Cobalt vs Middleman
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
Middleman
Ruby static site generator with modern tooling
| Feature | Cobalt | Middleman |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 81 · Excellent | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Rust | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,538 | ★ 7,111 |
| First released | 2015 | 2009 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, Hugo | Jekyll, WordPress |
What are Cobalt and Middleman?
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
Middleman
Middleman is a static site generator using all the shortcuts and tools in modern web development, including templating, asset pipelines, and helpers. Its blogging extension turns it into a full static blog engine.
- Asset pipeline
- Blogging extension
- Helpers and partials
- Static output
Cobalt vs Middleman: key differences
Cobalt is written in Rust, while Middleman is built with Ruby. Cobalt is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Middleman. Middleman is the more established project (first released 2009), while Cobalt arrived in 2015. Middleman has the considerably larger community, at 7,111 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 Middleman if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Mature project with 7.1k GitHub stars
- Written in Ruby
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Cobalt or Middleman better?
Neither is universally better. Middleman 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 Middleman free and open-source?
Yes. Cobalt is licensed under MIT and Middleman under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cobalt and Middleman with Docker?
Cobalt: check the project docs for container support. Middleman: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Cobalt or Middleman?
Cobalt has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Middleman. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.