Cobalt vs Publican
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
Publican
Lightweight JavaScript static site and blog generator
| Feature | Cobalt | Publican |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 81 · Excellent | 58 · Fair |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Rust | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,538 | ★ 20 |
| First released | 2015 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, Hugo | Jekyll, Hugo |
What are Cobalt and Publican?
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
Publican
Publican is a fast, dependency-light static site generator for blogs and content sites built with modern JavaScript. It renders Markdown content with flexible templating and incremental builds for quick publishing.
- Markdown content
- Flexible templating
- Incremental builds
- Minimal dependencies
Cobalt vs Publican: key differences
Cobalt is written in Rust, while Publican is built with JavaScript. Cobalt is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Publican. Cobalt is the more established project (first released 2015), while Publican arrived in 2024. Cobalt has the considerably larger community, at 1,538 GitHub stars versus 20.
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 Publican if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in JavaScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Watch out for
- Young project
- Small theme selection
Frequently asked questions
Is Cobalt or Publican better?
Neither is universally better. Cobalt has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Cobalt and Publican free and open-source?
Yes. Cobalt is licensed under MIT and Publican under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cobalt and Publican with Docker?
Cobalt: check the project docs for container support. Publican: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Cobalt or Publican?
Cobalt has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Publican. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.