Franklin vs Wintersmith
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Franklin
Static site generator written in Julia
VS
Wintersmith
Flexible Node.js static site and blog generator
| Feature | Franklin | Wintersmith |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Julia | CoffeeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,063 | ★ 3,478 |
| First released | 2019 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, Hugo | WordPress, Jekyll |
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 Wintersmith if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (3.5k GitHub stars)
- Written in CoffeeScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Franklin or Wintersmith better?
Neither is universally better. Wintersmith has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Franklin and Wintersmith free and open-source?
Yes. Franklin is licensed under MIT and Wintersmith under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Franklin and Wintersmith with Docker?
Franklin: check the project docs for container support. Wintersmith: check the project docs for container support.