head to head · open source
hexo vs nanoc
hexo has 41,783 GitHub stars, 55 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. nanoc has 2,159 stars, 249 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. hexo leads on adoption by 1,835% (41,783 vs 2,159 stars). hexo is written in TypeScript under MIT; nanoc is written in Ruby under MIT. hexo has attracted 0% as many forks as stars, nanoc 12%. hexo 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 | nanoc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-10-26 | 2026-09-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 55 | ⑂ 249 |
| 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 nanoc if
- You want the nanoc feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and nanoc 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 nanoc
Nanoc Nanoc is a flexible static site generator written in Ruby. See the Nanoc web site for more information. Contributions are greatly appreciated! Consult the guidelines for information on how you can contribute. Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to Nanoc in one way or another: Abubakar Ango, Ale Muñoz, Alexander Groß, Alexander Mankuta, Andy Drop, Antar, Antonio Terceiro, Arnau Siches, Ben Armston, Bil Bas, Brian Candler, Bruno Dufour, Cédric Boutillier, Chris Burkhardt, Chris Chapman, Chris Eppstein, Christian Plessl, Colin Barrett, Colin Seymour, Croath Liu, Damien Mathieu, Damien Pollet, Dan…
read the full nanoc overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is hexo or nanoc more popular?
hexo has 41,783 GitHub stars and nanoc has 2,159. hexo has the larger community by that measure.
Are hexo and nanoc free?
Both are open source. hexo is licensed under MIT and nanoc under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hexo and nanoc?
hexo is written in TypeScript and nanoc in Ruby. 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 nanoc?
Choose hexo if you want the larger community (41,783 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose nanoc if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.