head to head · open source
jekyll vs hexo
jekyll has 51,743 GitHub stars, 10,306 forks, 258 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. hexo has 41,783 stars, 54 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. jekyll leads on adoption by 24% (51,743 vs 41,783 stars). jekyll is written in Ruby under MIT; hexo is written in TypeScript under MIT. jekyll has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, hexo 0%. hexo 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
| jekyll | hexo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 42K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-13 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 54 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick jekyll if
- You weight community size — 52K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick hexo if
- You want the hexo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and hexo fits your workflow better
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 →
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…
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Frequently asked questions
Is jekyll or hexo more popular?
jekyll has 51,743 GitHub stars and hexo has 41,783. jekyll has the larger community by that measure.
Are jekyll and hexo free?
Both are open source. jekyll is licensed under MIT and hexo under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jekyll and hexo?
jekyll is written in Ruby and hexo in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, jekyll or hexo?
Choose jekyll if you want the larger community (51,743 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose hexo if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.