head to head · open source
lektor vs htmly
lektor has 3,948 GitHub stars, 319 forks, 251 open issues and last shipped yesterday. htmly has 1,363 stars, 306 forks, 54 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. lektor leads on adoption by 190% (3,948 vs 1,363 stars). lektor is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause; htmly is written in PHP under GPL-2.0. lektor has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, htmly 22%. lektor was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (cms), 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
| lektor | htmly | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.9K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-01-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 319 | ⑂ 306 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lektor if
- You weight community size — 3.9K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- 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 lektor
Lektor is a static website generator written in Python that builds an entire project from static files into many individual HTML pages and ships with a built in admin UI and a minimal desktop app, intended for people who want content management without running a database backed CMS.
read the full lektor overview →
About htmly
HTMLy is an open source blogging platform and flat file CMS written in PHP. It serves people who want a blog or simple website without running a database server. The project stores content in files and uses an algorithm to list material by date, type, category, tag, or author. It lives in the PHP web publishing ecosystem.
read the full htmly overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lektor or htmly more popular?
lektor has 3,948 GitHub stars and htmly has 1,363. lektor has the larger community by that measure.
Are lektor and htmly free?
Both are open source. lektor is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and htmly under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lektor and htmly?
lektor is written in Python 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, lektor or htmly?
Choose lektor if you want the larger community (3,948 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose htmly if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.