7 ms·

Ask HN: What do you use for your personal blog?

19 points by canergly 2y ago

I want to create a simple, SEO friendly personal blog. Do you have any open source and self-hosted recommendation?

pacifika 2y ago
I’m working on and using Lamb. You can find it via the github link in my profile. The usp is friction free super simple blogging, self-hosted. If you don’t mind using something under construction, I’d love to head any feedback.
- canergly 2y ago
  I'll have a look at it, thanks.
gregjor 2y ago
github page with a custom domain
- canergly 2y ago
  I think it is for deployment right? I was also looking for a blogging system / script that I can host anywhere I like.
  - thesnide 2y ago
    I'm also using github pages. It is limited but boring enables to focus on content instead of trying every fancy tool.
perteraul 2y ago
Ghost can be easily spun up as a Docker container, is relatively fast and has a good SEO out-of-the-box.
beretguy 2y ago
Bear Blog: https://bearblog.dev/ https://bearblog.dev/
mergisi 2y ago
I recently created a blog website using OpenAI o1, and it’s been great for generating content with minimal effort. If you're looking for something self-hosted, you can check out my project on GitHub here: [https://github.com/mergisi/openai-o1-coded-personal-blog https://github.com/mergisi/openai-o1-coded-personal-blog . Let me know if you have any questions or need more details!
hiAndrewQuinn 2y ago
Hugo! Compiles Markdown down to a stack of static HTML files, with a ton of flexibility. Currently i have it powering https://andrew-quinn.me/ https://andrew-quinn.me/ , https://hiandrewquinn.github.io/til-site/ https://hiandrewquinn.github.io/til-site/ , and https://hiandrewquinn.github.io/selkouutiset-archive/ https://hiandrewquinn.github.io/selkouutiset-archive/ , all of which serve different niche purposes. As for hosting, hosting HTML pages is super easy. The lowest effort for Hugo is GitHub Pages. Netlify is another solid option. https://andrew-quinn.me/ https://andrew-quinn.me/ runs on Azure Static Web Apps, but that might take more cloud familiarity than you want to invest in. Or you could just run `hugo` and SCP the resulting directory to a VM!
abhgh 2y ago
I use Jekyll[1]. It's quite popular which implies that it's easy to search for answers online or find steps to some specific customization you might need. [1] https://blog.quipu-strands.com/jensens_inequality https://blog.quipu-strands.com/jensens_inequality
- boricj 2y ago
  Same, although I recommend not relying on GitHub pages for generating the site due to the age of the gems available on it. I've initially kept my blog compatible with it even though I'm serving it from my NAS, but I ended up ditching compatibility because of that in order to use more modern versions.
cpach 2y ago
My advice: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41017177 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41017177 (and there’s lots of other recs in that thread)
shoebham 2y ago
I used https://leoncvlt.github.io/imml/# https://leoncvlt.github.io/imml/# for my personal website
billconan 2y ago
I implemented my own https://github.com/shi-yan/QuipQuick https://github.com/shi-yan/QuipQuick
taskylizard 2y ago
VitePress[0] with a custom theme. 0 - https://vitepress.dev https://vitepress.dev
joshcanhelp 2y ago
I switched from WordPress to Eleventy in 2020 and never looked back. https://www.joshcanhelp.com/taking-wordpress-to-eleventy/ https://www.joshcanhelp.com/taking-wordpress-to-eleventy/ I currently host on Netlify because it’s free but you could easily sync the generated HTML files to a box you manage.
hsfzxjy 2y ago
Hexo for generation and hosted on Github Pages. https://i.hsfzxjy.site https://i.hsfzxjy.site
ig0r0 2y ago
Hugo as a static site generator and hosted on Netlify with a custom domain.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
satvikpendem 2y ago
I tried a lot, now it's just pure HTML and CSS.
mattnewport 2y ago
I use Zola, a static site generator written in Rust, and Github pages for hosting on my own domain.
alexander2002 2y ago
HI,I made alexy.tech(its a work in progress) using a guide I found online. It uses notion as cms and github pages as host. Guide Link:https://nerdymomocat.github.io/posts/introducing-webtrotion/ https://nerdymomocat.github.io/posts/introducing-webtrotion/ Since I am too lazy,I ony managed to publish one blog https://alexy.tech/posts/the-future-of-the-internet-more-robots-less-us/ https://alexy.tech/posts/the-future-of-the-internet-more-rob...
skwee357 2y ago
For my 3 blogs (info in my profile), I use Astro with markdown on Netlify, but will move soon to my own VPS.
- leros 2y ago
  Why would you move from a static host to a VPS for a blog?
  - skwee357 2y ago
    To clarify, it’s about the server. It still static, but will be served from my hardware rather than a PaaS.
    - leros 2y ago
      But isn't a VPS an inferior option compared to a static host like Netlify? Netlify is free and gets your statics on a global CDN. A VPS is not free and has to serve the statics itself.
      - skwee357 2y ago
        Netlify is free as long as you don't hit their limits, afterwards it becomes pretty expensive. I don't care much about the CDN aspect, its a blog in the end, and I prefer to host everything on an infrastructure I can control
pdyc 2y ago
i use hugo for static site generation and i write blog in emacs org mode. Hosting is on cloudflare pages.
iamflimflam1 2y ago
Still using Jekyll, keep meaning to switch to something else, but it works… www.atomic14.com
vunderba 2y ago
I swapped away from Wordpress to Pelican, a static site generator written in Python. The theme is a heavily customized version of Octapress - and its really performant with zero third-party dependencies / network requests. Plus I like that I can literally click a button in Obsidian which formats a note, compresses/optimizes the media, and pushes it up to my website. Frictionless blog posting FTW. https://github.com/getpelican/pelican https://github.com/getpelican/pelican https://mordenstar.com https://mordenstar.com Though... recently I've been thinking about swapping over to Astro because the grass is always greener.
mmarian 2y ago
Astro SSG. Can easily add Tailwind and React, which I use in my day to day. Got a couple of sites ranked in top 3 for the keywords I'm targeting. Hosted on Cloudflare Pages, for free.
- indigodaddy 2y ago
  Would you mind sharing those sites?
  - mmarian 2y ago
    Sure, hackernewsalerts.com and https://tiktokexamples.com https://tiktokexamples.com I also use Astro for https://hextotailwind.com https://hextotailwind.com which isn't technically a blog but ranked 2 on Google. I've recently open sourced all of them, check out on https://GitHub.com/mihailthebuilder https://GitHub.com/mihailthebuilder
rewind94 2y ago
Astro with Markdown with a static host. Quite simple and quick to get started.
latchkey 2y ago
Not personal, but I've started using bullet.so for my company blog (and website). I like that I can just write stuff in Notion and have it magically appear on a webpage with decent formatting. Not perfect, but fairly easy to setup, customize and maintain.
keraf 2y ago
Ghost for my personal blog and also photography portfolio. Been happily using it for years, easy to self host. Quite surprised not to see more mentions of it here.
rinvi 2y ago
[dead]
jdevy 2y ago
I like Jekyll [1]. It is simple, uses markdown, and open source. I am not sure about the SEO part though. [1]: https://jekyllrb.com/ https://jekyllrb.com/
ramon156 2y ago
Zola. Nice defaults, that's it. Also I'm biased towards Rust
senkora 2y ago
Use a static site generator that is written in a language that you know well, so that you will be comfortable updating it and installing extensions. I use Pelican because I am comfortable with Python. Many people use Jekyll because they are comfortable with Ruby.
innertracks 2y ago
Racknerd VPS running Caddy serving a Hugo generated static site. Site and content are created/edited in Emacs and rsynced to server. Took the default Hugo generated theme and tweaked it to my tastes. Forget where I sourced the original CSS I used as a starting point. https://www.hextxt.com https://www.hextxt.com
Curiositry 2y ago
Ghost, self-hosted on Fly.io free tier
stevenicr 2y ago
Wordpress is nice for many reasons, people will pan it for security and such.. install, add firewall like wordfence, change max failed logins to low number. turn on auto updates for WP and the plugins and themes. Pull backups auto and free with updraft plugin. enjoy the massive amount of themes and support around the www https://steveiscritical.com https://steveiscritical.com uses base WP with default theme, I have several others that mod the themeing more. bonus - skip tutorials that use page builders like elementor - base gutenberg does most the things out of the box these days, not need for extra bloat to be fancy.
- stevenicr 2y ago
  I've several learn stuff quick about wordpress things added on this learn page: https://steveiscritical.com/learn-websites-and-coding/ https://steveiscritical.com/learn-websites-and-coding/
RNPL 2y ago
Zola! I'd use plain HTML+CSS, but Zola adds some nice tools (like markdown rendering). It lives in a single binary, so I don't mind it. Hosted on GitHub pages. https://www.getzola.org/ https://www.getzola.org/

19 points by canergly 2y ago

I want to create a simple, SEO friendly personal blog. Do you have any open source and self-hosted recommendation?

I’m working on and using Lamb. You can find it via the github link in my profile. The usp is friction free super simple blogging, self-hosted. If you don’t mind using something under construction, I’d love to head any feedback.

canergly 2y ago
I'll have a look at it, thanks.

gregjor 2y ago

github page with a custom domain

canergly 2y ago
I think it is for deployment right? I was also looking for a blogging system / script that I can host anywhere I like.
- thesnide 2y ago
  I'm also using github pages. It is limited but boring enables to focus on content instead of trying every fancy tool.

perteraul 2y ago

Ghost can be easily spun up as a Docker container, is relatively fast and has a good SEO out-of-the-box.

beretguy 2y ago

Bear Blog: https://bearblog.dev/ https://bearblog.dev/

mergisi 2y ago

I recently created a blog website using OpenAI o1, and it’s been great for generating content with minimal effort. If you're looking for something self-hosted, you can check out my project on GitHub here: [https://github.com/mergisi/openai-o1-coded-personal-blog https://github.com/mergisi/openai-o1-coded-personal-blog . Let me know if you have any questions or need more details!

hiAndrewQuinn 2y ago

Hugo! Compiles Markdown down to a stack of static HTML files, with a ton of flexibility. Currently i have it powering https://andrew-quinn.me/ https://andrew-quinn.me/ , https://hiandrewquinn.github.io/til-site/ https://hiandrewquinn.github.io/til-site/ , and https://hiandrewquinn.github.io/selkouutiset-archive/ https://hiandrewquinn.github.io/selkouutiset-archive/ , all of which serve different niche purposes. As for hosting, hosting HTML pages is super easy. The lowest effort for Hugo is GitHub Pages. Netlify is another solid option. https://andrew-quinn.me/ https://andrew-quinn.me/ runs on Azure Static Web Apps, but that might take more cloud familiarity than you want to invest in. Or you could just run `hugo` and SCP the resulting directory to a VM!

abhgh 2y ago

I use Jekyll[1]. It's quite popular which implies that it's easy to search for answers online or find steps to some specific customization you might need. [1] https://blog.quipu-strands.com/jensens_inequality https://blog.quipu-strands.com/jensens_inequality

boricj 2y ago
Same, although I recommend not relying on GitHub pages for generating the site due to the age of the gems available on it. I've initially kept my blog compatible with it even though I'm serving it from my NAS, but I ended up ditching compatibility because of that in order to use more modern versions.

cpach 2y ago

My advice: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41017177 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41017177 (and there’s lots of other recs in that thread)

shoebham 2y ago

I used https://leoncvlt.github.io/imml/# https://leoncvlt.github.io/imml/# for my personal website

billconan 2y ago

I implemented my own https://github.com/shi-yan/QuipQuick https://github.com/shi-yan/QuipQuick

taskylizard 2y ago

VitePress[0] with a custom theme. 0 - https://vitepress.dev https://vitepress.dev

joshcanhelp 2y ago

I switched from WordPress to Eleventy in 2020 and never looked back. https://www.joshcanhelp.com/taking-wordpress-to-eleventy/ https://www.joshcanhelp.com/taking-wordpress-to-eleventy/ I currently host on Netlify because it’s free but you could easily sync the generated HTML files to a box you manage.

hsfzxjy 2y ago

Hexo for generation and hosted on Github Pages. https://i.hsfzxjy.site https://i.hsfzxjy.site

ig0r0 2y ago

Hugo as a static site generator and hosted on Netlify with a custom domain.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

satvikpendem 2y ago

I tried a lot, now it's just pure HTML and CSS.

mattnewport 2y ago

I use Zola, a static site generator written in Rust, and Github pages for hosting on my own domain.

alexander2002 2y ago

HI,I made alexy.tech(its a work in progress) using a guide I found online. It uses notion as cms and github pages as host. Guide Link:https://nerdymomocat.github.io/posts/introducing-webtrotion/ https://nerdymomocat.github.io/posts/introducing-webtrotion/ Since I am too lazy,I ony managed to publish one blog https://alexy.tech/posts/the-future-of-the-internet-more-robots-less-us/ https://alexy.tech/posts/the-future-of-the-internet-more-rob...

skwee357 2y ago

For my 3 blogs (info in my profile), I use Astro with markdown on Netlify, but will move soon to my own VPS.

leros 2y ago
Why would you move from a static host to a VPS for a blog?
- skwee357 2y ago
  To clarify, it’s about the server. It still static, but will be served from my hardware rather than a PaaS.
  - leros 2y ago
    But isn't a VPS an inferior option compared to a static host like Netlify? Netlify is free and gets your statics on a global CDN. A VPS is not free and has to serve the statics itself.
    - skwee357 2y ago
      Netlify is free as long as you don't hit their limits, afterwards it becomes pretty expensive. I don't care much about the CDN aspect, its a blog in the end, and I prefer to host everything on an infrastructure I can control

pdyc 2y ago

i use hugo for static site generation and i write blog in emacs org mode. Hosting is on cloudflare pages.

iamflimflam1 2y ago

Still using Jekyll, keep meaning to switch to something else, but it works… www.atomic14.com

vunderba 2y ago

I swapped away from Wordpress to Pelican, a static site generator written in Python. The theme is a heavily customized version of Octapress - and its really performant with zero third-party dependencies / network requests. Plus I like that I can literally click a button in Obsidian which formats a note, compresses/optimizes the media, and pushes it up to my website. Frictionless blog posting FTW. https://github.com/getpelican/pelican https://github.com/getpelican/pelican https://mordenstar.com https://mordenstar.com Though... recently I've been thinking about swapping over to Astro because the grass is always greener.

mmarian 2y ago

Astro SSG. Can easily add Tailwind and React, which I use in my day to day. Got a couple of sites ranked in top 3 for the keywords I'm targeting. Hosted on Cloudflare Pages, for free.

indigodaddy 2y ago
Would you mind sharing those sites?
- mmarian 2y ago
  Sure, hackernewsalerts.com and https://tiktokexamples.com https://tiktokexamples.com I also use Astro for https://hextotailwind.com https://hextotailwind.com which isn't technically a blog but ranked 2 on Google. I've recently open sourced all of them, check out on https://GitHub.com/mihailthebuilder https://GitHub.com/mihailthebuilder

rewind94 2y ago

Astro with Markdown with a static host. Quite simple and quick to get started.

latchkey 2y ago

Not personal, but I've started using bullet.so for my company blog (and website). I like that I can just write stuff in Notion and have it magically appear on a webpage with decent formatting. Not perfect, but fairly easy to setup, customize and maintain.

keraf 2y ago

Ghost for my personal blog and also photography portfolio. Been happily using it for years, easy to self host. Quite surprised not to see more mentions of it here.

rinvi 2y ago

[dead]

jdevy 2y ago

I like Jekyll [1]. It is simple, uses markdown, and open source. I am not sure about the SEO part though. [1]: https://jekyllrb.com/ https://jekyllrb.com/

ramon156 2y ago

Zola. Nice defaults, that's it. Also I'm biased towards Rust

senkora 2y ago

Use a static site generator that is written in a language that you know well, so that you will be comfortable updating it and installing extensions. I use Pelican because I am comfortable with Python. Many people use Jekyll because they are comfortable with Ruby.

innertracks 2y ago

Racknerd VPS running Caddy serving a Hugo generated static site. Site and content are created/edited in Emacs and rsynced to server. Took the default Hugo generated theme and tweaked it to my tastes. Forget where I sourced the original CSS I used as a starting point. https://www.hextxt.com https://www.hextxt.com

Curiositry 2y ago

Ghost, self-hosted on Fly.io free tier

stevenicr 2y ago

Wordpress is nice for many reasons, people will pan it for security and such.. install, add firewall like wordfence, change max failed logins to low number. turn on auto updates for WP and the plugins and themes. Pull backups auto and free with updraft plugin. enjoy the massive amount of themes and support around the www https://steveiscritical.com https://steveiscritical.com uses base WP with default theme, I have several others that mod the themeing more. bonus - skip tutorials that use page builders like elementor - base gutenberg does most the things out of the box these days, not need for extra bloat to be fancy.

stevenicr 2y ago
I've several learn stuff quick about wordpress things added on this learn page: https://steveiscritical.com/learn-websites-and-coding/ https://steveiscritical.com/learn-websites-and-coding/

RNPL 2y ago

Zola! I'd use plain HTML+CSS, but Zola adds some nice tools (like markdown rendering). It lives in a single binary, so I don't mind it. Hosted on GitHub pages. https://www.getzola.org/ https://www.getzola.org/