Open-source Medium 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.

Forem is open-source software for building communities for peers, customers, fanbases, families, friends or any group that wants a shared space. It is the codebase behind dev.to, a community of software developers who write articles, discuss and build professional profiles. The project is written in Ruby on Rails and released under the AGPL-3.0 license.

The repository includes installation documentation, developer documentation and instructions for deploying with Kamal. Contributors are welcome to open pull requests on any issue, provided they include appropriate tests, with the maintainers currently focused on backend regression tests while frontend changes may need more user review. The project states that AI-assisted pull requests are welcome if they meet quality standards, and it points AI agents to an AGENTS.md file. A vulnerability disclosure process and acknowledgements are also documented.

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.

Idno is a social publishing platform written in PHP, associated with the Known project and the IndieWeb movement. It lets people publish posts of different types on a site they own, and connect those posts to other services and sites, rather than posting only inside a third-party social network.

The README describes installation from packages, from Git or with Composer, and requires PHP 8.3 or newer with selected extensions and a supported database. By default events such as Webmention pings, syndication and ActivityPub delivery run inside the web request, but an asynchronous queue with a background worker can be enabled, and it is required for ActivityPub so that follow acceptance, post distribution and updates reach remote servers.

Idno is under active development, is self-hosted, and its repository lists the licence as other. Its topics tag it as both a CMS framework and a social network tool. It suits individuals and communities who want to own their publishing platform and take part in federated and IndieWeb protocols.

ThriveX is a blog management system created by the developer known as Liuyuyang. It uses a decoupled architecture, with a Next.js front end and a Spring Boot back end, and its description presents it as fully open source and never charged for. The project grew out of the author's move away from WordPress and Typecho.

Version 4.0 focused on a better admin experience, a smoother first-time installation flow, comment interaction, file management, category navigation, performance, security and deployment configuration. The stack includes React, Zustand, ECharts, MySQL, Nginx and Node.js, and a Docker-based deployment is supported. The interface and documentation are mostly in Chinese.

ThriveX is licensed under GPL-3.0 and you host it on your own server. A recent post on the author's site says new feature development is paused while bugs are still fixed, which is worth weighing for long-term use.

btw is an open-source personal website builder, presented as an alternative to Medium for people who want to publish a blog in a few minutes. You can sign up and start writing without installing anything, or run the open-source version on your own infrastructure.

Self-hosting uses Docker and Docker Compose and needs a working PostgreSQL instance. Only an admin email and slug are mandatory; the database is configured on first start. Optional settings add SMTP so one-time login codes can be emailed, a six-digit OTP gate for the writer, and S3-compatible storage so image uploads work in the editor.

Repository topics tag it as a blog platform, website builder and notes app with a no-code approach, and the README links a couple of demo blogs published with it. The code is JavaScript and is released under the GPL-3.0 licence.

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.

Markdown Ninja is a Markdown-first content management system for bloggers, minimalists and startups. It lets you publish websites, blogs, documentation sites and newsletters from Markdown content, and it positions itself as the simple alternative to hacking together a static site generator, a theme, a CI/CD pipeline and a cloud platform. The project names Medium, Mailchimp and Substack as the services it replaces.

According to the README, publishing a site takes one command and getting started takes about two minutes. Topics include headless CMS, JAMstack and email. Usage documentation is at docs.markdown.ninja, while a dev folder in the repository covers development. There is also a hosted service at markdown.ninja, and the README invites you to try it for free.

The code is written in Go and licensed under AGPL-3.0, with documentation and assets under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0. The copyright holder is Arcane Services, which offers other licensing terms on request. Security issues should be reported through the contact page on the project site.

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.