I’m curious what everyone would recommend for a new blog? I really want to focus on the writing and not deal with updates and viruses. But I’d still like to do a good degree of customization and plugins and a custom domain name.
Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
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Re: Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
#2If you really want to avoid updates and viruses, you need to go static. There's hundreds of static site generators out there.
I recommend [1] hexo, for it's simplicity. You can write in markdown files and generate a static blog for static hosting.
But [2] Gatsby is another similar framework, but it uses React.
[1] https://hexo.io/
Re: Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
#3I ended up with a domain purchased on Gandi.
A Hugo static website on Github.
Netlify hosting that Github repo.
It's really turnkey and zero maintenance, and free.
https://sergio.dev/posts/genserver-webcrawling-in-pure-elixi...
Re: Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
#4Humorously, you can (probably) do all that with BlogSpot.
Re: Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
#5While it doesn't seem very popular in Hacker News, I think WordPress [1] is an excellent platform for a blog. The community is terrific, there is a tremendous amount of documentation out there, and it is entirely customisable.
If you go with the managed hosting route, most companies handle security and updates for you, so you can focus on writing and leave everything technical to someone else.
I am working on one myself — and have a private beta running, if you are interested [2], —, but of the top of my head, some companies that will go above and beyond as far as WordPress is concerned, include Kinsta [3], Pantheon [4] and Presslabs [5]. The last one is based in Romania and open sourced a bunch of their stack, worth checking out.
[2] Just email me at help@madpony.co for information
Re: Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
#6If you really want to avoid updates and viruses, you need to go static . There's hundreds of static site generators out there. I recommend [1] hexo, for it's simplicity. You can write in markdown files and generate a static blog for static hosting. But [2] Gatsby is another similar framework, but it uses React. [1] https://hexo.io/ [2] https://www.gatsbyjs.org
Another static site generator that is gaining traction is Eleventy[1]. It's very small and simple, entirely build in js, supports most templating languages you already know and it's more flexible than GatbyJS.
For a more complete blogging solution, though, I'd recommend Ghost.[2].
If you're building a small blog just for fun you should definitely go static and scratch your hacker's itch.
Re: Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
#7Gatsby, Hugo or plain(ish) Jekkyl.
Simple, clean, fast. Updates and viruses are a non-issue.
Depends what plugins you're talking about, but if you're a non-programmer/dev type, then you're probably better off using Wordpress as a blogging platform if some serious customisation is wanted.
Re: Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
#8Github Pages + Jekyll.
Can use it with your custom domain, pretty customisable, and since its a static site, relatively secure.
Re: Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
#9github pages, and commit my own vanilla html
Re: Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
#10WordPress all the way. I genuinely think it's the self-hosted solution that offers the best combination of control, flexibility and ease-of-use. You just need a couple of plugins for performance and safety and you are set [0].
There are literally tens of thousands of themes - open source and commercial - that you can try out in a matter of minutes instead of wasting days or weeks designing your own theme.
You rarely have to code stuff by yourself because there is a plugin for any functionality you can imagine.
Latest version of WordPress comes with the new Gutenberg editor which I'm personally not a huge fan of as it obfuscates too much of WordPress' inner workings. You might, therefore, want to use the Classic Editor plugin as a solution.
If you haven't already bought a domain name, I recommend Porkbun. Moved several domains to them in the past months and have found them to be cheap and yet reliable straight shooters.
[0] My list of must-have plugins: Yoast (for SEO), Autoptimize (caching/performance), Wordfence Security (multi-layer security).