Metalsmith vs Pencil
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Metalsmith | Pencil |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 68 · Good | 62 · Good |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | JavaScript | Haskell |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,822 | ★ 5 |
| First released | 2014 | 2017 |
| Replaces | WordPress, Jekyll | Jekyll |
What are Metalsmith and Pencil?
Metalsmith
Metalsmith is a static site generator that treats every site as a series of plugins manipulating files, making it suitable for blogs, project pages, and documentation. All functionality, including Markdown rendering and templating, is provided by plugins.
- Everything is a plugin
- Pipeline architecture
- Markdown and templating plugins
- Static output
Pencil
Pencil is a static site generator library and tool written in Haskell that compiles Markdown and templates into a static website. It gives developers a programmatic way to define site structure and content transformations.
- Haskell library API
- Markdown rendering
- Template inheritance
- Static output
Metalsmith vs Pencil: key differences
Metalsmith is written in JavaScript, while Pencil is built with Haskell. Licensing differs — MIT for Metalsmith versus BSD-3-Clause for Pencil. Pencil is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Metalsmith. Metalsmith is the more established project (first released 2014), while Pencil arrived in 2017. Metalsmith has the considerably larger community, at 7,822 GitHub stars versus 5.
Why pick each one
Choose Metalsmith if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Mature project with 7.8k GitHub stars
- Written in JavaScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Choose Pencil if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Written in Haskell
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Metalsmith or Pencil better?
Metalsmith is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Pencil if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Metalsmith and Pencil free and open-source?
Yes. Metalsmith is licensed under MIT and Pencil under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Metalsmith and Pencil with Docker?
Metalsmith: check the project docs for container support. Pencil: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Metalsmith or Pencil?
Pencil has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Metalsmith. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.