SHSelfHostIndex

Harp 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?
HA Harp Static web server with built-in preprocessing VS WI Wintersmith Flexible Node.js static site and blog generator
FeatureHarpWintersmith
Deploy effortRead-the-docs projectRead-the-docs project
Health score66 · Good19 · At risk
CategoryBlogging PlatformsBlogging Platforms
LicenseMITMIT
LanguageJavaScriptCoffeeScript
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM128 MB128 MB
Deploymentsource, binarysource, binary
GitHub stars★ 4,995★ 3,478
First released20132012
ReplacesJekyllWordPress, Jekyll

What are Harp and Wintersmith?

Harp

Harp is a static web server and site generator that serves Jade, Markdown, EJS, CoffeeScript, Sass, LESS, and Stylus as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript without any configuration. It can compile a project to a deployable static site.

  • Zero-config preprocessing
  • Built-in web server
  • Compiles to static site
  • Multiple template languages

Wintersmith

Wintersmith is a simple yet flexible static site generator built on Node.js that turns Markdown content into a static website or blog. Its plugin system allows custom content types and generators.

  • Plugin-driven generators
  • Markdown content
  • Jade and Pug templates
  • Static output

Harp vs Wintersmith: key differences

Harp is written in JavaScript, while Wintersmith is built with CoffeeScript.

Why pick each one

Choose Harp if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Active community (5k GitHub stars)
  • Written in JavaScript
Harp details

Choose Wintersmith if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Active community (3.5k GitHub stars)
  • Written in CoffeeScript
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Wintersmith details

Frequently asked questions

Is Harp or Wintersmith better?

Harp is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Wintersmith if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Harp and Wintersmith free and open-source?

Yes. Harp is licensed under MIT and Wintersmith under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Harp and Wintersmith with Docker?

Harp: check the project docs for container support. Wintersmith: check the project docs for container support.

Related comparisons