Cobalt vs Harp
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Cobalt | Harp |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 81 · Excellent | 66 · Good |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Rust | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,538 | ★ 4,995 |
| First released | 2015 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, Hugo | Jekyll |
What are Cobalt and Harp?
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
Harp
Harp is a static web server and site generator that serves Jade, Markdown, EJS, CoffeeScript, Sass, LESS, and Stylus as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript without any configuration. It can compile a project to a deployable static site.
- Zero-config preprocessing
- Built-in web server
- Compiles to static site
- Multiple template languages
Cobalt vs Harp: key differences
Cobalt is written in Rust, while Harp is built with JavaScript. Cobalt is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Harp. Harp is the more established project (first released 2013), while Cobalt arrived in 2015. Harp has the considerably larger community, at 4,995 GitHub stars versus 1,538.
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 Harp if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (5k GitHub stars)
- Written in JavaScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Cobalt or Harp better?
Neither is universally better. Harp has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Cobalt and Harp free and open-source?
Yes. Cobalt is licensed under MIT and Harp under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cobalt and Harp with Docker?
Cobalt: check the project docs for container support. Harp: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Cobalt or Harp?
Cobalt has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Harp. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.