Middleman vs Poole
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Middleman | Poole |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 89 · Excellent | 0 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Ruby | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | source, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,111 | ★ 31 |
| First released | 2009 | 2009 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, WordPress | Jekyll |
What are Middleman and Poole?
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
Poole
Poole is a markup-agnostic, single-file static website generator written in Python that keeps the build process deliberately tiny. It is suited for small personal sites and blogs where minimalism is preferred.
- Single-file generator
- Markup-agnostic
- Embedded Python in pages
- Tiny footprint
Middleman vs Poole: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Poole's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Middleman is actively maintained. Middleman is written in Ruby, while Poole is built with Python. Poole is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Middleman. Middleman has the considerably larger community, at 7,111 GitHub stars versus 31.
Why pick each one
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
Choose Poole if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Middleman or Poole better?
Neither is universally better. Middleman has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Middleman and Poole free and open-source?
Yes. Middleman is licensed under MIT and Poole under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Middleman and Poole with Docker?
Middleman: check the project docs for container support. Poole: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Middleman or Poole?
Poole has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Middleman. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.