Gatsby Starter Fine

Gatsby Starter Fine is a minimal blog starter for Gatsby, the React-based static site generator, built to give you a working multi-category blog with SEO and image optimization out of the box. It is an open-source repository on GitHub (currently 9 stars) that aims to be a fine foundation for a Gatsby site with just the bare essentials.

What is gatsby-starter-fine?

Gatsby Starter Fine is a starter template for Gatsby that provides the fundamental structure of a blog: a layout, pages, and configuration for content handling. It takes Markdown posts as input and outputs a static HTML/JS site that is optimized for search engines and fast loading. The starter runs on the Gatsby framework and is available from a GitHub repository (source: gatsby-starter-fine).

Key Features

• 404 page — A custom not-found page is included so visitors to broken URLs receive a styled page instead of the default browser error.
• Sitemap URL — The site produces a sitemap at its configured siteUrl path (for example, yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml), ready for search engine submission.
• Multi-category support — Posts can be assigned to more than one category, enabling flexible content organization beyond a single flat list.
• Remark images — Images embedded in Markdown content are processed and optimized, automatically generating responsive srcsets and compression.
• React Helmet — The document head is managed with React Helmet, letting each page set its own title, description, and meta tags.
• Standard Gatsby workflow — The repo includes npm scripts for start, develop, and build, matching the standard Gatsby CLI commands.

Who is it for?

• Bloggers who want a lightweight, SEO-ready blog without manually configuring every Gatsby plugin.
• Developers who need a minimal, unopinionated starting point to build a custom Gatsby site and prefer to add their own styling and components.
• Technical writers who author content in Markdown and want automatic image handling and category taxonomies.

What can you do with gatsby-starter-fine?

• Content creators: author Markdown posts with image support, assign them to multiple categories, and generate a static blog ready for deployment.
• SEO specialists: submit the generated sitemap to Google Search Console and use React Helmet to set unique titles and descriptions per page.
• Front-end developers: extend the starter with a CMS, additional plugins, or a custom layout while keeping the built-in 404, sitemap, and image pipeline.

How does it work?

The starter follows the standard Gatsby content workflow. You write posts as Markdown files, Gatsby reads them at build time through GraphQL queries, and the site is compiled to static files. Use gatsby develop for a hot-reloading development server, npm run-script build for a production build, and npm start to serve the production build locally.

FAQ

Is gatsby-starter-fine free?

Yes, it is an open-source starter on GitHub, so you can clone it and use it without paying a license fee.

What features are included out of the box?

It includes a 404 page, an XML sitemap that uses a configured siteUrl, multi-category taxonomy, remark image optimization, and React Helmet for SEO metadata.

How do I configure the sitemap?

Define the siteUrl property in your gatsby-config.js file. The sitemap plugin reads that value and creates a sitemap.xml at the specified URL path.

Does this starter include a styling system?

No, the starter focuses on Gatsby essentials only. It does not specify a CSS framework or component library, so you are free to add your own styling.