Middleman vs Scully
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Middleman | Scully |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 89 · Excellent | 18 · At risk |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,111 | ★ 2,527 |
| First released | 2009 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, WordPress | Gatsby, WordPress |
What are Middleman and Scully?
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
Scully
Scully is a static site generator designed for Angular projects that prerenders pages into static HTML for better performance and SEO. It adds blogging capabilities to Angular apps through its plugin system.
- Angular prerendering
- Static HTML output
- Blog plugin
- Improved SEO
Middleman vs Scully: key differences
Middleman is written in Ruby, while Scully is built with TypeScript. Middleman is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Scully. Middleman is the more established project (first released 2009), while Scully arrived in 2019. Middleman has the considerably larger community, at 7,111 GitHub stars versus 2,527.
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 Scully if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (2.5k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Middleman or Scully 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 Scully free and open-source?
Yes. Middleman is licensed under MIT and Scully under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Middleman and Scully with Docker?
Middleman: check the project docs for container support. Scully: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Middleman or Scully?
Middleman has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Scully. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.