Middleman vs Publican
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Middleman | Publican |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 89 · Excellent | 58 · Fair |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Ruby | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,111 | ★ 20 |
| First released | 2009 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, WordPress | Jekyll, Hugo |
What are Middleman and Publican?
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
Publican
Publican is a fast, dependency-light static site generator for blogs and content sites built with modern JavaScript. It renders Markdown content with flexible templating and incremental builds for quick publishing.
- Markdown content
- Flexible templating
- Incremental builds
- Minimal dependencies
Middleman vs Publican: key differences
Middleman is written in Ruby, while Publican is built with JavaScript. Publican is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Middleman. Middleman is the more established project (first released 2009), while Publican arrived in 2024. Middleman has the considerably larger community, at 7,111 GitHub stars versus 20.
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 Publican if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in JavaScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Watch out for
- Young project
- Small theme selection
Frequently asked questions
Is Middleman or Publican better?
Neither is universally better. Middleman has the larger community, while Publican is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Middleman and Publican free and open-source?
Yes. Middleman is licensed under MIT and Publican under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Middleman and Publican with Docker?
Middleman: check the project docs for container support. Publican: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Middleman or Publican?
Publican has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Middleman. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.