head to head · open source
hexo vs htmly
hexo has 41,783 GitHub stars, 55 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. htmly has 1,368 stars, 306 forks, 54 open issues and last shipped 9 months ago. hexo leads on adoption by 2,954% (41,783 vs 1,368 stars). hexo is written in TypeScript under MIT; htmly is written in PHP under GPL-2.0. hexo has attracted 0% as many forks as stars, htmly 22%. hexo was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | htmly | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-10-26 | 2026-01-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 55 | ⑂ 306 |
| 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 htmly if
- You want the htmly feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and htmly 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 htmly
HTMLy is an open source databaseless blogging platform prioritizes simplicity and speed written in PHP. It uses a unique algorithm to find or list any content based on date, type, category, tag, or author, and it's performance remain fast even if we have ten thousand of posts and hundreds of tags. Requirements HTMLy requires PHP 7.2 or greater, PHP Mbstring, PHP XML, PHP INTL, PHP GD, and PHP ZIP package for backup feature. Installations Install HTMLy using the source code: 1. Download the latest version from the Github repo 2. Upload and extract the zip file to your web server. You can upload it in the root…
read the full htmly overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is hexo or htmly more popular?
hexo has 41,783 GitHub stars and htmly has 1,368. hexo has the larger community by that measure.
Are hexo and htmly free?
Both are open source. hexo is licensed under MIT and htmly under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hexo and htmly?
hexo is written in TypeScript and htmly 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 htmly?
Choose hexo if you want the larger community (41,783 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose htmly if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.