Pencil vs Saaze
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Pencil | Saaze |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 62 · Good | 0 · At risk |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Language | Haskell | Blade |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5 | ★ 52 |
| First released | 2017 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Jekyll | Jekyll, WordPress |
What are Pencil and Saaze?
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
Saaze
Saaze is a lightweight flat-file CMS and static site generator built with PHP. It can serve content dynamically or export a fully static site, using YAML and Markdown files for content.
- Dynamic or static site modes
- Flat-file content storage
- Blade templating engine
- Markdown and YAML content
Pencil vs Saaze: key differences
Pencil is written in Haskell, while Saaze is built with Blade. Licensing differs — BSD-3-Clause for Pencil versus MIT for Saaze. Pencil is the more established project (first released 2017), while Saaze arrived in 2021. Saaze has the considerably larger community, at 52 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 Saaze if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in Blade
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Pencil or Saaze better?
Saaze 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 Saaze free and open-source?
Yes. Pencil is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Saaze under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Pencil and Saaze with Docker?
Pencil: check the project docs for container support. Saaze: check the project docs for container support.