SHSelfHostIndex

HTMLy vs Pelican

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
HT HTMLy Databaseless PHP blogging platform VS PE Pelican Static site generator for Python and Markdown lovers
FeatureHTMLyPelican
CategoryBlogging PlatformsBlogging Platforms
LicenseMITAGPL-3.0
LanguagePHPPython
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM128 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcebinary, source
GitHub stars★ 1,354★ 13,331
First released20142010
ReplacesWordPress, BloggerWordPress, Blogger

Why pick each one

Choose HTMLy if…

  • No database to maintain
  • Fast and lightweight
HTMLy details

Choose Pelican if…

  • Great for Python users
  • Mature and stable
Pelican details

Frequently asked questions

Is HTMLy or Pelican better?

Neither is universally better. Pelican has the larger community, while HTMLy is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are HTMLy and Pelican free and open-source?

Yes. HTMLy is licensed under MIT and Pelican under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run HTMLy and Pelican with Docker?

HTMLy: yes. Pelican: check the project docs for container support.

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