Orchid 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 | Orchid | Pencil |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 15 · At risk | 62 · Good |
| Status | Archived | Actively maintained |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | LGPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Kotlin | Haskell |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 529 | ★ 5 |
| First released | 2017 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, GitBook | Jekyll |
What are Orchid and Pencil?
Orchid
Orchid is a powerful and extensible static site generator built on the JVM that targets project documentation, wikis, and personal blogs. It bundles plugins for changelogs, presentations, and search.
- Plugin-driven generation
- Documentation themes
- Built-in search
- JVM ecosystem
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
Orchid vs Pencil: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Orchid's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Pencil is actively maintained. Orchid is written in Kotlin, while Pencil is built with Haskell. Licensing differs — LGPL-3.0 for Orchid versus BSD-3-Clause for Pencil. Pencil is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Orchid. Orchid has the considerably larger community, at 529 GitHub stars versus 5.
Why pick each one
Choose Orchid if…
- Released under the LGPL-3.0 license
- Written in Kotlin
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 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 Orchid or Pencil better?
Orchid is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Orchid if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Orchid and Pencil free and open-source?
Yes. Orchid is licensed under LGPL-3.0 and Pencil under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Orchid and Pencil with Docker?
Orchid: check the project docs for container support. Pencil: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Orchid or Pencil?
Pencil has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Orchid. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.