Publican 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 | Publican | Saaze |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 58 · Fair | 0 · At risk |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | Blade |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 20 | ★ 52 |
| First released | 2024 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, Hugo | Jekyll, WordPress |
What are Publican and Saaze?
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
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
Publican vs Saaze: key differences
Publican is written in JavaScript, while Saaze is built with Blade. Saaze is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Publican. Saaze is the more established project (first released 2021), while Publican arrived in 2024. Saaze has the considerably larger community, at 52 GitHub stars versus 20.
Why pick each one
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
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 Publican or Saaze better?
Neither is universally better. Saaze has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Publican and Saaze free and open-source?
Yes. Publican is licensed under MIT and Saaze under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Publican and Saaze with Docker?
Publican: check the project docs for container support. Saaze: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Publican or Saaze?
Saaze 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.