head to head · open source
gatsby vs jekyll-klise
gatsby has 55,927 GitHub stars, 10,094 forks, 450 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. jekyll-klise has 1,059 stars, 405 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. gatsby leads on adoption by 5,181% (55,927 vs 1,059 stars). gatsby is written in JavaScript under MIT; jekyll-klise is written in SCSS under MIT. gatsby has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, jekyll-klise 38%. jekyll-klise 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 | jekyll-klise | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 56K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | SCSS |
| Last push | 2026-10-20 | 2026-10-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 405 |
| 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 jekyll-klise if
- You want the jekyll-klise feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches SCSS
- You evaluated both and jekyll-klise 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 jekyll-klise
Klisé Klisé is minimalist Jekyll theme for running a personal site and blog running on Jekyll. For demo klise.now.sh Features [x] Light & Dark Mode support, follows OS preference by default :waxing crescent moon: [x] Customizable (using .scss ) [x] Responsive (desktop, tab and mobile) [x] RTL / LTR text direction support [x] Mobile First Design [x] SEO Optimized [x] schema.org structured data (JSON LD) [x] Images of post Organized ( jekyll postfiles ) [x] Image lightbox (click an image in a post to zoom, no dependencies) [x] Image gallery ( ) — neat responsive rows of images [x] Generate Sitemap ( jekyll sitemap…
read the full jekyll-klise overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gatsby or jekyll-klise more popular?
gatsby has 55,927 GitHub stars and jekyll-klise has 1,059. gatsby has the larger community by that measure.
Are gatsby and jekyll-klise free?
Both are open source. gatsby is licensed under MIT and jekyll-klise under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gatsby and jekyll-klise?
gatsby is written in JavaScript and jekyll-klise in SCSS. 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 jekyll-klise?
Choose gatsby if you want the larger community (55,927 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose jekyll-klise if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.