head to head · open source
kit vs publify
kit has 9,787 GitHub stars, 2,950 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. publify has 1,855 stars, 3,617 forks, 86 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. kit leads on adoption by 428% (9,787 vs 1,855 stars). kit is written in HTML under MIT; publify is written in Less under MIT. kit has attracted 30% 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.
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
| kit | publify | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.8K | ★ 1.9K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | HTML | Less |
| Last push | 2026-08-04 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 3.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick kit if
- You weight community size — 9.8K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- 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 kit
中文 Describe your site. AI builds it. You own it as Markdown. HugoBlox is the open source framework for building professional sites from structured Markdown — landing pages, portfolios, blogs, publications, docs, and more. Pick a template, let Hugo Chat AI generate your pages, and deploy anywhere. Every file is plain Markdown you can read, edit, and own forever. Generate Pages with AI Browse Templates Ownable CMS for VS Code Trusted since 2016 · 150,000+ sites (Meta, Stanford, NVIDIA) · Rated 4.9/5 by users (official survey) · Used by teams at NVIDIA Research , MIT , and King's College London · Featured by GitHub…
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 kit or publify more popular?
kit has 9,787 GitHub stars and publify has 1,855. kit has the larger community by that measure.
Are kit and publify free?
Both are open source. kit is licensed under MIT and publify under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kit and publify?
kit is written in HTML 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, kit or publify?
Choose kit if you want the larger community (9,787 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose publify if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.