DocPad vs Haunt
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | DocPad | Haunt |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | CoffeeScript | Scheme |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,046 | ★ 400 |
| First released | 2012 | 2015 |
| Replaces | WordPress, Jekyll | Jekyll |
What are DocPad and Haunt?
DocPad
DocPad is a content management and static site generation system that renders documents through a flexible plugin pipeline. It supports many templating and markup languages and can produce blogs and full websites.
- Plugin pipeline
- Many markup languages
- Live regeneration
- Static output
Haunt
Haunt is a hackable static site generator for blogs and websites, written in and configured with Guile Scheme. It treats site building as a functional pipeline, giving programmers fine-grained control over output.
- Functional build pipeline
- Scheme configuration
- Atom feed support
- Asset processing
DocPad vs Haunt: key differences
DocPad is written in CoffeeScript, while Haunt is built with Scheme. Licensing differs — MIT for DocPad versus GPL-3.0 for Haunt. DocPad is the more established project (first released 2012), while Haunt arrived in 2015. DocPad has the considerably larger community, at 3,046 GitHub stars versus 400.
Why pick each one
Choose DocPad if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (3k GitHub stars)
- Written in CoffeeScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Choose Haunt if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Written in Scheme
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Watch out for
- Niche language
- Steep for non-Lispers
Frequently asked questions
Is DocPad or Haunt better?
Neither is universally better. DocPad has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are DocPad and Haunt free and open-source?
Yes. DocPad is licensed under MIT and Haunt under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run DocPad and Haunt with Docker?
DocPad: check the project docs for container support. Haunt: check the project docs for container support.