Acrylamid vs Pelican
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Acrylamid | Pelican |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 10 · At risk | 80 · Excellent |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 280 | ★ 13,339 |
| First released | 2011 | 2010 |
| Replaces | WordPress, Blogger | WordPress, Blogger |
What are Acrylamid and Pelican?
Acrylamid
Acrylamid is a static blog compiler written in Python that focuses on fast incremental rebuilds and supports multiple markup languages. It generates a complete static site that can be hosted anywhere.
- Incremental rebuilds
- Multiple markup formats
- Static output
- Jinja2 templating
Pelican
Pelican is an open-source static site generator written in Python that builds blogs from Markdown or reStructuredText. It supports themes, plugins, and import from other blogging platforms.
- Markdown and reStructuredText
- Theme and plugin support
- Import from WordPress and others
- Atom and RSS feeds
Acrylamid vs Pelican: key differences
Both projects are written in Python. Licensing differs — BSD-2-Clause for Acrylamid versus AGPL-3.0 for Pelican. Acrylamid is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Pelican. Pelican has the considerably larger community, at 13,339 GitHub stars versus 280.
Why pick each one
Choose Acrylamid if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Choose Pelican if…
- Great for Python users
- Mature and stable
Watch out for
- No admin UI
- Python environment needed
Frequently asked questions
Is Acrylamid or Pelican better?
Neither is universally better. Pelican has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Acrylamid and Pelican free and open-source?
Yes. Acrylamid is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Pelican under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Acrylamid and Pelican with Docker?
Acrylamid: check the project docs for container support. Pelican: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Acrylamid or Pelican?
Acrylamid has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Pelican. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.