head to head · open source
jekyll vs publify
jekyll has 51,745 GitHub stars, 10,304 forks, 258 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. publify has 1,855 stars, 3,617 forks, 86 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. jekyll leads on adoption by 2,689% (51,745 vs 1,855 stars). jekyll is written in Ruby under MIT; publify is written in Less under MIT. jekyll has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, publify 195%. publify was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (blog-engine, ruby), 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 | publify | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 1.9K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | Less |
| Last push | 2026-10-13 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 3.6K |
| 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 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 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 publify
Publify The Ruby on Rails publishing software formerly known as Typo What's Publify? Publify is a simple but full featured web publishing software. It's built around a blogging engine and a small message system connected to Twitter. Publify follows the principles of the IndieWeb, which are self hosting your Web site, and Publish On your Own Site, Syndicate Everywhere. Publify has been around since 2004 and is the oldest Ruby on Rails open source project alive. Features A classic multi user blogging engine Short messages with a Twitter connection Text filters (Markdown, SmartyPants, @mention to link, hashtag to…
read the full publify overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is jekyll or publify more popular?
jekyll has 51,745 GitHub stars and publify has 1,855. jekyll has the larger community by that measure.
Are jekyll and publify free?
Both are open source. jekyll is licensed under MIT and publify under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jekyll and publify?
jekyll is written in Ruby 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, jekyll or publify?
Choose jekyll if you want the larger community (51,745 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose publify if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.