head to head · open source
next.js vs jekyll
next.js has 143,474 GitHub stars, 33,621 forks, 3,358 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jekyll has 51,745 stars, 10,304 forks, 258 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. next.js leads on adoption by 177% (143,474 vs 51,745 stars). next.js is written in JavaScript under MIT; jekyll is written in Ruby under MIT. next.js has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, jekyll 20%. next.js 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
| next.js | jekyll | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 143K | ★ 52K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 34K | ⑂ 10K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick next.js if
- You weight community size — 143K 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 next.js
Next.js Getting Started Used by some of the world's largest companies, Next.js enables you to create full stack web applications by extending the latest React features, and integrating powerful Rust based JavaScript tooling for the fastest builds. Visit our Learn Next.js course to get started with Next.js. Visit the Next.js Showcase to see more sites built with Next.js. Documentation Visit to view the full documentation. Community The Next.js community can be found on GitHub Discussions where you can ask questions, voice ideas, and share your projects with other people. To chat with other community members, you…
read the full next.js 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 next.js or jekyll more popular?
next.js has 143,474 GitHub stars and jekyll has 51,745. next.js has the larger community by that measure.
Are next.js and jekyll free?
Both are open source. next.js is licensed under MIT and jekyll under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between next.js and jekyll?
next.js 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, next.js or jekyll?
Choose next.js if you want the larger community (143,474 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose jekyll if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.