head to head · open source
gatsby vs htmly
gatsby has 55,921 GitHub stars, 10,089 forks, 450 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. htmly has 1,368 stars, 307 forks, 54 open issues and last shipped 9 months ago. gatsby leads on adoption by 3,988% (55,921 vs 1,368 stars). gatsby is written in JavaScript under MIT; htmly is written in PHP under GPL-2.0. gatsby has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, htmly 22%. gatsby was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (blog), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| gatsby | htmly | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 56K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-10-20 | 2026-01-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 307 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick gatsby if
- You weight community size — 56K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick htmly if
- You want the htmly feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and htmly fits your workflow better
About gatsby
Gatsby The future of web development is here. Gatsby is a free and open source framework based on React that helps developers build blazing fast websites and apps. It combines the control and scalability of dynamically rendered sites with the speed of static site generation, creating a whole new web of possibilities. Quickstart · Tutorial · Plugins · Starters · Showcase · Contribute Support: Discussions Gatsby helps professional developers efficiently create maintainable, highly performant, content rich websites. Load Data From Anywhere. Gatsby pulls in data from any data source, whether it’s Markdown files, a…
read the full gatsby overview →
About htmly
HTMLy is an open source databaseless blogging platform prioritizes simplicity and speed written in PHP. It uses a unique algorithm to find or list any content based on date, type, category, tag, or author, and it's performance remain fast even if we have ten thousand of posts and hundreds of tags. Requirements HTMLy requires PHP 7.2 or greater, PHP Mbstring, PHP XML, PHP INTL, PHP GD, and PHP ZIP package for backup feature. Installations Install HTMLy using the source code: 1. Download the latest version from the Github repo 2. Upload and extract the zip file to your web server. You can upload it in the root…
read the full htmly overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gatsby or htmly more popular?
gatsby has 55,921 GitHub stars and htmly has 1,368. gatsby has the larger community by that measure.
Are gatsby and htmly free?
Both are open source. gatsby is licensed under MIT and htmly under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gatsby and htmly?
gatsby is written in JavaScript and htmly in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, gatsby or htmly?
Choose gatsby if you want the larger community (55,921 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose htmly if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.