30 ms·

Ask HN: What blogging platform do you use for your startup?

6 points by capex 13y ago

I am deciding between using Wordpress, Octopress or something else. Would love to have HN readers' thoughts on this.

dpaluy 13y ago
I will share my experience working with both Platforms. TL:DR; Non programmers should use Wordpress When you are working in a small team of developers, and each one can "hack the code" Octopress is a natural environment. You can host it on AWS S3 or Github pages and the setup is simple. But when your marketing fellows start using it, Octopress is usually too complicated for them. Wordpress is more non-programmer friendly. And it has much more plugins and extensions. Too summarize it: IMHO, Wordpress would be a better solution, unless you don't plan to hire marketers.
- capex 13y ago
  So far its just me marketing. But for a team of people involved with the blog, probably Wordpress is a safer bet.
pathy 13y ago
I've almost always used Wordpress for everything. It is simple to use, easy to customize and has a lot of plugins etc that may be very useful depending on your needs. Why reinvent the wheel so to say. Wordpress is widely used and seems to do the job well in most situations. Especially if the users responsible for the blog are non-technical, don't make it harder than it has to be to write those posts.
- EnderMB 13y ago
  I've given my fair share of hate towards developers that use WordPress for everything (advanced CMS, application platform, etc) but the reason it is so popular is because it's such a great blogging platform. Yes, it's quite bloated, and there are many cleaner options out there, but it will work as a blogging platform, and it will work just as good as any other script out there.
- peacemaker 13y ago
  I was using Wordpress for my blog until I installed New Relic and got to see how bloated and slow it is. Yes, I installed various caching and performance plugins but it always felt a bit slow. I'm still looking for something extremely light weight that I can plug into an existing website (rather than take over the entire code base) but until then I'm just using a simple 'blog' that I wrote myself.
mjhea0 13y ago
I've used a number of static site generators and have stuck with http://ruhoh.com/ http://ruhoh.com/. It's easy to use and customize for those who want/need an easy solution. Meanwhile, it's still young enough that I can hack away at it to meet my specific needs. Love it. "Ruhoh’s goal is to offer a universal, platform-agnostic static blog API. I like how it uses mustache templating and incorporates tag-based blogging without plugins."
thenomad 13y ago
Hosted Wordpress. Wordpress on a self-hosted server is a world of pain unless you're prepared to spend significant resources on optimising it and keeping it up to date. And entertainingly, if you fail to keep it up to date the result is usually a rooted server, sooner or later. However, outsourcing the hosting to people who do WP and nothing else removes most of those headaches and makes it a very time-effective platform. Personally I use WP Engine for my hosting (I wrote about why over here: http://www.mmomeltingpot.com/2012/03/wpengine-review-after-1-month-and-250k-visitors-is-this-the-best-wordpress-hosting-money-can-buy/ http://www.mmomeltingpot.com/2012/03/wpengine-review-after-1...) but there's a lot of options out there.
AbhishekBiswal 13y ago
Stay away from self hosted blogging platforms. What if your server goes down and you want to update your users with what's happening? There are many other options available : Tumblr ( Many startups use it ), Blogger, and more.

6 points by capex 13y ago

I am deciding between using Wordpress, Octopress or something else. Would love to have HN readers' thoughts on this.

I will share my experience working with both Platforms. TL:DR; Non programmers should use Wordpress When you are working in a small team of developers, and each one can "hack the code" Octopress is a natural environment. You can host it on AWS S3 or Github pages and the setup is simple. But when your marketing fellows start using it, Octopress is usually too complicated for them. Wordpress is more non-programmer friendly. And it has much more plugins and extensions. Too summarize it: IMHO, Wordpress would be a better solution, unless you don't plan to hire marketers.

capex 13y ago
So far its just me marketing. But for a team of people involved with the blog, probably Wordpress is a safer bet.

pathy 13y ago

I've almost always used Wordpress for everything. It is simple to use, easy to customize and has a lot of plugins etc that may be very useful depending on your needs. Why reinvent the wheel so to say. Wordpress is widely used and seems to do the job well in most situations. Especially if the users responsible for the blog are non-technical, don't make it harder than it has to be to write those posts.

EnderMB 13y ago
I've given my fair share of hate towards developers that use WordPress for everything (advanced CMS, application platform, etc) but the reason it is so popular is because it's such a great blogging platform. Yes, it's quite bloated, and there are many cleaner options out there, but it will work as a blogging platform, and it will work just as good as any other script out there.
peacemaker 13y ago
I was using Wordpress for my blog until I installed New Relic and got to see how bloated and slow it is. Yes, I installed various caching and performance plugins but it always felt a bit slow. I'm still looking for something extremely light weight that I can plug into an existing website (rather than take over the entire code base) but until then I'm just using a simple 'blog' that I wrote myself.

mjhea0 13y ago

I've used a number of static site generators and have stuck with http://ruhoh.com/ http://ruhoh.com/. It's easy to use and customize for those who want/need an easy solution. Meanwhile, it's still young enough that I can hack away at it to meet my specific needs. Love it. "Ruhoh’s goal is to offer a universal, platform-agnostic static blog API. I like how it uses mustache templating and incorporates tag-based blogging without plugins."

thenomad 13y ago

Hosted Wordpress. Wordpress on a self-hosted server is a world of pain unless you're prepared to spend significant resources on optimising it and keeping it up to date. And entertainingly, if you fail to keep it up to date the result is usually a rooted server, sooner or later. However, outsourcing the hosting to people who do WP and nothing else removes most of those headaches and makes it a very time-effective platform. Personally I use WP Engine for my hosting (I wrote about why over here: http://www.mmomeltingpot.com/2012/03/wpengine-review-after-1-month-and-250k-visitors-is-this-the-best-wordpress-hosting-money-can-buy/ http://www.mmomeltingpot.com/2012/03/wpengine-review-after-1...) but there's a lot of options out there.

AbhishekBiswal 13y ago

Stay away from self hosted blogging platforms. What if your server goes down and you want to update your users with what's happening? There are many other options available : Tumblr ( Many startups use it ), Blogger, and more.