Hexo vs Middleman
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Hexo | Middleman |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 98 · Excellent | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 41,774 | ★ 7,111 |
| First released | 2012 | 2009 |
| Replaces | WordPress, Blogger | Jekyll, WordPress |
What are Hexo and Middleman?
Hexo
Hexo is an open-source static blog framework built with Node.js that turns Markdown into a fast static site. It is widely used by developers for personal blogs with a rich plugin ecosystem.
- Fast Markdown-based builds
- Large plugin and theme ecosystem
- One-command deployment
- Highly extensible
Middleman
Middleman is a static site generator using all the shortcuts and tools in modern web development, including templating, asset pipelines, and helpers. Its blogging extension turns it into a full static blog engine.
- Asset pipeline
- Blogging extension
- Helpers and partials
- Static output
Hexo vs Middleman: key differences
Hexo is written in TypeScript, while Middleman is built with Ruby. Middleman is the more established project (first released 2009), while Hexo arrived in 2012. Hexo has the considerably larger community, at 41,774 GitHub stars versus 7,111.
Why pick each one
Choose Hexo if…
- Popular with developers
- Rich plugin ecosystem
Watch out for
- No admin UI
- Node toolchain required
Choose Middleman if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Mature project with 7.1k GitHub stars
- Written in Ruby
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Hexo or Middleman better?
Neither is universally better. Hexo has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Hexo and Middleman free and open-source?
Yes. Hexo is licensed under MIT and Middleman under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hexo and Middleman with Docker?
Hexo: check the project docs for container support. Middleman: check the project docs for container support.