head to head · open source
hexo vs lektor
hexo has 41,779 GitHub stars, 42 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped 22 days ago. lektor has 3,948 stars, 319 forks, 251 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hexo leads on adoption by 958% (41,779 vs 3,948 stars). hexo is written in TypeScript under MIT; lektor is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause. hexo has attracted 0% as many forks as stars, lektor 8%. lektor was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (static-site-generator), 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
| hexo | lektor | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-08-29 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 42 | ⑂ 319 |
| 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 lektor if
- You want the lektor feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and lektor 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 lektor
Lektor is a static website generator written in Python that builds an entire project from static files into many individual HTML pages and ships with a built in admin UI and a minimal desktop app, intended for people who want content management without running a database backed CMS.
read the full lektor overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is hexo or lektor more popular?
hexo has 41,779 GitHub stars and lektor has 3,948. hexo has the larger community by that measure.
Are hexo and lektor free?
Both are open source. hexo is licensed under MIT and lektor under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hexo and lektor?
hexo is written in TypeScript and lektor in Python. 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 lektor?
Choose hexo if you want the larger community (41,779 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose lektor if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.