Bridgetown vs Hexo
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Bridgetown | Hexo |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 84 · Excellent | 98 · Excellent |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,366 | ★ 41,774 |
| First released | 2020 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, WordPress | WordPress, Blogger |
What are Bridgetown and Hexo?
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
Hexo
Hexo is an open-source static blog framework built with Node.js that turns Markdown into a fast static site. It is widely used by developers for personal blogs with a rich plugin ecosystem.
- Fast Markdown-based builds
- Large plugin and theme ecosystem
- One-command deployment
- Highly extensible
Bridgetown vs Hexo: key differences
Bridgetown is written in Ruby, while Hexo is built with TypeScript. Hexo is the more established project (first released 2012), while Bridgetown arrived in 2020. Hexo has the considerably larger community, at 41,774 GitHub stars versus 1,366.
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 Hexo if…
- Popular with developers
- Rich plugin ecosystem
Watch out for
- No admin UI
- Node toolchain required
Frequently asked questions
Is Bridgetown or Hexo better?
Neither is universally better. Hexo has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Bridgetown and Hexo free and open-source?
Yes. Bridgetown is licensed under MIT and Hexo under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Bridgetown and Hexo with Docker?
Bridgetown: check the project docs for container support. Hexo: check the project docs for container support.