Haunt vs Metalsmith
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Haunt | Metalsmith |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Scheme | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 400 | ★ 7,822 |
| First released | 2015 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Jekyll | WordPress, Jekyll |
What are Haunt and Metalsmith?
Haunt
Haunt is a hackable static site generator for blogs and websites, written in and configured with Guile Scheme. It treats site building as a functional pipeline, giving programmers fine-grained control over output.
- Functional build pipeline
- Scheme configuration
- Atom feed support
- Asset processing
Metalsmith
Metalsmith is a static site generator that treats every site as a series of plugins manipulating files, making it suitable for blogs, project pages, and documentation. All functionality, including Markdown rendering and templating, is provided by plugins.
- Everything is a plugin
- Pipeline architecture
- Markdown and templating plugins
- Static output
Haunt vs Metalsmith: key differences
Haunt is written in Scheme, while Metalsmith is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Haunt versus MIT for Metalsmith. Metalsmith has the considerably larger community, at 7,822 GitHub stars versus 400.
Why pick each one
Choose Haunt if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Written in Scheme
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Watch out for
- Niche language
- Steep for non-Lispers
Choose Metalsmith if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Mature project with 7.8k GitHub stars
- Written in JavaScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Haunt or Metalsmith better?
Neither is universally better. Metalsmith has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Haunt and Metalsmith free and open-source?
Yes. Haunt is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Metalsmith under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Haunt and Metalsmith with Docker?
Haunt: check the project docs for container support. Metalsmith: check the project docs for container support.