this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2025

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Self-hosted blog options. (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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With layoffs starting at WordPress, and me recognizing that I'm a bit of a dinosaur in this regard, I'm wondering what folks are using for self-hosting their own blog these days? While I'm not exactly prolific, I do like having my own little home on the internet to write up things I find interesting and pretending people actually read it. And, of course, I really don't want to be reliant on someone else's computers; so, the ability to self-host is a must.

Honestly, my requirements are pretty basic. I just want something to write and host articles and not have to fight with some janky text editor. And pre-built themes would be very nice. It would be nice if there was an easy way to transition stuff I have in WP; but, I can probably get that with some creative copy/paste work.

So, what are all the cool kids blogging on these days?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

Hm, if you're willing to compromise on that janky text editor, there's still Jekyll, Hugo and all the other static site generators. Most will have some easy WP site import.

Bear in mind, I don't pretend to be a cool kid...

For a solution that's entirely online (ie. you aren't relying on a bunch of files on your local machine that you generate a site out of and upload), there are flat file websites like Grav, Bludit and Yellow. They are (usually PHP) sites that run without a traditional database.

There are also a couple of ActivityPub alternatives, but they seem to be floundering(?) Plume is currently not developed actively, and I just heard on here the other day that WriteFreely doesn't federate properly for some users. Take the latter with a grain of salt, though.

Oh, and Ghost just added ActivityPub, so there's one more to that list!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

Ghost is a good option, and it comes with fediverse support now (still in the testing phase).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

I’m gonna quote myself from another comment

In order from little to bigger:

any ssg like Zola or Pelican
mataroa.blog
writefreely
ghost
gotosocial
lemmy :)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I tend to use Hugo these days, which can be a bit janky as well, but there are nice themes for it.

If you want something really easy and Permacomputing compatible this looks pretty neat though: https://lichen.commoninternet.net/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Ghost looked pretty cool but I haven’t jumped in yet.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Don't know about the "cool kids", but Joomla worked out nicely for me.

I think it'll make a big difference if you need just the OOTB platform, or additional plugins.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Joomla is a CMS, I wouldn't recommend it in this context.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

WordPress is also a cms. Pretty much all blog platform software is a cms or it's a static site generator.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Wordpress.org homepage uses the word "blog" (along with "publishing platform"), it does not use the term CMS. Joomla.org uses CMS and has zero mentions of "blog".

Wordpress.com is even more stark, mentioning the word "blog" 33 times. Joomla.com again, zero mentions of it.

My vote would be for Ghost anyway.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

The wiki article for WordPress describes it as a cms https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress

What even are you trying to argue here exactly? Is this a matter of structured versus unstructured data? Because you can use WordPress with structured data, using acf. Also I'm pretty sure joomla is unstructured data. Drupal is structured but joomla last I checked uses a rich text editor.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

I don't actually care about Wordpress, my point was Joomla is a bad recommendation in this context (a WordPress refugee looking for different blog software). Joomla (and Drupal) is a bad recommendation when there are better and more focused tools available.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

@[email protected]

@sylver_[email protected] @JASN_[email protected] @[email protected]

The amount of design elements (HTML beyond text markdown like divs) and pseudocode (elements that only render when parsed before delivering to the browser) that end up in the content is something to consider. Enabling a text editor alone does not tell you much. You can support easier bold, italic and ~~strike though~~ with a structured data approach.

It's when you get into creating layouts in the editor that really differentiants a page builder from a content management solution.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

These aren't mutually exclusive terms.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

wordpress can be as markety as they want, it's a CMS by the real definition of it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

@bane_[email protected]

@sylver_[email protected] @JASN_[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]

It can be, but a large percentage of WP installs aren't even blogs that manage posts over time. They are basic 20-30 brochure-ware sites that use WP as a page builder.

WP is popular with .edu sites where they are managing thousands of structured content types; faculty profiles, academic programs, events, etc.

Drupal is also a popular solution for that type of project where managing a large amount of structured data is a key feature.

My experience has been that WP needs to "built up" to handle large site while Drupal needs to "burned down" to be a good fit for small, page building projects.

Though Drupal's new preconfigured Drupal CMS installer with "recipes" for different use cases is making it a better option for smaller site projects.

https://new.drupal.org/drupal-cms

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Regardless if individual projects use the whole feature set, it has the functionality and capability out the box. Saying it's not a CMS is a silly nitpick.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago

Honestly I think you're actually the one nitpicking, my point was whether or not the technologies had a blog focus. And that is what my data supported.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

I really like Ghost! It’s super easy. What’s your blog?