Dotclear vs Pelican
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Dotclear | Pelican |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 62 · Good | 80 · Excellent |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | GPL-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | PHP | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 46 | ★ 13,339 |
| First released | 2003 | 2010 |
| Replaces | WordPress, Blogger | WordPress, Blogger |
What are Dotclear and Pelican?
Dotclear
Dotclear is a long-standing open-source blogging engine designed to be easy to install and use. It offers themes, plugins, and full control over publishing without proprietary lock-in.
- Easy installation
- Theme and plugin support
- Multi-blog management
- Built-in media handling
Pelican
Pelican is an open-source static site generator written in Python that builds blogs from Markdown or reStructuredText. It supports themes, plugins, and import from other blogging platforms.
- Markdown and reStructuredText
- Theme and plugin support
- Import from WordPress and others
- Atom and RSS feeds
Dotclear vs Pelican: key differences
Dotclear is written in PHP, while Pelican is built with Python. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Dotclear versus AGPL-3.0 for Pelican. Dotclear is the more established project (first released 2003), while Pelican arrived in 2010. Pelican has the considerably larger community, at 13,339 GitHub stars versus 46. Dotclear lists first-class Docker deployment; Pelican does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Dotclear if…
- Simple to set up
- Mature and stable
Watch out for
- Smaller community
- Less known outside France
Choose Pelican if…
- Great for Python users
- Mature and stable
Watch out for
- No admin UI
- Python environment needed
Frequently asked questions
Is Dotclear or Pelican better?
Neither is universally better. Pelican has the larger community, while Dotclear is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Dotclear and Pelican free and open-source?
Yes. Dotclear is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Pelican under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Dotclear and Pelican with Docker?
Dotclear: yes. Pelican: check the project docs for container support.