React.
I usually side with Hugo because it's so fast and simple to get running. I don't love the template language but the majority of sites don't need complex template logic anyway.