Cobalt vs Soupault
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
Soupault
HTML-centric static website generator and processor
| Feature | Cobalt | Soupault |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 81 · Excellent | 64 · Good |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Rust | OCaml |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,538 | ★ 430 |
| First released | 2015 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, Hugo | Jekyll, Hugo |
What are Cobalt and Soupault?
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
Soupault
Soupault is a static website generator and HTML processor that manipulates the page DOM directly rather than relying on a templating language. It can build new sites or post-process existing static sites.
- DOM-based processing
- Lua plugin support
- Single-binary tool
- Works on existing sites
Cobalt vs Soupault: key differences
Cobalt is written in Rust, while Soupault is built with OCaml. Cobalt is the more established project (first released 2015), while Soupault arrived in 2019. Cobalt has the considerably larger community, at 1,538 GitHub stars versus 430.
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 Soupault if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in OCaml
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Cobalt or Soupault better?
Cobalt is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Soupault if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Cobalt and Soupault free and open-source?
Yes. Cobalt is licensed under MIT and Soupault under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cobalt and Soupault with Docker?
Cobalt: check the project docs for container support. Soupault: check the project docs for container support.