DocPad vs Soupault
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | DocPad | Soupault |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 23 · At risk | 64 · Good |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | CoffeeScript | OCaml |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,046 | ★ 430 |
| First released | 2012 | 2019 |
| Replaces | WordPress, Jekyll | Jekyll, Hugo |
What are DocPad and Soupault?
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
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
DocPad vs Soupault: key differences
DocPad is written in CoffeeScript, while Soupault is built with OCaml. Soupault is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for DocPad. DocPad is the more established project (first released 2012), while Soupault arrived in 2019. DocPad has the considerably larger community, at 3,046 GitHub stars versus 430.
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 Soupault if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in OCaml
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is DocPad or Soupault 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 Soupault free and open-source?
Yes. DocPad is licensed under MIT and Soupault under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run DocPad and Soupault with Docker?
DocPad: check the project docs for container support. Soupault: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, DocPad or Soupault?
Soupault has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for DocPad. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.