Open-source Blogger alternatives

Ghost is a publishing platform for independent writers and media businesses. It handles blogging, newsletters, memberships and subscriptions in one product, so a creator can publish articles, email them to subscribers and charge for access without stitching several tools together.

The project is written in JavaScript and TypeScript on Node.js. The official way to get a production site running is the Ghost(Pro) managed service, which launches a site with a worldwide CDN, backups, security and maintenance handled for you, and the maintainers state that all revenue from it funds the nonprofit Ghost Foundation. If you prefer to run your own instance, a CLI tool installs Ghost locally in about a minute or on a server with automatic SSL through Let's Encrypt.

Ghost is MIT licensed and comes with official documentation, a forum and an active contributor community. It suits journalists, bloggers and publishers who want a focused publishing and membership tool rather than a general-purpose CMS.

Halo is an open-source website building tool written in Java. It targets a range of needs, from personal blogs and knowledge bases to corporate websites and online shops, and aims to cover them all in a single, easy-to-use system. Its documentation and project text are primarily in Chinese.

A quick-start Docker command launches a trial environment, and the maintainers recommend deploying with the 1Panel server management panel for reverse proxy, SSL certificates and upgrade and backup handling. An application market offers more than 100 free themes and plugins, and developers can publish their own. A public demo environment is available for exploring the admin interface.

Halo comes in three editions. The Community edition is free under GPL-3.0 and suits individual developers and open-source projects. The Professional edition adds features such as a mobile app, AI site generation, phone number login and a paid theme and plugin market. A Commerce edition adds an integrated online store with payment support for the Chinese market, including WeChat Pay and Alipay.

WordPress is a content management system and publishing platform for building websites, blogs and apps. People write and organize content in a browser-based editor, choose how the site looks with themes, and publish without writing code. Its own site describes it as the platform behind millions of websites, from creators and small businesses to enterprises.

Design and editing are built around blocks, so pages can be assembled and rearranged visually with a live preview as content changes. Styling can be adjusted for different screen sizes and interactive states without writing CSS. Functionality is extended through a large library of plugins that add features such as stores, analytics, newsletters and social media integration.

The software is written in PHP and is open source; the GitHub repository is a read-only mirror of the project's Subversion repository, with development happening elsewhere. You can run it on your own hosting, and a managed service is also available through WordPress.com. It suits individual bloggers, small businesses and larger organizations alike.

WriteFreely is a publishing platform for writers, kept deliberately minimal. It can be used to start a blog, share knowledge inside an organization, or build a community around writing, with a plain, auto-saving editor that keeps the focus on the text and a clean reading layout once posts are published.

Posts are written in Markdown, organized with hashtags, and can be saved as drafts. A single account can publish to multiple blogs, which lets writers keep separate pen names without publicly revealing the link between them, and normal posts can be pinned to become static pages. Blogs federate through ActivityPub with other WriteFreely, Plume and compatible servers, OAuth 2.0 helps bring members from existing platforms, and the interface is localized in over 20 languages including right-to-left scripts.

WriteFreely deploys as a static binary on any platform that Go supports, using built-in SQLite or an external MySQL or MariaDB database, and is licensed under AGPL-3.0. People who prefer not to run it can use Write.as, the hosted service from the team behind the project, which handles installation, backups and upgrades.

Bludit is a flat-file content management system for building websites and blogs. It stores content as JSON files on disk instead of in a database, so installation does not involve setting up MySQL or similar, and all you need is a web server with PHP support.

Content can be written in Markdown or HTML, and the system is extended through plugins and themes. Requirements listed in the README are PHP 8.0 or newer with the mbstring, gd, dom and json modules. Installation means downloading the release, uploading it to a web server and following the installer. The README also explains how to configure reverse proxies correctly so client IP addresses are read properly for login protection and statistics.

Bludit is released under the MIT licence and written in PHP, and a Docker image is available according to its topics. Documentation, a forum, Discord and plugin and theme directories support the community. It suits individuals, bloggers and small organizations that want a quick, self-hosted site without database administration.

HTMLy is an open-source blogging platform and flat-file CMS written in PHP. It does not use a database, so content is stored as files, which keeps installation and backup simple. The project prioritizes simplicity and speed and uses an algorithm that finds or lists content by date, type, category, tag or author, staying fast even with large numbers of posts and tags. It suits individual bloggers and small sites.

Installation takes a few steps: upload and extract the files to a web server, visit the installer page in a browser and follow the prompts, then delete the installer. An online installer can fetch the code for you. Requirements are PHP 7.2 or newer with the mbstring, XML, INTL and GD extensions, and ZIP for the backup feature. Cache and content directories need write permission.

There is a role system in which administrators can edit or delete all users' posts. The topics mention Markdown, and the project is licensed under GPL-2.0. A sign-in to the dashboard is optional if you just want to publish from configuration files.

Blogifier is an open-source publishing platform for creating a personal or group blog or a simple website. It is written in ASP.NET with a Blazor WebAssembly front end, and it is meant to be self-hosted by developers and small teams who work in the .NET ecosystem and want a lightweight, functional blog engine they control.

The current version, 3.0, is built from source and not distributed as a packaged release. The README describes a native build, which needs the .NET 7 SDK and Node.js 14 or later, and runs a publish script on Windows or Linux to produce a distribution folder that can be copied and run anywhere. A Docker build is also documented using docker-compose. Instructions for versions earlier than 3.0 explain how to install a compiled application on a server with the .NET runtime.

The README is available in English and Simplified Chinese. Blogifier is licensed under MIT and uses C# on .NET. After starting, the site is available locally in the browser on a port stated in the documentation. It is an application you operate yourself rather than a hosted service.

Letterpad is a blog publishing engine for creatives that simplifies managing and publishing content for a blog or website. It ships with a full admin dashboard and a customizable public website, so you can start writing quickly. It is built with TypeScript, React, GraphQL, Next.js and Tailwind CSS, and it suits writers, photographers and designers who want a self-managed publishing platform.

Features include domain mapping for custom domains, inline editing directly on the website, grid and list layouts, a customizable brand color and three themes. It stores data in MySQL or SQLite3 and integrates with Cloudinary and Unsplash for media. Multi-user installations are supported by default. A Creatives page builder helps make photostories, portfolios and photoblogs, and there is Grammarly integration, built-in SEO features and a server-rendered blog for performance.

The README documents installation, development and production setup, including Docker, plus configuration options for URL and port. A demo is available, and the project is MIT licensed.