Bridgetown vs Haunt
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Bridgetown | Haunt |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Ruby | Scheme |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,366 | ★ 400 |
| First released | 2020 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, WordPress | Jekyll |
What are Bridgetown and Haunt?
Bridgetown
Bridgetown is a Ruby-based static site generator and full-stack web framework that grew out of the Jekyll ecosystem. It supports component-based design, plugins, and optional dynamic rendering for blogs and websites.
- Component-based design
- Plugin ecosystem
- Front-end bundling
- Static and hybrid rendering
Haunt
Haunt is a hackable static site generator for blogs and websites, written in and configured with Guile Scheme. It treats site building as a functional pipeline, giving programmers fine-grained control over output.
- Functional build pipeline
- Scheme configuration
- Atom feed support
- Asset processing
Bridgetown vs Haunt: key differences
Bridgetown is written in Ruby, while Haunt is built with Scheme. Licensing differs — MIT for Bridgetown versus GPL-3.0 for Haunt. Haunt is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Bridgetown. Haunt is the more established project (first released 2015), while Bridgetown arrived in 2020. Bridgetown has the considerably larger community, at 1,366 GitHub stars versus 400.
Why pick each one
Choose Bridgetown if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (1.4k GitHub stars)
- Written in Ruby
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Choose Haunt if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Written in Scheme
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Watch out for
- Niche language
- Steep for non-Lispers
Frequently asked questions
Is Bridgetown or Haunt better?
Neither is universally better. Bridgetown has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Bridgetown and Haunt free and open-source?
Yes. Bridgetown is licensed under MIT and Haunt under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Bridgetown and Haunt with Docker?
Bridgetown: check the project docs for container support. Haunt: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Bridgetown or Haunt?
Haunt has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Bridgetown. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.