Hugo vs JBake

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?
FeatureHugoJBake
CategoryBlogging PlatformsBlogging Platforms
LicenseApache-2.0MIT
LanguageGoJava
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM128 MB256 MB
Deploymentbinary, sourcebinary, source
GitHub stars★ 89,369★ 1,155
First released20132013
ReplacesWordPress, MediumJekyll, WordPress

Why pick each one

Choose Hugo if…

  • Outstanding build speed
  • No server-side runtime needed
Hugo details

Choose JBake if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Active community (1.2k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Java
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
JBake details

Frequently asked questions

Is Hugo or JBake better?

Neither is universally better. Hugo has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Hugo and JBake free and open-source?

Yes. Hugo is licensed under Apache-2.0 and JBake under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Hugo and JBake with Docker?

Hugo: check the project docs for container support. JBake: check the project docs for container support.

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