Franklin vs Saber
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Franklin | Saber |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | MIT |
| Language | Julia | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,069 | ★ 2,115 |
| First released | 2019 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, Hugo | Gatsby, Jekyll |
What are Franklin and Saber?
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
Saber
Saber is a static site generator built on top of Vue.js that lets you create static websites and blogs using Vue components and Markdown. It bridges the gap between flexible single-page apps and traditional static generators.
- Vue-component pages
- Markdown content
- Plugin ecosystem
- Static output
Franklin vs Saber: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Saber's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Franklin is actively maintained. Franklin is written in Julia, while Saber is built with JavaScript.
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 Saber if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (2.1k GitHub stars)
- Written in JavaScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Franklin or Saber better?
Neither is universally better. Saber has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Franklin and Saber free and open-source?
Yes. Franklin is licensed under MIT and Saber under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Franklin and Saber with Docker?
Franklin: check the project docs for container support. Saber: check the project docs for container support.