Haunt vs Poole
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Haunt | Poole |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Scheme | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | source, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 400 | ★ 31 |
| First released | 2015 | 2009 |
| Replaces | Jekyll | Jekyll |
What are Haunt and Poole?
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
Poole
Poole is a markup-agnostic, single-file static website generator written in Python that keeps the build process deliberately tiny. It is suited for small personal sites and blogs where minimalism is preferred.
- Single-file generator
- Markup-agnostic
- Embedded Python in pages
- Tiny footprint
Haunt vs Poole: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Poole's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Haunt is actively maintained. Haunt is written in Scheme, while Poole is built with Python. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Haunt versus MIT for Poole. Poole is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Haunt. Poole is the more established project (first released 2009), while Haunt arrived in 2015. Haunt has the considerably larger community, at 400 GitHub stars versus 31.
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 Poole if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Haunt or Poole better?
Neither is universally better. Haunt has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Haunt and Poole free and open-source?
Yes. Haunt is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Poole under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Haunt and Poole with Docker?
Haunt: check the project docs for container support. Poole: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Haunt or Poole?
Poole has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Haunt. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.