# Jekyll vs MkDocs

| Attribute | Jekyll | MkDocs |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 54.2 (48% (low)) | 57.4 (71% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 7 | 0 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 490,112 | 18,004 |
| adoption.github_stars | 51,713 | 22,497 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | - | 3,612,213 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"A Ruby-based command-line tool that transforms Markdown, Liquid, and HTML into static websites ready for deployment. Designed specifically for blogs and content-focused sites, it integrates seamlessly with GitHub Pages for free hosting. It is indexed under Documentation Tools.","source":"https://jekyllrb.com","question":"What is Jekyll?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Jekyll 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://jekyllrb.com","question":"Is Jekyll free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Jekyll supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://jekyllrb.com","question":"What platforms does Jekyll support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Jekyll can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://jekyllrb.com","question":"Can Jekyll be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 3 integrations for Jekyll, including GitHub Pages, GitHub Actions and Jekyll plugins ecosystem. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://jekyllrb.com","question":"What does Jekyll integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Jekyll 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/jekyll/jekyll","question":"Is Jekyll 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 | Jekyll is a command-line tool that compiles Markdown and Liquid templates into static websites without requiring a database or server-side processing. It powers GitHub Pages and can be deployed to any standard web server like Apache or Nginx. | 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 | `{"i18n":false,"kind":"static_generator","engine":"Ruby","search":"none","runtime":"ruby","git_sync":true,"analytics":false,"authoring":"markdown","themeable":true,"versioning":false,"build_model":"fully_static","api_reference":false,"self_hostable":true,"hosted_offering":true}` | `{"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 | 3 | - |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"GitHub Pages"},{"name":"GitHub Actions"},{"name":"Jekyll plugins ecosystem"}]` | - |
| language.primary | Ruby | Python |
| license.spdx | MIT | BSD-2-Clause |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"cli":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","summary":"Free and open source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://jekyllrb.com","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T09:19:48.968Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.mkdocs.org","retrievedAt":"2026-10-13T15:11:13.960Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | commercial | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 86 | 77 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v4.4.1","date":"2025-01-29T12:47:41Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.4.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v4.4.0","date":"2025-01-27T15:28:23Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v4.3.4","date":"2024-09-16T16:24:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v3.9.4","date":"2023-12-28T22:51:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.9.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v4.3.3","date":"2023-12-27T19:20:38Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v3.9.3","date":"2023-01-30T02:39:43Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.9.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v4.3.2","date":"2023-01-20T18:13:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v4.3.1","date":"2022-10-26T17:57:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v4.3.0","date":"2022-10-20T16:05:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v3.9.2","date":"2022-03-28T10:26:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.9.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v4.2.2","date":"2022-03-03T11:01:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v4.2.1","date":"2021-09-27T11:26:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v3.9.1","date":"2021-04-08T15:39:17Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.9.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v4.2.0","date":"2020-12-14T12:32:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v3.9.0","date":"2020-08-05T18:48:12Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.9.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v4.1.1","date":"2020-06-24T16:58:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v4.1.0","date":"2020-05-27T13:41:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v4.0.1","date":"2020-05-08T15:24:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v3.8.7","date":"2020-05-08T15:21:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.8.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/releases/tag/v4.0.0","date":"2019-08-20T14:48:12Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.0"}]` | `[{"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.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | 6.2 | 4.1 |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":1,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=rubygems&package_name=jekyll&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 (Documentation Tools)

| Capability | Jekyll | MkDocs |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Tool kind | Static-site generator | Static-site generator |
| Engine / language | Ruby | Python |
| **Authoring** |  |  |
| Authoring format | Markdown | Markdown |
| **API docs** |  |  |
| API reference from OpenAPI / code | ✗ | ✓ |
| **Content** |  |  |
| Multi-version docs | ✗ | - |
| Internationalisation | ✗ | ✓ |
| **Discovery** |  |  |
| Search | None | - |
| **Design** |  |  |
| Theming / custom design | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Workflow** |  |  |
| Edit-in-Git / WYSIWYG round-trip | ✓ | - |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Self-hostable | ✓ | ✓ |
| Official managed host | ✓ | ✗ |
| **Insight** |  |  |
| Built-in usage analytics | ✗ | - |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T12:33:22.108Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*