head to head · open source
next.js vs nanoc
next.js has 143,474 GitHub stars, 33,621 forks, 3,358 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nanoc has 2,159 stars, 250 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. next.js leads on adoption by 6,545% (143,474 vs 2,159 stars). next.js is written in JavaScript under MIT; nanoc is written in Ruby under MIT. next.js has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, nanoc 12%. 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 | nanoc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 143K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 34K | ⑂ 250 |
| 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 nanoc if
- You want the nanoc feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and nanoc 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 nanoc
Nanoc Nanoc is a flexible static site generator written in Ruby. See the Nanoc web site for more information. Contributions are greatly appreciated! Consult the guidelines for information on how you can contribute. Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to Nanoc in one way or another: Abubakar Ango, Ale Muñoz, Alexander Groß, Alexander Mankuta, Andy Drop, Antar, Antonio Terceiro, Arnau Siches, Ben Armston, Bil Bas, Brian Candler, Bruno Dufour, Cédric Boutillier, Chris Burkhardt, Chris Chapman, Chris Eppstein, Christian Plessl, Colin Barrett, Colin Seymour, Croath Liu, Damien Mathieu, Damien Pollet, Dan…
read the full nanoc overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is next.js or nanoc more popular?
next.js has 143,474 GitHub stars and nanoc has 2,159. next.js has the larger community by that measure.
Are next.js and nanoc free?
Both are open source. next.js is licensed under MIT and nanoc under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between next.js and nanoc?
next.js is written in JavaScript and nanoc 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 nanoc?
Choose next.js if you want the larger community (143,474 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose nanoc if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.