Haunt vs Soupault
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Haunt | Soupault |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Scheme | OCaml |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 400 | ★ 430 |
| First released | 2015 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Jekyll | Jekyll, Hugo |
What are Haunt and Soupault?
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
Soupault
Soupault is a static website generator and HTML processor that manipulates the page DOM directly rather than relying on a templating language. It can build new sites or post-process existing static sites.
- DOM-based processing
- Lua plugin support
- Single-binary tool
- Works on existing sites
Haunt vs Soupault: key differences
Haunt is written in Scheme, while Soupault is built with OCaml. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Haunt versus MIT for Soupault. Soupault is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Haunt. Haunt is the more established project (first released 2015), while Soupault arrived in 2019.
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 Soupault if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in OCaml
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Haunt or Soupault better?
Neither is universally better. Soupault has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Haunt and Soupault free and open-source?
Yes. Haunt is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Soupault under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Haunt and Soupault with Docker?
Haunt: check the project docs for container support. Soupault: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Haunt or Soupault?
Soupault 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.