head to head · open source
hexo vs htmly
hexo has 41,779 GitHub stars, 42 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped 22 days ago. htmly has 1,363 stars, 306 forks, 54 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. hexo leads on adoption by 2,965% (41,779 vs 1,363 stars). hexo is written in TypeScript under MIT; htmly is written in PHP under GPL-2.0. hexo has attracted 0% as many forks as stars, htmly 22%. hexo was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| hexo | htmly | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-08-29 | 2026-01-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 42 | ⑂ 306 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick hexo if
- You weight community size — 42K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- 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 hexo
Hexo is a static site generator for blogs, built on Node.js and distributed as the hexo package through npm. The project is written in TypeScript, licensed under MIT, and lives in the Node.js and JavaScript ecosystem alongside the broader set of static site generators tracked under the static site generator topic. It has been published for roughly 14 years, carries about 41,766 stars, and points users to a dedicated website and documentation set at hexo.io.
About htmly
HTMLy is an open source blogging platform and flat file CMS written in PHP. It serves people who want a blog or simple website without running a database server. The project stores content in files and uses an algorithm to list material by date, type, category, tag, or author. It lives in the PHP web publishing ecosystem.
read the full htmly overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is hexo or htmly more popular?
hexo has 41,779 GitHub stars and htmly has 1,363. hexo has the larger community by that measure.
Are hexo and htmly free?
Both are open source. hexo is licensed under MIT and htmly under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hexo and htmly?
hexo is written in TypeScript 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, hexo or htmly?
Choose hexo if you want the larger community (41,779 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose htmly if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.