head to head · open source
gatsby vs jekyll
gatsby has 55,921 GitHub stars, 10,089 forks, 450 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. jekyll has 51,745 stars, 10,304 forks, 258 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. gatsby leads on adoption by 8% (55,921 vs 51,745 stars). gatsby is written in JavaScript under MIT; jekyll is written in Ruby under MIT. gatsby has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, jekyll 20%. gatsby 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
| gatsby | jekyll | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 56K | ★ 52K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-10-20 | 2026-10-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 10K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick gatsby if
- You weight community size — 56K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick jekyll if
- You want the jekyll feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and jekyll fits your workflow better
About gatsby
Gatsby The future of web development is here. Gatsby is a free and open source framework based on React that helps developers build blazing fast websites and apps. It combines the control and scalability of dynamically rendered sites with the speed of static site generation, creating a whole new web of possibilities. Quickstart · Tutorial · Plugins · Starters · Showcase · Contribute Support: Discussions Gatsby helps professional developers efficiently create maintainable, highly performant, content rich websites. Load Data From Anywhere. Gatsby pulls in data from any data source, whether it’s Markdown files, a…
read the full gatsby overview →
About jekyll
Jekyll [ ][ruby gems] [ ][ci workflow] [ruby gems]: [ci workflow]: [appveyor]: Jekyll is a simple, blog aware, static site generator perfect for personal, project, or organization sites. Think of it like a file based CMS, without all the complexity. Jekyll takes your content, renders Markdown and Liquid templates, and spits out a complete, static website ready to be served by Apache, Nginx or another web server. Jekyll is the engine behind GitHub Pages, which you can use to host sites right from your GitHub repositories. Philosophy Jekyll does what you tell it to do — no more, no less. It doesn't try to outsmart…
read the full jekyll overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gatsby or jekyll more popular?
gatsby has 55,921 GitHub stars and jekyll has 51,745. gatsby has the larger community by that measure.
Are gatsby and jekyll free?
Both are open source. gatsby is licensed under MIT and jekyll under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gatsby and jekyll?
gatsby is written in JavaScript and jekyll 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, gatsby or jekyll?
Choose gatsby if you want the larger community (55,921 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose jekyll if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.