The developers of the Vue JavaScript framework have launched VitePress 1.0, a static site generator (SSG) for building fast, content-centric websites.

Built on top of Vue and the Vite build tool (pronounced “veet”), VitePress takes source content written in Markdown, applies a theme, and generates static HTML pages for deployment. VitePress 1.0, announced March 21, is the “spiritual” successor and replacement of the VuePress static site generator, Vue creator Evan You wrote in a blog post.

VitePress is intended to offer an enhanced developer experience when working with Markdown content. Being Vite-powered, it provides instant server start, with edits instantly reflected without page reloading. Built-in Markdown extensions offer capabilities such as tables and syntax highlighting. With Vue-enhanced Markdown, each page is a Vue single-file component, due to the Vue template’s syntax compatibility with HTML. Developers can embed interactivity in static content using Vue templating features or imported Vue components.

Unlike traditional SSGs, where each navigation results in a full-page reload, a website generated by VitePress serves static HTML on the initial visit but becomes a single-page application for subsequent site navigation. This model, Evan You wrote, provides an optimal balance for performance, offering fast initial load, fast post-load navigation, and interactivity without penalty.

VitePress ships with a default theme intended for technical documentation. It powers the documentation for Vite, the Rollup JavaScript bundler, the Pinia store, VueUse composite utilities, the Vitest testing framework, the D3 JavaScript library, the UnoCSS CSS engine, Iconify icons, and more.