Ask HN: What is a good blogging platform for non-developers | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What is a good blogging platform for non-developers

8 pointsblacksmythe13 comments

I really like Ghost (https://ghost.org/). Currently I'm self-hosting but there's a hosted version for non-devs for $19 / month. I'm pretty happy with it.

Svbtle (https://svbtle.com/) would be my next choice and one I'm considering switching to now that it's open to anyone. Though it doesn't quite have the community and support that Ghost does.

GitHub and GitLab both have free hosting (with no ads either) through what they called pages and is aimed at showing off projects and blogging.

https://pages.github.com/

https://pages.gitlab.io/

They both use Jekyll(https://jekyllrb.com/) which is quite easy to learn even if you have never done any web dev. http://jekyll.tips/ has some really well made video tutorials on it as well as templates if you're not the artsy type. Adding a new blog entry is as easy as typing it up then doing a git commit and push.

I haven't set one up in GitHub yet but I know GitLab also can do TLS with LetsEncrypt

To add to this, you can use any static website generator with GitLab, here's a simple getting started: https://about.gitlab.com/2016/04/07/gitlab-pages-setup/

I'm a firm believer that with improving the tools (in my case- GitLab), CMS will become a thing of the past and static pages will be as accessible, yet more powerful, faster and more collaborative.

WordPress if you want control of your content.

Medium if you don't care what others may do with your content.

I went with WordPress because its important for me to control the content. I can always re-post it somewhere else, but the initial release will always be on my site.

I am not a developer. I use BlogSpot. I migrated from Word Press to BlogSpot because I was so frustrated with Word Press. It was taking too much of my time, not getting me the functionality or design I wanted and that meant the time I did have for blogging was not going into creating content nearly enough. After the migration, I began putting up a lot more content. I find BlogSpot to be very user-friendly.

But lots of people are fans of Word Press and I hear a lot of trash talk about BlogSpot. So, obviously, YMMV.

Agree with Blogger/blogspot if you just want to blog. I use that for my personal blog right now and love that it doesn't get in the way much. If you really enjoy installing plugins and playing with themes though, WP is fun. A lot of people are recommending Medium, but there are a lot of blog platforms around. Posthaven for instance although they charge $5 per month.

If you really enjoy installing plugins and playing with themes though, WP is fun.

I hated the plug-ins and I very, very much enjoy playing with themes on BlogSpot, but mostly did not on Word Press. (In fact, I have considered doing consulting to help people with their BlogSpot theme, but it is currently a half-baked idea that I don't know how to further develop.) I found BlogSpot much, much more user-friendly for purposes of playing with themes. Some themes in Word Press can be fiddled with, but a lot are basically "This is what you get, you don't get to customize it" and I was enormously frustrated with being unable to achieve what I wanted. I spent an excess of time trying to find a theme I liked and basically failing.

When you talk of playing around with themes, my personal favorite for a while was Tumblr (at least until Yahoo bought them)

Wordpress - It has a big community, continued developer interest and is relatively easy to use. Also, it's a one-click install for many hosting companies.

For non-developers, or non-tecnical users, I'd recommend Medium (https://medium.com) first, then Tumblr.com (https://tumblr.com) or WordPress.com (https://wordpress.com).

https://ghost.org/

I'd go where all the cool kids are at and choose Medium. A lot of blogging is about community and reach, and Medium gives you a built-in community to work with. Their editor is pretty good too, and the limitations imposed by the platform make me spend more time writing and less time configuring plugins and fighting with third-party themes.

The only unfortunate bit about Medium is a large number of marketers using the platform. If I end up on a Medium page through a trusted source (HN, reddit, a friend, or one of the development newsletters I follow) the content is usually high quality, but Medium's own recommendations are filled with promotional or clickbait articles.

If you prefer content to creating your own personal blog appearances, Medium (http://medium.com/) is the best option. I did use Tumblr and Wordpress for quite some time over the years on multiple non-developer blogs.

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