Hexo 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 | Pelican |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 98 · Excellent | 80 · Excellent |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 41,774 | ★ 13,339 |
| First released | 2012 | 2010 |
| Replaces | WordPress, Blogger | WordPress, Blogger |
What are Hexo and Pelican?
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
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 vs Pelican: key differences
Hexo is written in TypeScript, while Pelican is built with Python. Licensing differs — MIT for Hexo versus AGPL-3.0 for Pelican. Pelican is the more established project (first released 2010), while Hexo arrived in 2012. Hexo has the considerably larger community, at 41,774 GitHub stars versus 13,339.
Why pick each one
Choose Hexo if…
- Popular with developers
- Rich plugin ecosystem
Watch out for
- No admin UI
- Node toolchain required
Choose Pelican if…
- Great for Python users
- Mature and stable
Watch out for
- No admin UI
- Python environment needed
Frequently asked questions
Is Hexo or Pelican 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 Pelican free and open-source?
Yes. Hexo is licensed under MIT and Pelican under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hexo and Pelican with Docker?
Hexo: check the project docs for container support. Pelican: check the project docs for container support.