Jekyll vs Middleman
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Jekyll
Simple, blog-aware static site generator
VS
Middleman
Ruby static site generator with modern tooling
| Feature | Jekyll | Middleman |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 85 · Excellent | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Ruby | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 51,683 | ★ 7,111 |
| First released | 2008 | 2009 |
| Replaces | WordPress, Blogger | Jekyll, WordPress |
What are Jekyll and Middleman?
Jekyll
Jekyll is a popular open-source static site generator that transforms Markdown and Liquid templates into static blogs and websites. It pioneered the modern static-site approach and integrates with GitHub Pages.
- Blog-aware by design
- Markdown and Liquid templating
- Large plugin ecosystem
- GitHub Pages support
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
Jekyll vs Middleman: key differences
Both projects are written in Ruby. Jekyll has the considerably larger community, at 51,683 GitHub stars versus 7,111.
Why pick each one
Choose Jekyll if…
- Mature and well documented
- Great for personal blogs
Watch out for
- Slower builds on large sites
- Ruby 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 Jekyll or Middleman better?
Neither is universally better. Jekyll has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Jekyll and Middleman free and open-source?
Yes. Jekyll is licensed under MIT and Middleman under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Jekyll and Middleman with Docker?
Jekyll: check the project docs for container support. Middleman: check the project docs for container support.