Orchid 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 | Orchid | Publican |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 15 · At risk | 58 · Fair |
| Status | Archived | Actively maintained |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | LGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Kotlin | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 529 | ★ 20 |
| First released | 2017 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, GitBook | Jekyll, Hugo |
What are Orchid and Publican?
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
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
Orchid vs Publican: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Orchid's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Publican is actively maintained. Orchid is written in Kotlin, while Publican is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — LGPL-3.0 for Orchid versus MIT for Publican. Publican is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Orchid. Orchid is the more established project (first released 2017), while Publican arrived in 2024. Orchid has the considerably larger community, at 529 GitHub stars versus 20.
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 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 Orchid or Publican better?
Neither is universally better. Orchid 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 Orchid and Publican free and open-source?
Yes. Orchid is licensed under LGPL-3.0 and Publican under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Orchid and Publican with Docker?
Orchid: check the project docs for container support. Publican: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Orchid or Publican?
Publican has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Orchid. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.