head to head · open source
hexo vs publify
hexo has 41,779 GitHub stars, 42 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped 23 days ago. publify has 1,853 stars, 3,627 forks, 86 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. hexo leads on adoption by 2,155% (41,779 vs 1,853 stars). hexo is written in TypeScript under MIT; publify is written in Less under MIT. hexo has attracted 0% as many forks as stars, publify 196%. publify was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (hacktoberfest), 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 | publify | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 1.9K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Less |
| Last push | 2026-08-29 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 42 | ⑂ 3.6K |
| 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 publify if
- You want the publify feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Less
- You evaluated both and publify 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 publify
Publify is a self hosted web publishing platform built on Ruby on Rails. It is the project formerly known as Typo, and it provides a blogging engine plus a small message system connected to Twitter.
read the full publify overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is hexo or publify more popular?
hexo has 41,779 GitHub stars and publify has 1,853. hexo has the larger community by that measure.
Are hexo and publify free?
Both are open source. hexo is licensed under MIT and publify under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hexo and publify?
hexo is written in TypeScript and publify in Less. 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 publify?
Choose hexo if you want the larger community (41,779 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose publify if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.