Cobalt vs Poole
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
Poole
Archived
Minimalist static website generator in a single file
| Feature | Cobalt | Poole |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 81 · Excellent | 0 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Rust | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | source, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,538 | ★ 31 |
| First released | 2015 | 2009 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, Hugo | Jekyll |
What are Cobalt and Poole?
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
Poole
Poole is a markup-agnostic, single-file static website generator written in Python that keeps the build process deliberately tiny. It is suited for small personal sites and blogs where minimalism is preferred.
- Single-file generator
- Markup-agnostic
- Embedded Python in pages
- Tiny footprint
Cobalt vs Poole: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Poole's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Cobalt is actively maintained. Cobalt is written in Rust, while Poole is built with Python. Poole is the more established project (first released 2009), while Cobalt arrived in 2015. Cobalt has the considerably larger community, at 1,538 GitHub stars versus 31.
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 Poole if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Cobalt or Poole better?
Cobalt is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Poole if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Cobalt and Poole free and open-source?
Yes. Cobalt is licensed under MIT and Poole under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cobalt and Poole with Docker?
Cobalt: check the project docs for container support. Poole: check the project docs for container support.