Publican 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 | Publican | Soupault |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 58 · Fair | 64 · Good |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | OCaml |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 20 | ★ 430 |
| First released | 2024 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, Hugo | Jekyll, Hugo |
What are Publican and Soupault?
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
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
Publican vs Soupault: key differences
Publican is written in JavaScript, while Soupault is built with OCaml. Soupault is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Publican. Soupault is the more established project (first released 2019), while Publican arrived in 2024. Soupault has the considerably larger community, at 430 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 Soupault if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in OCaml
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Publican or Soupault better?
Neither is universally better. Soupault has the larger community, while Publican is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Publican and Soupault free and open-source?
Yes. Publican is licensed under MIT and Soupault under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Publican and Soupault with Docker?
Publican: check the project docs for container support. Soupault: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Publican or Soupault?
Soupault 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.