Jekyll vs Pelican
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
Pelican
Static site generator for Python and Markdown lovers
| Feature | Jekyll | Pelican |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 85 · Excellent | 80 · Excellent |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Ruby | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 51,683 | ★ 13,339 |
| First released | 2008 | 2010 |
| Replaces | WordPress, Blogger | WordPress, Blogger |
What are Jekyll and Pelican?
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
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
Jekyll vs Pelican: key differences
Jekyll is written in Ruby, while Pelican is built with Python. Licensing differs — MIT for Jekyll versus AGPL-3.0 for Pelican. Jekyll is the more established project (first released 2008), while Pelican arrived in 2010. Jekyll has the considerably larger community, at 51,683 GitHub stars versus 13,339.
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 Pelican if…
- Great for Python users
- Mature and stable
Watch out for
- No admin UI
- Python environment needed
Frequently asked questions
Is Jekyll or Pelican 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 Pelican free and open-source?
Yes. Jekyll is licensed under MIT and Pelican under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Jekyll and Pelican with Docker?
Jekyll: check the project docs for container support. Pelican: check the project docs for container support.