20 self-hosted Ghost(Pro) alternatives

Ghost is an open-source publishing platform for blogs and websites with built-in newsletters, membership management, and paid subscriptions.

55.1k stars11.9k forksMITlast commit 26 Aug 2026Actively maintained

Halo is an open-source CMS and site builder with themes, plugins, an editor, backups, REST APIs, and optional AI extensions for content and knowledge sites.

39.6k stars10.3k forksGPL-3.0last commit 26 Aug 2026Actively maintained

WordPress is an open-source CMS for building and managing websites and blogs with themes, a block editor, and a large plugin ecosystem.

21.4k stars13k forkslast commit 27 Aug 2026Actively maintained

WriteFreely is a clean, Markdown-based publishing platform for creating minimalist blogs and communities, with ActivityPub federation and low-resource Go deployment.

5.2k stars392 forksAGPL-3.0last commit 26 Aug 2026Actively maintained

Microweber is a drag-and-drop CMS and website builder for creating pages, blogs, and online stores with live editing, modules, and template-based design.

3.4k stars936 forksMITlast commit 14 Aug 2025Slowing down

BroadcastChannel turns a public Telegram Channel into a fast, SEO-friendly microblog website with RSS feeds and minimal client-side JavaScript.

2.1k stars1k forksAGPL-3.0last commit 19 Jul 2026Actively maintained

Ech0 is a lightweight open-source, self-hosted federated publishing platform (ActivityPub) with a Vue-based UI, SQLite storage, Docker deployment and built-in Markdown editor.

2.1k stars158 forksAGPL-3.0last commit 22 Aug 2026Actively maintained

Open-source Ruby on Rails blogging and publishing platform (formerly Typo) with themes, plugins, multilingual support and an official demo.

1.9k stars3.6k forksMITlast commit 24 Aug 2026Actively maintained

Bludit is a simple, fast flat-file CMS that stores content as JSON, enabling database-free websites and blogs with themes, plugins, and Markdown/HTML editing.

1.5k stars334 forksMITlast commit 24 Aug 2026Actively maintained

HTMLy is a fast, databaseless PHP blogging platform and flat-file CMS with built-in search, themes, categories/tags, and an admin dashboard for managing content.

1.4k stars309 forksGPL-2.0last commit 25 Jan 2026Slowing down

Open-source publishing platform enabling multi-user blogs, status updates, and media on your own site.

1.1k stars197 forkslast commit 12 Apr 2026Actively maintained

Automad is a fast, lightweight flat-file CMS with an admin dashboard, block editor, in-page editing, theme/package support, and an optional headless JSON API.

927 stars55 forkslast commit 23 Aug 2026Actively maintained

Textpattern CMS is a lightweight, extensible PHP CMS for building blogs and websites with a tag-based templating system, plugins, and a streamlined admin interface.

881 stars110 forksGPL-2.0last commit 22 Aug 2026Actively maintained

Private, self-hosted blogging app with Markdown editor, private RSS, built-in reader, and Docker/Postgres deployment options.

801 stars48 forksMITlast commit 11 Aug 2026Actively maintained

WonderCMS is a tiny flat-file CMS for building fast websites and blogs with in-place editing, themes/plugins, and one-click updates and backups—no database required.

736 stars167 forksMITlast commit 25 Aug 2026Actively maintained

Minimal, accessible PHP blogging engine with Twig themes, modular Feathers and modules for media, tags, comments, and simple caching. Supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite.

493 stars70 forksBSD-3-Clauselast commit 7 Aug 2026Actively maintained

Symfony-based polymorphic CMS using a node system, Twig theming, Doctrine ORM and API-first support for building headless or traditional sites.

371 stars32 forkslast commit 26 Aug 2026Actively maintained

Minimal Django-based blogging platform focused on writing. Markdown posts, per-user subdomains, RSS/email subscriptions, Hugo/Zola/EPUB exports, image hosting and API.

367 stars29 forksAGPL-3.0last commit 5 Aug 2026Actively maintained

Self-hosted, low-footprint microblogging and blog engine in Rust with Markdown posts, file uploads, RSS following, backups, and built-in search.

325 stars19 forksMITlast commit 17 Jul 2026Actively maintained

A PHP flat-file CMS that stores content in XML files, providing a portable, database-free platform with themes, plugins, media manager, comments and multilingual support.

234 stars70 forksGPL-3.0last commit 3 Aug 2026Actively maintained