head to head · open source
hexo vs wordpress-static-site-exporter
hexo has 41,775 GitHub stars, 45 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. wordpress-static-site-exporter has 1,079 stars, 128 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hexo leads on adoption by 3,772% (41,775 vs 1,079 stars). hexo is written in TypeScript under MIT; wordpress-static-site-exporter is written in PHP under GPL-3.0. hexo has attracted 0% as many forks as stars, wordpress-static-site-exporter 12%. wordpress-static-site-exporter 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 | wordpress-static-site-exporter | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-08-29 | 2026-09-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 45 | ⑂ 128 |
| 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 wordpress-static-site-exporter if
- You want the wordpress-static-site-exporter feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and wordpress-static-site-exporter 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 wordpress-static-site-exporter
Static Site Exporter is a WordPress plugin for site owners and developers who want to move a WordPress blog or site to Markdown so it can be served by Jekyll, Hugo, or any other static site generator.
read the full wordpress-static-site-exporter overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is hexo or wordpress-static-site-exporter more popular?
hexo has 41,775 GitHub stars and wordpress-static-site-exporter has 1,079. hexo has the larger community by that measure.
Are hexo and wordpress-static-site-exporter free?
Both are open source. hexo is licensed under MIT and wordpress-static-site-exporter under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hexo and wordpress-static-site-exporter?
hexo is written in TypeScript and wordpress-static-site-exporter in PHP. 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 wordpress-static-site-exporter?
Choose hexo if you want the larger community (41,775 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose wordpress-static-site-exporter if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.