head to head · open source
hexo vs kit
hexo has 41,783 GitHub stars, 55 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. kit has 9,787 stars, 2,950 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. hexo leads on adoption by 327% (41,783 vs 9,787 stars). hexo is written in TypeScript under MIT; kit is written in HTML under MIT. hexo has attracted 0% as many forks as stars, kit 30%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| hexo | kit | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 9.8K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-10-26 | 2026-08-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 55 | ⑂ 3.0K |
| 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 kit if
- You want the kit feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and kit fits your workflow better
About hexo
Hexo A fast, simple & powerful blog framework, powered by Node.js. Website Documentation Installation Guide Contribution Guide Code of Conduct API Twitter Features Blazing fast generating Support for GitHub Flavored Markdown and most Octopress plugins One command deploy to GitHub Pages, Heroku, etc. Powerful API for limitless extensibility Hundreds of themes & plugins Quick Start Install Hexo Install with brew on macOS and Linux: Setup your blog Start the server Create a new post Generate static files More Information Read the documentation Visit the Awesome Hexo list Find solutions in troubleshooting Join…
About kit
中文 Describe your site. AI builds it. You own it as Markdown. HugoBlox is the open source framework for building professional sites from structured Markdown — landing pages, portfolios, blogs, publications, docs, and more. Pick a template, let Hugo Chat AI generate your pages, and deploy anywhere. Every file is plain Markdown you can read, edit, and own forever. Generate Pages with AI Browse Templates Ownable CMS for VS Code Trusted since 2016 · 150,000+ sites (Meta, Stanford, NVIDIA) · Rated 4.9/5 by users (official survey) · Used by teams at NVIDIA Research , MIT , and King's College London · Featured by GitHub…
More in Content & Publishing
Related comparisons
More Blogging & Personal Sites projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Blogging & Personal Sites field.
Frequently asked questions
Is hexo or kit more popular?
hexo has 41,783 GitHub stars and kit has 9,787. hexo has the larger community by that measure.
Are hexo and kit free?
Both are open source. hexo is licensed under MIT and kit under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hexo and kit?
hexo is written in TypeScript and kit in HTML. 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 kit?
Choose hexo if you want the larger community (41,783 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose kit if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.