Open alternatives5
Open-source apps that replace Medium and Substack
Ghost is a free publishing platform for writing and running a website, blog or email newsletter. It is for writers and publishers who want to host their own site or use a managed service.
WordPress is free software for building and running websites and blogs, including writing and publishing posts. It is for people who want to run their own site, or set one up for someone else.
WriteFreely is a simple publishing platform for writing and running a blog. It is aimed at writers, teams and communities who want to share articles.
Plume is a blogging platform you can host yourself or join on an existing server, with support for multiple blogs per account plus image and audio uploads. It is for writers who want Medium-style blogging connected to the Fediverse, but it does not send email newsletters.
btw is an open-source tool for building a personal website or blog, with a hosted version or a self-hosted copy. It is for individuals who want to publish their own writing.
What's missing
What people still miss here, and wish existed. Upvote what matters to you.
Before you build
Planning something for blogs & newsletters? See what exists first, so you can reuse parts or explain what's different. Paste this into any AI assistant:
Fix the list itself
A project or closed app missing from this list, or a mistake on it? These open a short form on GitHub, and a mod reviews it. To say what a project can't do, use What's missing.
About this page
Replaces fully means it does the main job of these apps; Replaces partly means it covers some of it.
Licenses: every project here uses an open-source license (what each one means). Open core means some parts are paid or under another license.
GitHub stars are shown for reference. They measure popularity, not whether it replaces anything.
Verified means r/TrueOpenSource mods checked it: open-source license, maintained, and it really does the job.
How Open Source Everything works