Jekyll vs Nikola
Jekyll
jekyllrb.com
Nikola
getnikola.comSide by side
| Figure | Jekyll | Nikola |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · Static site generators | 8.8 (#5) | 8.8 (#4) |
| Spec score · Blogging Platforms | 8.7 (#22) | 8.5 (#33) |
| Deployment | Because output is static, Jekyll sites can be deployed manually, through automation or with third-party hosting. | Nikola sites can be hosted on any web server that serves HTML files, and the handbook lists GitHub Pages deployment support. |
| License | Jekyll is open source and distributed under the MIT License. | Nikola is released under the MIT license, while some bundled or required components use other licenses. |
| Post scheduling | Yes | Yes |
| Security model | Jekyll supports a safe mode where plugins must be explicitly allowed through the whitelist setting. | The handbook says Nikola-generated sites do not run code on the server and describes their server stack as smaller, which it says implies less security risk. |
| Theme customization | custom code | custom code |
| What it does | Jekyll converts Markdown, Liquid, HTML and CSS source files into deployable static websites and blogs. | Nikola is a static website and blog generator that turns written content into a folder of HTML files for upload to a server. |
Plans
In their own words
Jekyll
Jekyll is a free, open-source tool that turns plain text into static websites and blogs. It combines Markdown, Liquid, HTML, and CSS with layouts, producing static files ready for deployment. Blog features include permalinks, categories, pages, posts, and custom layouts. A plugin system with hooks can generate content and extend builds without changing Jekyll itself. Community-maintained themes provide templates and styles, and site content can override theme files. Generated sites may be deployed manually, through automation, or with third-party services. GitHub Pages is powered by Jekyll and offers free hosting with custom domain support. Jekyll supports Linux, macOS, Windows, and self-hosted use. Installation requires Ruby 2.7.0 or higher, RubyGems, GCC, and Make. Safe mode requires explicit plugin permission through a whitelist. A volunteer core team maintains the project.
Nikola
Nikola is a static site and blog generator that turns written content into HTML files and assets for a web server. It can build blogs, company and personal sites, software project sites, and book sites. Built-in inputs include reStructuredText, Markdown, IPython notebooks, and HTML, with plugins available for additional formats. Blog components include comments, tags, categories, archives, and RSS/Atom feeds; image galleries and code listings are also included. Nikola supports almost 40 languages out of the box, including posts in multiple languages. Sites can be hosted on any web server that serves HTML files, and the handbook lists GitHub Pages deployment. The software is written in Python 3, with Python 3.8 or later listed on the homepage, and is free under the MIT license. Users can extend it with Python plugins and make themes using Mako or Jinja2. Incremental builds use doit. Because generated sites do not run code on the server, they cannot process form input except for comments. Indexed plugins and themes are not officially supported.