Pencil 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 | Pencil | Publican |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 62 · Good | 58 · Fair |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Language | Haskell | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5 | ★ 20 |
| First released | 2017 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Jekyll | Jekyll, Hugo |
What are Pencil and Publican?
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
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
Pencil vs Publican: key differences
Pencil is written in Haskell, while Publican is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — BSD-3-Clause for Pencil versus MIT for Publican. Pencil is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Publican. Pencil is the more established project (first released 2017), while Publican arrived in 2024. Publican has the considerably larger community, at 20 GitHub stars versus 5.
Why pick each one
Choose Pencil if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Written in Haskell
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 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 Pencil or Publican better?
Publican is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Pencil if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Pencil and Publican free and open-source?
Yes. Pencil is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Publican under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Pencil and Publican with Docker?
Pencil: check the project docs for container support. Publican: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Pencil or Publican?
Pencil has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Publican. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.