I don't think we pause to think about whether we need dynamic pages enough before we decide to build them. Dynamic content, for the purposes of this discussion, requires a server actively running code, which generates each page on the fly. Static pages require a server which accesses memory to deliver the same result every time.

Generating dynamic pages is slower and often introduces two additional points of failure in your application: the server and the database. Compared to static hosting, it is more expensive. Unlike known static content, dynamic content cannot take advantage of efficient edge caching that makes the web fast.

Jekyll provides a static solution for blogs. While it does require technical skills to use, it allows you to take advantage of the natural cadence of blogging: the site only changes when I change it, so why should we pretend that it might have changed every time a user asks to see it? (We can handle comments using an external provider like disqus). The great thing about it is that you can use all of the tools you've grown accustomed to for building dynamic sites, including templating engines and sass. Then a simple compile step produces your static site which is ready for upload to any hosting service.

The only downside, as I alluded to before, is that it is relatively hard to use for a non-techincial blogger. You would need to be familiar with ruby and ruby gems and comfortable working on the commandline to resolve issues. You'll need to put everything in its specific folder in a specific file format, so I hope you were paying attention. And, while there are dozens of jekyll themes, any customization would require digging into the root html.

That being said, it should be fairly straightforward for anyone who has built a rudimentary website before. It's relatively obvious how to use layouts to make your code more modular, and how to create header and footer files to further break out chunks of html.

I think jekyll is an impressive bit of technology in itself, but also for the philosophy it brings to developing a website. It encourages us to think before we start coding. Do we need a database? How simple can we make this page? Because if we can make it really simple, we can make a faster, more available page for much, much cheaper.