Gatsby vs WriteFreely

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureGatsbyWriteFreely
CategoryBlogging PlatformsSocial Networks
LicenseMITAGPL-3.0
LanguageJavaScriptGo
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM1,024 MB256 MB
Deploymentbinary, sourcedocker, binary, source
GitHub stars★ 55,939★ 5,216
First released20152018
ReplacesWordPress, MediumMedium, Tumblr

Why pick each one

Choose Gatsby if…

  • Great for React developers
  • Pulls content from many sources
Gatsby details

Choose WriteFreely if…

  • Clean minimalist design
  • Lightweight to host
WriteFreely details

Frequently asked questions

Is Gatsby or WriteFreely better?

Neither is universally better. Gatsby has the larger community, while WriteFreely is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Gatsby and WriteFreely free and open-source?

Yes. Gatsby is licensed under MIT and WriteFreely under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Gatsby and WriteFreely with Docker?

Gatsby: check the project docs for container support. WriteFreely: yes.

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