Franklin vs Poole
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Franklin | Poole |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 73 · Good | 0 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Julia | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | source, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,069 | ★ 31 |
| First released | 2019 | 2009 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, Hugo | Jekyll |
What are Franklin and Poole?
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
Poole
Poole is a markup-agnostic, single-file static website generator written in Python that keeps the build process deliberately tiny. It is suited for small personal sites and blogs where minimalism is preferred.
- Single-file generator
- Markup-agnostic
- Embedded Python in pages
- Tiny footprint
Franklin vs Poole: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Poole's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Franklin is actively maintained. Franklin is written in Julia, while Poole is built with Python. Poole is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Franklin. Poole is the more established project (first released 2009), while Franklin arrived in 2019. Franklin has the considerably larger community, at 1,069 GitHub stars versus 31.
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 Poole if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Franklin or Poole 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 Poole free and open-source?
Yes. Franklin is licensed under MIT and Poole under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Franklin and Poole with Docker?
Franklin: check the project docs for container support. Poole: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Franklin or Poole?
Poole has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Franklin. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.