Open Source Blogging Platforms

Ghost is an open-source publishing platform and headless content management system designed for professional publishers. It provides a decoupled architecture that separates the content management backend from the front-end delivery layer, allowing users to manage editorial workflows and site data through structured web services. The platform distinguishes itself by integrating a built-in membership and subscription engine, which enables creators to manage gated content, paid tiers, and secure member profiles directly within the system. It also features a dedicated infrastructure for professional newsletter publishing, supporting automated email distribution and subscriber engagement. Developers can interact with the platform through a comprehensive RESTful API or a dedicated JavaScript client library, while the system's headless nature allows for the delivery of content to any custom front-end application. Beyond its core publishing capabilities, the platform includes a templated theme engine for server-side rendering and supports extensive customization through modular configuration adapters. These allow for flexible storage backends, event-driven webhooks for external integrations, and granular control over site settings and security. The project provides extensive documentation for its administrative and content delivery APIs, alongside command-line tools for managing site configuration, theme validation, and environment settings.

Zola is a static site generator that compiles Markdown and templates into a standalone website. It is distributed as a single binary, removing the need for external runtimes or package managers to build the final site. The project includes a built-in Sass compiler to transform styles into compressed CSS and a dedicated Markdown rendering engine that supports task lists and footnotes. It also features a client-side search indexer, enabling full-text site search without a backend server, and a multilingual content manager for organizing translated content. Additional capabilities cover asset optimization through automatic image processing and minification, as well as content organization using custom taxonomies, paged content, and web feeds. The development workflow includes a local server with live reloading and tools for validating internal and external links.

Strapi is an open-source headless content management system and JavaScript framework used for defining content schemas and managing structured data. It functions as a REST and GraphQL API gateway that decouples backend data storage from frontend delivery. The system includes a self-hosted administration interface for managing content entries and defining data models without manual database queries. The framework utilizes a plugin-based extension system to inject custom logic into the application lifecycle. It employs schema-driven content modeling to automatically generate database tables and API endpoints based on configuration files. The platform covers content management, API delivery, and custom backend development. It provides tools for local development orchestration using containers to ensure consistent environments for testing and deployment.

This project is a static site generator template designed for academics to build and maintain professional portfolios. It transforms markdown files and structured data into a cohesive website, allowing scholars to document their research publications, teaching experience, and speaking history without the need for a database. The platform is distinguished by its specialized tools for scholarly dissemination, including the ability to showcase research output with metadata and abstracts, and to catalog professional talks through interactive geographic visualizations. It supports the presentation of complex technical information by rendering mathematical equations and text-based diagrams directly within the browser. Beyond its core academic focus, the system provides comprehensive content management features such as chronological blog archiving, collapsible sections, and interactive data visualizations. Users can automate the creation of portfolio entries by converting structured spreadsheet or CSV files into formatted markdown, while centralized configuration files manage site-wide navigation and layout visibility.

Leanote is a collaborative Markdown editor, hierarchical note manager, and self-hosted blogging platform. It functions as a knowledge base that uses a document store to organize structured notebooks and rich-text documents. The system enables real-time co-authoring, allowing multiple users to simultaneously edit documents and brainstorm ideas. It also includes a publishing engine that transforms private notes into public-facing blogs using customizable themes and multi-contributor management. The platform provides tools for knowledge management through notebooks and tags, supporting both rich-text and Markdown editing. Additional capabilities include a role-based permission system for managing shared access and utilities for exporting notes to PDF.

Jekyll is a static site generator that transforms plain text files and markup into complete, deployable websites. It functions as a content management engine and blog-aware publishing platform, orchestrating a multi-stage build process that organizes structured data and source files into a consistent site architecture. The platform distinguishes itself through a specialized processing pipeline that automatically generates chronological archives, category indexes, and RSS feeds from collections of dated text files. It utilizes a template engine to inject dynamic content into layouts and supports incremental builds by tracking file relationships to selectively recompile only modified portions of a site. Developers can further extend the build lifecycle through a modular plugin system that allows for custom logic and data manipulation. The system supports content-driven workflows by parsing metadata blocks from source files to define page-specific variables and layout inheritance. It handles the conversion of lightweight markup into standard web documents, facilitating the creation of organized documentation portals and blogs managed directly through version control.

Bear Blog is a lightweight, self-hosted blogging platform that compiles Markdown files into static HTML pages at build time without requiring a database. It focuses on minimal publishing workflows with full visual customization through built-in themes and custom CSS, including dark mode support. The platform distinguishes itself with bot-neutral readership tracking that only counts page views when a visitor scrolls or hovers, ensuring metrics exclude automated traffic. It supports multilingual site deployments as either separate independent instances or tag-based language versions, and offers a plugin extension framework for adding optional capabilities like pagination, full-text search, and password protection. Shortcodes enable injecting dynamic content such as filtered post lists, tag clouds, and navigation into pre-rendered pages, while RSS and Atom feeds can be filtered by tag for custom subscriptions. Additional capabilities include embedded commenting via third-party widgets, email newsletter signup integration, full-text post search across the network, automatic generation of meta tags, Open Graph, sitemap, and robots.txt for search engine optimization. Administrators can customize the dashboard layout, configure navigation menus, use post templates for easier bulk imports, and set site access controls including private viewing and search indexing blocking.

Pelican is a Python-based static site generator that converts Markdown and reStructuredText files into static HTML websites. It functions as a blog and page orchestrator, managing chronological posts and independent static pages while providing built-in support for RSS and Atom feed generation. The system is designed as a plugin-based web framework, allowing for the addition of custom functionality through a community-driven plugin architecture. It also includes capabilities for producing localized versions of articles and pages to support multilingual content delivery. The tool covers a broad range of content processing tasks, including syntax highlighting for technical documentation and the use of customizable templates for visual layouts. It also provides utilities for migrating existing articles and data from external platforms such as WordPress or Dotclear into a static format. Build performance is managed through incremental caching, which tracks file changes to process only modified content during site regeneration.

Halo is a modular content management platform built on the Java Virtual Machine, designed to power dynamic websites through a flexible, extensible architecture. It provides a centralized administrative interface for publishing digital content and managing media assets, serving as a foundation for diverse web projects ranging from personal blogs to corporate sites. The platform distinguishes itself through a plugin-based architecture that allows for the dynamic loading of functional components and third-party services without modifying the core source code. This extensibility is complemented by a template-based theme engine that separates visual presentation from content logic, enabling developers to customize the appearance and functionality of their sites through a centralized marketplace system. The system is engineered for consistent execution across diverse hosting environments by utilizing a container-first deployment model. It supports scalable operations through integrations with external object storage for media assets and provides enterprise-grade content governance tools for managing user roles, backups, and site configurations.

Typecho is a self-hosted PHP blogging platform and content management system designed for publishing blogs and journals. It functions as a multi-database CMS, providing a writing interface that converts lightweight markup language into formatted HTML for streamlined article authoring. The platform is built as a plugin-based system, allowing users to extend functionality and modify site behavior through third-party extensions. Site appearance and layout are managed through a customizable theme system. The system includes capabilities for managing content via custom data fields and supports data persistence across multiple database engines.

Docusaurus is a documentation framework and static site generator designed to transform markdown files and component templates into optimized web pages. It functions as a content management platform for technical knowledge bases, utilizing a build process that pre-renders content into static HTML and JavaScript bundles to ensure site performance and search visibility. The framework distinguishes itself through a component-driven architecture that allows developers to build unique page layouts and interactive elements using reusable code blocks. It employs file-system-based routing to map directory structures directly to site navigation and supports client-side hydration to provide an interactive experience after the initial page load. A modular plugin system enables the injection of custom functionality and data sources into the build pipeline. The platform provides built-in support for managing multiple versions of documentation, allowing users to access instructions corresponding to specific software releases. It also includes tools for internationalization, enabling the translation and localization of content for global audiences, and supports the integration of external indexing services for site-wide search.

This project is a comprehensive documentation site framework and static site generator theme designed to transform markdown files into professional, responsive websites. It functions as a technical content platform that supports complex documentation projects, including multi-project management, blog workflows, and advanced content formatting. By processing source files through an extensible pipeline, it generates self-contained HTML sites that can be hosted on any web server without a database. What distinguishes this framework is its focus on developer experience and highly configurable build-time orchestration. It features a live-preview server for real-time development and utilizes metadata-driven properties to control page-level behavior, such as search relevance and social card generation. The theme architecture is built on CSS variables, allowing for deep visual customization of color palettes, typography, and branding, while client-side navigation interception provides a responsive, single-page application experience for end users. The platform covers a broad capability surface for technical publishing, including interactive components like content tabs, collapsible admonitions, and sortable data tables. It provides extensive tools for code presentation, mathematical rendering, and image management, alongside robust search indexing and internationalization support. Developers can further extend the platform by injecting custom scripts and styles or by overriding default templates to meet specific project requirements. The project is configured through a centralized file, with support for project template initialization to accelerate setup. It includes automated asset optimization and privacy-focused features, such as the ability to self-host external assets and manage font loading.

Apostrophe is an open-source Node.js headless content management system that delivers structured content through REST APIs while providing a visual in-context page editor for live editing. It is built on a module-based plugin architecture that extends CMS functionality through reusable modules, each encapsulating logic, configuration, and templates. The system uses schema-driven content modeling to define data structures and validation rules through configurable schemas and custom field types, with all content stored as flexible JSON-like documents in MongoDB. The platform distinguishes itself through multi-site management capabilities that coordinate multiple websites and shared resources from a single installation, enabling centralized administration and resource sharing. It supports enterprise content governance with granular user roles and permissions for content approval, publishing, and site-wide administration across teams. The system provides multilingual content translation with automated AI-powered translation and locale management, alongside visual in-page editing that lets content creators modify text and media directly on live pages with a WYSIWYG interface and real-time preview at different breakpoints. The CMS offers comprehensive content and media management including rich text editing, file uploads with cloud storage support, responsive breakpoint previews, and reusable widget types. It includes a REST API with automatic route generation, webhook registration for external integrations, and framework bridges for Astro and Gatsby frontends. The system supports both MongoDB and PostgreSQL database backends, with capabilities for batch content operations, draft publishing, content duplication, and permanent deletion.

Hexo is a command-line static site generator designed for content-driven blogging and website creation. It functions as a structured framework that transforms plain text files and markdown into production-ready static websites, utilizing a template-based rendering engine to separate site content from visual presentation. The project is distinguished by its event-driven build pipeline, which manages the entire site lifecycle through a series of hooks for file processing, asset generation, and deployment. Developers can extend the system’s core capabilities through a modular plugin architecture, allowing for custom rendering engines and specialized site-wide functionality. The platform also provides a local development server for real-time previewing and file change monitoring to ensure efficient build performance during the authoring process. Beyond its core generation capabilities, the system includes comprehensive tools for managing site metadata, URL structures, and content organization through front-matter configuration. It supports complex asset management, including post-specific folders and automated path resolution, alongside a suite of tag plugins for injecting dynamic elements like code blocks and media directly into content. The platform also features built-in deployment automation, enabling direct synchronization of generated files to various remote hosting environments and cloud platforms. Hexo is installed and managed via command-line utilities, with documentation and configuration centered around a project-based directory structure.

Eleventy is a JavaScript-based static site generator designed to transform templates, data files, and markdown into optimized HTML. It functions as a versatile template rendering engine and content management framework, allowing developers to aggregate data from diverse sources—including local files, databases, and external APIs—to populate structured web content. The project is distinguished by its template-engine-agnostic pipeline, which decouples the build process from specific rendering languages. This allows users to integrate multiple template formats, such as Liquid, Nunjucks, Handlebars, or EJS, within a single project. Its architecture relies on a data cascade that merges global settings, directory-specific configurations, and front matter into a unified context, providing a flexible foundation for complex site structures. Beyond core generation, the system includes a robust set of automation tools for managing the build lifecycle, including incremental builds, file watching, and programmatic execution. It supports advanced content workflows through features like automated pagination, internationalization, and component-based asset bundling. The platform is highly extensible, enabling users to hook into the build process via plugins to perform custom transformations, image optimization, or syntax highlighting. The project provides comprehensive documentation and supports configuration through modular files or TypeScript, facilitating consistent environments across different development setups.

Wagtail is an open-source content management system built on the Django web framework. It provides a structured, tree-based approach to content modeling, allowing developers to define custom page types and reusable content components that are managed through a highly customizable administrative interface. The platform distinguishes itself through its flexible, block-based content composition system, which enables editors to assemble complex page layouts dynamically. It also offers robust support for multi-site and multi-lingual environments, allowing organizations to manage distinct websites or localized content versions from a single installation. These capabilities are complemented by a headless-ready architecture that exposes structured data through programmable APIs, supporting decoupled frontend implementations. Beyond core content management, the system includes comprehensive tools for editorial workflows, such as scheduled publishing, moderation, and granular permission controls. It also features integrated search indexing, automated media processing, and extensive hooks for system extensibility, enabling developers to tailor the administrative dashboard and backend logic to specific project requirements. The project is distributed as a Python package, providing a standardized structure for bootstrapping new content-managed applications.

Grav is a flat-file content management system that eliminates the need for a traditional database by storing site content and configuration in human-readable Markdown and YAML files. Built as a modular PHP web framework, it uses a hierarchical page routing system where the physical directory structure directly determines the site's URL paths. The platform is distinguished by its event-driven plugin architecture and a command-line interface that prioritizes system administration, deployment, and maintenance tasks. It utilizes a blueprint-driven system to generate administrative forms from structured data schemas, allowing for complex content management without requiring custom code. A secure, sandboxed templating engine handles the rendering of content into HTML, supporting template inheritance and custom filters. The system provides a comprehensive suite of capabilities, including advanced media processing, multi-language support, and granular access control. It features robust automation tools for scheduling background tasks, managing site backups, and synchronizing content via version control. Developers can extend the core functionality through a modular plugin system, which allows for deep integration with external services and custom logic injection throughout the application lifecycle. The project is designed for flexible deployment, supporting containerized environments and standard web server configurations. It includes extensive documentation and CLI tools to facilitate local development, package management, and automated system updates.

Astrowind is a high-performance site framework and bootstrapping tool designed for building marketing sites, professional portfolios, and high-conversion landing pages. It utilizes a utility-first CSS architecture and a component-based UI library to assemble responsive websites. The project specializes in conversion rate optimization through targeted templates for lead generation, product sales, subscription captures, and pre-launch teasers. It includes specific infrastructure for static blogging, utilizing markdown-based content modeling and rendering for long-form articles. The framework covers a broad capability surface including search engine optimization via centralized metadata management, brand identity customization through theme tokens, and cross-device layout optimization. It also integrates user inquiry collection tools and support channel integrations to facilitate customer engagement.