Halo vs Publii
Halo and Publii are both blogging and static sites software. Halo is open source under GPL-3.0, with 40k GitHub stars. Publii is open source under GPL-3.0, with 7.4k GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick Halo when
- You want a WordPress-style site builder with a strong Chinese community and plugin market.
- Pick Publii when
- A non-developer wants a fast static blog or small business site without running a server.
Side by side
A Java website builder and CMS for blogs, knowledge bases, company sites and small shops, with themes and plugins.
A desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux that lets you write posts in a WordPress-like editor and publishes a static website to hosting such as Netlify, GitHub Pages or FTP.
Documentation and plugins are mostly Chinese, and some plugins and themes are paid.
Editing happens on one computer, so multi-author teams are awkward, and premium themes cost extra.
Production-ready (both)
Self-hosted server
Desktop app
Java, Spring Boot, TypeScript and Vue
JavaScript, Vue, Electron and Handlebars
Open source, GPL-3.0 (strong copyleft) (both)
Use inside your business is unrestricted, but anything you distribute that includes it must be released under the same license. (both)
40k GitHub stars
7.4k GitHub stars
Established: started 8 years ago, latest release v2.27.2.
Established: started 8 years ago, latest release v.0.48.1-build-17582.
Other comparisons
More blogging platforms and static site generators
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from each project's README and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.