What is Btw used for?

Btw is an open-source personal website and blog builder positioned as a Medium alternative, usable as a hosted sign-up service or self-hosted with Docker. It is a good fit for personal blogs moving off Medium and writers who want to self-host their own publication.

Yes. Btw is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at btw-so/btw and is written mainly in JavaScript.

Yes. Btw is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.

Yes. Btw can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Btw an alternative to?

Btw is an open-source alternative to Medium and Hashnode. Other open-source alternatives to Medium include ThriveX, Letterpad and Gridea.

Is Btw actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Btw was on 15 August 2026. The project has 1.3k stars on GitHub.

Btw: open-source alternative to Medium, Hashnode

About Btw

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.

Key features

Personal blog and website builder
Hosted sign-up or self-hosted deployment
Docker Compose setup with PostgreSQL
Optional OTP login by email
Image uploads through S3-compatible storage
Writer editor with no-code publishing

Good fit for

→Personal blogs moving off Medium
→Writers who want to self-host their own publication

Built with: JavaScript
Tags: blog; personal-website; medium-alternative; self-hosted; no-code; docker; postgresql; publishing

Btw: questions and answers

What is Btw used for?: Btw is an open-source personal website and blog builder positioned as a Medium alternative, usable as a hosted sign-up service or self-hosted with Docker. It is a good fit for personal blogs moving off Medium and writers who want to self-host their own publication.
Is Btw open source?: Yes. Btw is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at btw-so/btw and is written mainly in JavaScript.
Is Btw free?: Yes. Btw is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.
Can I self-host Btw?: Yes. Btw can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Btw an alternative to?: Btw is an open-source alternative to Medium and Hashnode. Other open-source alternatives to Medium include ThriveX, Letterpad and Gridea.
Is Btw actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Btw was on 15 August 2026. The project has 1.3k stars on GitHub.