Pencil vs VuePress
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Pencil | VuePress |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 62 · Good | 84 · Excellent |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Language | Haskell | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5 | ★ 2,832 |
| First released | 2017 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Jekyll | Jekyll, GitBook |
What are Pencil and VuePress?
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
VuePress
VuePress is a minimalistic static site generator with a Vue-powered theming system and a default theme optimized for technical documentation and blogs. Each page is rendered as static HTML and then hydrated into a single-page app.
- Vue-based theming
- Documentation default theme
- Plugin system
- Static prerendering
Pencil vs VuePress: key differences
Pencil is written in Haskell, while VuePress is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — BSD-3-Clause for Pencil versus MIT for VuePress. Pencil is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for VuePress. VuePress has the considerably larger community, at 2,832 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 VuePress if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (2.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Pencil or VuePress better?
VuePress 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 VuePress free and open-source?
Yes. Pencil is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and VuePress under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Pencil and VuePress with Docker?
Pencil: check the project docs for container support. VuePress: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Pencil or VuePress?
Pencil has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for VuePress. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.