20 self-hosted Medium alternatives

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

54.6k stars11.8k forksMITlast commit 28 Jul 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.

39.4k stars10.3k forksGPL-3.0last commit 24 Jul 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.

21.3k stars13k forkslast commit 28 Jul 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 stars385 forksAGPL-3.0last commit 20 Jul 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 stars934 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.

2k stars150 forksAGPL-3.0last commit 28 Jul 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 20 Jul 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 stars332 forksMITlast commit 23 Jul 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 stars305 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

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.

878 stars110 forksGPL-2.0last commit 16 Jul 2026Actively maintained

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

797 stars48 forksMITlast commit 23 Jul 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.

735 stars165 forksMITlast commit 1 Jan 2026Slowing down

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

490 stars68 forksBSD-3-Clauselast commit 26 Jul 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.

358 stars27 forksAGPL-3.0last commit 27 Jul 2026Actively maintained

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

321 stars18 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.

235 stars71 forksGPL-3.0last commit 21 Nov 2025Slowing down

Serendipity is a PHP-powered weblog engine offering a lightweight blog platform with plugins, themes, media library, comments, and multi-database support.

226 stars94 forksBSD-3-Clauselast commit 22 Jul 2026Actively maintained

File-based PHP blogging engine that requires no database. Provides Smarty-powered themes, a plugin/widget system, comments with spam protection, and easy backups.

212 stars65 forksGPL-2.0last commit 19 Jul 2026Actively maintained