Cobalt vs DocPad
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Cobalt
Static site generator written in Rust
VS
DocPad
Streamlined static site generator for any content
| Feature | Cobalt | DocPad |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 81 · Excellent | 23 · At risk |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Rust | CoffeeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,538 | ★ 3,046 |
| First released | 2015 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, Hugo | WordPress, Jekyll |
What are Cobalt and DocPad?
Cobalt
Cobalt is a static site generator written in Rust that builds blogs and websites from Markdown and Liquid templates. It produces fast, self-contained static output and ships as a single binary.
- Single-binary tool
- Liquid templating
- Markdown content
- Fast builds
DocPad
DocPad is a content management and static site generation system that renders documents through a flexible plugin pipeline. It supports many templating and markup languages and can produce blogs and full websites.
- Plugin pipeline
- Many markup languages
- Live regeneration
- Static output
Cobalt vs DocPad: key differences
Cobalt is written in Rust, while DocPad is built with CoffeeScript. Cobalt is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for DocPad. DocPad is the more established project (first released 2012), while Cobalt arrived in 2015.
Why pick each one
Choose Cobalt if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (1.5k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
Choose DocPad if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (3k GitHub stars)
- Written in CoffeeScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Cobalt or DocPad better?
Neither is universally better. DocPad has the larger community, while Cobalt is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Cobalt and DocPad free and open-source?
Yes. Cobalt is licensed under MIT and DocPad under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cobalt and DocPad with Docker?
Cobalt: check the project docs for container support. DocPad: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Cobalt or DocPad?
Cobalt has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for DocPad. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.