Hexo Admin vs Pelican
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Hexo Admin | Pelican |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 20 · At risk | 80 · Excellent |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | source, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,788 | ★ 13,339 |
| First released | 2014 | 2010 |
| Replaces | WordPress | WordPress, Blogger |
What are Hexo Admin and Pelican?
Hexo Admin
Hexo Admin is a plugin that adds a web-based editing dashboard to the Hexo static blog generator, allowing posts to be written and managed through a browser. It brings a CMS-like workflow to an otherwise file-based generator.
- Browser-based editor
- Live preview
- Image uploads
- Hexo integration
Pelican
Pelican is an open-source static site generator written in Python that builds blogs from Markdown or reStructuredText. It supports themes, plugins, and import from other blogging platforms.
- Markdown and reStructuredText
- Theme and plugin support
- Import from WordPress and others
- Atom and RSS feeds
Hexo Admin vs Pelican: key differences
Hexo Admin is written in JavaScript, while Pelican is built with Python. Licensing differs — MIT for Hexo Admin versus AGPL-3.0 for Pelican. Hexo Admin is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Pelican. Pelican is the more established project (first released 2010), while Hexo Admin arrived in 2014. Pelican has the considerably larger community, at 13,339 GitHub stars versus 1,788.
Why pick each one
Choose Hexo Admin if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (1.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in JavaScript
Choose Pelican if…
- Great for Python users
- Mature and stable
Watch out for
- No admin UI
- Python environment needed
Frequently asked questions
Is Hexo Admin or Pelican better?
Neither is universally better. Pelican has the larger community, while Hexo Admin is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Hexo Admin and Pelican free and open-source?
Yes. Hexo Admin is licensed under MIT and Pelican under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hexo Admin and Pelican with Docker?
Hexo Admin: check the project docs for container support. Pelican: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Hexo Admin or Pelican?
Hexo Admin has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Pelican. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.