Poole vs Soupault
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Poole | Soupault |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 0 · At risk | 64 · Good |
| Status | Archived | Actively maintained |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Python | OCaml |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | source, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 31 | ★ 430 |
| First released | 2009 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Jekyll | Jekyll, Hugo |
What are Poole and Soupault?
Poole
Poole is a markup-agnostic, single-file static website generator written in Python that keeps the build process deliberately tiny. It is suited for small personal sites and blogs where minimalism is preferred.
- Single-file generator
- Markup-agnostic
- Embedded Python in pages
- Tiny footprint
Soupault
Soupault is a static website generator and HTML processor that manipulates the page DOM directly rather than relying on a templating language. It can build new sites or post-process existing static sites.
- DOM-based processing
- Lua plugin support
- Single-binary tool
- Works on existing sites
Poole vs Soupault: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Poole's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Soupault is actively maintained. Poole is written in Python, while Soupault is built with OCaml. Poole is the more established project (first released 2009), while Soupault arrived in 2019. Soupault has the considerably larger community, at 430 GitHub stars versus 31.
Why pick each one
Choose Poole if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Choose Soupault if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in OCaml
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Poole or Soupault better?
Neither is universally better. Soupault has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Poole and Soupault free and open-source?
Yes. Poole is licensed under MIT and Soupault under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Poole and Soupault with Docker?
Poole: check the project docs for container support. Soupault: check the project docs for container support.