Franklin vs Orchid
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Franklin | Orchid |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 73 · Good | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | LGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Julia | Kotlin |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,069 | ★ 529 |
| First released | 2019 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, Hugo | Jekyll, GitBook |
What are Franklin and Orchid?
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
Orchid
Orchid is a powerful and extensible static site generator built on the JVM that targets project documentation, wikis, and personal blogs. It bundles plugins for changelogs, presentations, and search.
- Plugin-driven generation
- Documentation themes
- Built-in search
- JVM ecosystem
Franklin vs Orchid: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Orchid's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Franklin is actively maintained. Franklin is written in Julia, while Orchid is built with Kotlin. Licensing differs — MIT for Franklin versus LGPL-3.0 for Orchid. Orchid is the more established project (first released 2017), while Franklin arrived in 2019. Franklin has the considerably larger community, at 1,069 GitHub stars versus 529.
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 Orchid if…
- Released under the LGPL-3.0 license
- Written in Kotlin
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Franklin or Orchid 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 Orchid free and open-source?
Yes. Franklin is licensed under MIT and Orchid under LGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Franklin and Orchid with Docker?
Franklin: check the project docs for container support. Orchid: check the project docs for container support.