head to head · open source
hexo vs kit
hexo has 41,779 GitHub stars, 42 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped 22 days ago. kit has 9,724 stars, 2,954 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. hexo leads on adoption by 330% (41,779 vs 9,724 stars). hexo is written in TypeScript under MIT; kit is written in HTML under MIT. hexo has attracted 0% as many forks as stars, kit 30%. 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 | kit | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 9.7K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-08-29 | 2026-08-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 42 | ⑂ 3.0K |
| 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 kit if
- You want the kit feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and kit 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 kit
HugoBlox (listed in this registry as kit) is a free, MIT licensed static site framework that turns a plain English description into AI generated pages while keeping every page as Markdown you own, built for academics, researchers, developers, and small teams who need professional landing pages, portfolios, blogs, publications, and documentation without a database or a paid site builder.
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Frequently asked questions
Is hexo or kit more popular?
hexo has 41,779 GitHub stars and kit has 9,724. hexo has the larger community by that measure.
Are hexo and kit free?
Both are open source. hexo is licensed under MIT and kit under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hexo and kit?
hexo is written in TypeScript and kit in HTML. 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 kit?
Choose hexo if you want the larger community (41,779 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose kit if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.