WriteFreely

WriteFreely is an open-source, federated publishing platform built around the simple act of writing. Created by the team behind Write.as, it has earned over 5,000 GitHub stars and an active community of self-hosters who run personal blogs, organizational changelogs, and Fediverse-connected publications. The platform deliberately leaves out everything that traditional CMSs add — comments, plugins, trackers, ad slots — and focuses entirely on giving writers a fast, calm space to publish long-form Markdown.

Common Use Cases

Independent writers and journalists self-host WriteFreely as a personal blog under their own domain, replacing platforms like Medium or Substack while retaining full ownership of their content and audience. Open-source maintainers run WriteFreely instances as project changelogs and release blogs, leveraging ActivityPub so contributors and users can follow updates from Mastodon. Small teams and communities deploy multi-user WriteFreely instances as a shared, federated publishing space — every member gets a blog under the same domain. Newsletter writers use WriteFreely as a distraction-free drafting environment that publishes directly to the open web without locking subscribers into a proprietary service.

Key Features

• Distraction-free Markdown editor with auto-saving drafts and keyboard shortcuts
• ActivityPub federation so any Fediverse account can follow blogs natively
• Clean, typography-first public reading experience with no ads or trackers
• Single-user or multi-user instance modes with per-blog customization
• Custom CSS and built-in themes for white-label branding
• Post scheduling, private drafts, and pinned posts
• RSS, JSON, and Atom feeds out of the box for every blog
• Full data export and import in standard formats
• SQLite or MySQL/MariaDB backends depending on scale
• Lightweight Go binary that runs comfortably on the smallest VPS plans

Why deploy WriteFreely on Hostinger VPS

Deploying WriteFreely on a Hostinger VPS provides writers with a fast, private, and fully-controlled blogging platform without monthly subscription fees or platform lock-in. Posts and reader data reside entirely on infrastructure you control, federation operates under your own domain so links remain stable for years, and the lightweight Go binary backed by SQLite consumes minimal resources — thereby leaving room on the VPS for other applications. Persistent volume storage protects your writing across container updates, and full root access allows you to set up custom themes, integrate with backup pipelines, and export your archive at any time without negotiating with a vendor.