Hexo Admin vs Zola
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 | Zola |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 20 · At risk | 95 · Excellent |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | source, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,788 | ★ 17,463 |
| First released | 2014 | 2017 |
| Replaces | WordPress | WordPress, Medium |
What are Hexo Admin and Zola?
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
Zola
Zola is an open-source static site generator written in Rust that ships as a single binary with no dependencies. It builds blogs and documentation sites quickly with built-in Sass and search support.
- Single dependency-free binary
- Fast builds
- Built-in Sass compilation
- Built-in search index
Hexo Admin vs Zola: key differences
Hexo Admin is written in JavaScript, while Zola is built with Rust. Hexo Admin is the more established project (first released 2014), while Zola arrived in 2017. Zola has the considerably larger community, at 17,463 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 Zola if…
- No toolchain to install
- Very fast
Watch out for
- No admin UI
- Smaller theme selection
Frequently asked questions
Is Hexo Admin or Zola better?
Neither is universally better. Zola 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 Zola free and open-source?
Yes. Hexo Admin is licensed under MIT and Zola under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hexo Admin and Zola with Docker?
Hexo Admin: check the project docs for container support. Zola: check the project docs for container support.