head to head · open source
hexo vs nanoc
hexo has 41,779 GitHub stars, 42 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped 22 days ago. nanoc has 2,158 stars, 251 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. hexo leads on adoption by 1,836% (41,779 vs 2,158 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%. nanoc 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 | 2026-08-29 | 2026-08-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 42 | ⑂ 251 |
| 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 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 nanoc
Nanoc is a flexible static site generator written in Ruby, aimed at developers and publishers who want to build blogs and personal sites from source files into static output rather than run a dynamic publishing stack.
read the full nanoc overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is hexo or nanoc more popular?
hexo has 41,779 GitHub stars and nanoc has 2,158. 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 (41,779 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose nanoc if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.