# Hexo vs MkDocs

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** MkDocs

| Attribute | Hexo | MkDocs |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 50.1 (38% (low)) | 57.4 (71% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 6 | 0 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 21,451 | 18,004 |
| adoption.github_stars | 41,778 | 22,497 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | - | 3,612,213 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"A static blog generator powered by Node.js that rapidly compiles markdown files. It offers extensible plugins, multiple template engines, and command-line deployment tools. It is indexed under Static Site Generators.","source":"https://hexo.io","question":"What is Hexo?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Hexo is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the MIT licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://hexo.io","question":"Is Hexo free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Hexo supports a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://hexo.io","question":"What platforms does Hexo support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 9 integrations for Hexo, including EJS, Pug, Nunjucks, Babel, PostCSS, Less, Sass and GitHub Flavored Markdown, plus 1 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://hexo.io","question":"What does Hexo integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Hexo is published under the MIT licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo","question":"Is Hexo open source?","confidence":0.95}]` | `[{"answer":"A documentation platform that converts Markdown files into static HTML websites. It offers built-in themes, plugin support for extensions, and YAML-based configuration for easy customization. It is indexed under Documentation Tools.","source":"https://www.mkdocs.org","question":"What is MkDocs?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"MkDocs is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the BSD-2-Clause licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.mkdocs.org","question":"Is MkDocs free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"MkDocs supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.mkdocs.org","question":"What platforms does MkDocs support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. MkDocs can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.mkdocs.org","question":"Can MkDocs be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. MkDocs is published under the BSD-2-Clause licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs","question":"Is MkDocs open source?","confidence":0.67}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A static blog generator powered by Node.js that rapidly compiles markdown files. It offers extensible plugins, multiple template engines, and command-line deployment tools. | A documentation platform that converts Markdown files into static HTML websites. It offers built-in themes, plugin support for extensions, and YAML-based configuration for easy customization. |
| features.capabilities | `{"runtime":"node","build_model":"fully_static"}` | `{"i18n":true,"kind":"static_generator","engine":"Python","authoring":"markdown","themeable":true,"build_model":"fully_static","api_reference":true,"self_hostable":true,"hosted_offering":false,"docs_specialised":true}` |
| integrations.count | 9 | - |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"EJS"},{"name":"Pug"},{"name":"Nunjucks"},{"name":"Babel"},{"name":"PostCSS"},{"name":"Less"},{"name":"Sass"},{"name":"GitHub Flavored Markdown"},{"name":"Octopress"},{"name":"GitHub Pages","category":"deployment"},{"name":"Heroku","category":"deployment"}]` | - |
| language.primary | TypeScript | Python |
| license.spdx | MIT | BSD-2-Clause |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true,"linux":true}` | `{"cli":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"free","sourceUrl":"https://hexo.io","retrievedAt":"2026-10-14T22:36:52.808Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.mkdocs.org","retrievedAt":"2026-10-13T15:11:13.960Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | free | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | - | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 80 | 77 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/v8.1.2","date":"2026-05-06T13:24:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.1.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/v8.1.1","date":"2025-10-31T12:03:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.1.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/v8.1.0","date":"2025-10-26T11:58:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/v8.0.0","date":"2025-09-15T14:57:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/v7.3.0","date":"2024-07-01T14:41:17Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/v7.2.0","date":"2024-04-17T10:43:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/v7.1.1","date":"2024-01-22T11:19:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.1.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/v7.1.0","date":"2024-01-19T14:15:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/v7.0.0","date":"2023-10-31T13:37:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/v7.0.0-rc2","date":"2023-07-11T13:53:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.0.0-rc2"},{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/v7.0.0-rc1","date":"2023-03-18T04:35:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.0.0-rc1"},{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/6.3.0","date":"2022-09-08T13:13:34Z","type":"stable","version":"6.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/6.2.0","date":"2022-05-10T20:32:20Z","type":"stable","version":"6.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/5.4.2","date":"2022-04-07T13:15:40Z","type":"stable","version":"5.4.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/6.1.0","date":"2022-03-11T12:07:34Z","type":"stable","version":"6.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/5.4.1","date":"2022-01-22T11:33:20Z","type":"stable","version":"5.4.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/6.0.0","date":"2021-12-22T13:30:54Z","type":"stable","version":"6.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/5.4.0","date":"2021-02-21T08:06:23Z","type":"stable","version":"5.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/5.3.0","date":"2020-12-17T14:05:12Z","type":"stable","version":"5.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hexojs/hexo/releases/tag/5.2.0","date":"2020-09-17T09:07:55Z","type":"stable","version":"5.2.0"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs/releases/tag/1.6.1","date":"2024-08-30T12:23:09Z","type":"stable","version":"1.6.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs/releases/tag/1.6.0","date":"2024-04-20T17:55:01Z","type":"stable","version":"1.6.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs/releases/tag/1.5.3","date":"2023-09-18T21:27:59Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs/releases/tag/1.5.2","date":"2023-08-02T14:54:19Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs/releases/tag/1.5.1","date":"2023-07-27T22:44:51Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs/releases/tag/1.5.0","date":"2023-07-26T20:39:53Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs/releases/tag/1.4.3","date":"2023-05-02T21:19:16Z","type":"stable","version":"1.4.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs/releases/tag/1.4.2","date":"2022-11-01T18:34:14Z","type":"stable","version":"1.4.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs/releases/tag/1.4.1","date":"2022-10-15T19:19:40Z","type":"stable","version":"1.4.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs/releases/tag/1.4.0","date":"2022-09-27T17:38:06Z","type":"stable","version":"1.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs/releases/tag/1.3.1","date":"2022-07-19T07:28:26Z","type":"stable","version":"1.3.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs/releases/tag/1.3.0","date":"2022-03-26T19:55:09Z","type":"stable","version":"1.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs/releases/tag/1.2.4","date":"2022-03-26T19:39:40Z","type":"stable","version":"1.2.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs/releases/tag/1.2.3","date":"2021-10-12T21:59:03Z","type":"stable","version":"1.2.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs/releases/tag/1.2.2","date":"2021-07-18T19:32:00Z","type":"stable","version":"1.2.2"}]` |
| security.scorecard | 6.2 | 4.1 |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":2,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=npm&package_name=hexo&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":"HIGH"}` | `{"count":1,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=mkdocs&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":"HIGH"}` |

## Capabilities (Static Site Generators)

| Capability | Hexo | MkDocs |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Capabilities** |  |  |
| Runtime | Node | - |
| Build model | Fully static | Fully static |
| Incremental builds | - | - |
| Islands partial hydration | - | - |
| I18n | - | ✓ |
| Image optimization | - | - |
| Docs specialised | - | ✓ |
| Plugin ecosystem size | - | - |
| Zero js by default | - | - |
| Mdx component embeds | - | - |
| Single binary no deps | - | - |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T17:44:40.949Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*