Scully vs Zola
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Scully | Zola |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 18 · At risk | 95 · Excellent |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,527 | ★ 17,463 |
| First released | 2019 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Gatsby, WordPress | WordPress, Medium |
What are Scully and Zola?
Scully
Scully is a static site generator designed for Angular projects that prerenders pages into static HTML for better performance and SEO. It adds blogging capabilities to Angular apps through its plugin system.
- Angular prerendering
- Static HTML output
- Blog plugin
- Improved SEO
Zola
Zola is an open-source static site generator written in Rust that ships as a single binary with no dependencies. It builds blogs and documentation sites quickly with built-in Sass and search support.
- Single dependency-free binary
- Fast builds
- Built-in Sass compilation
- Built-in search index
Scully vs Zola: key differences
Scully is written in TypeScript, while Zola is built with Rust. Zola is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Scully. Zola is the more established project (first released 2017), while Scully arrived in 2019. Zola has the considerably larger community, at 17,463 GitHub stars versus 2,527.
Why pick each one
Choose Scully if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (2.5k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Choose Zola if…
- No toolchain to install
- Very fast
Watch out for
- No admin UI
- Smaller theme selection
Frequently asked questions
Is Scully or Zola better?
Neither is universally better. Zola has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Scully and Zola free and open-source?
Yes. Scully is licensed under MIT and Zola under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Scully and Zola with Docker?
Scully: check the project docs for container support. Zola: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Scully or Zola?
Zola has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Scully. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.