Franklin 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 | Franklin | Haunt |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Julia | Scheme |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,069 | ★ 400 |
| First released | 2019 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, Hugo | Jekyll |
What are Franklin and Haunt?
Franklin
Franklin is a simple, customizable static site generator written in Julia with built-in support for live evaluation of Julia code in pages. It is well suited to technical blogs and documentation sites.
- Julia code evaluation
- Markdown extensions
- Live preview server
- 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
Franklin vs Haunt: key differences
Franklin is written in Julia, while Haunt is built with Scheme. Licensing differs — MIT for Franklin versus GPL-3.0 for Haunt. Haunt is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Franklin. Haunt is the more established project (first released 2015), while Franklin arrived in 2019. Franklin has the considerably larger community, at 1,069 GitHub stars versus 400.
Why pick each one
Choose Franklin if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (1.1k GitHub stars)
- Written in Julia
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 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 Franklin or Haunt better?
Neither is universally better. Franklin has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Franklin and Haunt free and open-source?
Yes. Franklin is licensed under MIT and Haunt under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Franklin and Haunt with Docker?
Franklin: check the project docs for container support. Haunt: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Franklin or Haunt?
Haunt has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Franklin. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.