Important: no built-in audience
These tools replace the writing and publishing, not Medium's network of readers. Plan for newsletters, search, and social sharing to bring traffic to a blog you host yourself.
Alternatives / Medium
7 open-source alternatives
7 Best Open Source Medium Alternatives in 2026
Looking for an open source Medium alternative? We compared 7 open source blogging and publishing platforms by license, self-hosting, monetization, and maintenance. None of them gives you Medium's built-in audience, so you gain ownership of your content but must bring your own readers.
Written by Maxime DERAME
Last updated:
Best Medium alternatives at a glance
| Alternative | Best for | License |
|---|---|---|
| Ghost | Professional publishing with memberships and newsletters | MIT |
| WordPress | Most flexible CMS with plugins and themes | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Sigle | Web3 writing on Bitcoin | MIT |
| Zenblog | Markdown blog for developers | AGPL-3.0 |
| Pagecord | Personal blog posted by email | Pagecord Licence (source available) |
| Comma | Free personal site builder (archived) | AGPL-3.0 (archived) |
| Hyvor Blogs | Multi-site CMS with headless API (very small) | AGPL-3.0 |
How we chose these Medium alternatives
We looked for open-source tools that let you publish articles under your own domain and replace Medium's writing and publishing experience. We verified each project's license, recent activity, stars, and self-hosting in its repository, and flag archived projects and non-standard licenses. See our methodology for the full criteria.
Closest to Medium
Ghost is the closest: a professional publishing platform with a clean editor, memberships, paid subscriptions through Stripe, and newsletters, available self-hosted or as a managed service. WordPress is the most flexible, with thousands of themes and plugins, while Pagecord is a minimal personal blog you can post to by email.
Smaller and newer options
Zenblog is a markdown-based blog aimed at developers, Hyvor Blogs is a multi-site CMS with a headless API, and Sigle is a Web3 writing platform focused on the Bitcoin ecosystem, which may not suit general writers.
Important: archived and source-available
Comma, a free site builder with articles and email capture, is archived on GitHub, so it receives no updates. Pagecord uses its own source-available licence, and its hosted premium plan costs $39 per year or $4 per month.
License details
Ghost and Sigle are MIT. WordPress is GPL-2.0 or later. Zenblog, Hyvor Blogs, and Comma are AGPL-3.0, and Pagecord uses a custom source-available licence.
Maintenance status
Ghost, WordPress, Sigle, Pagecord, and Hyvor Blogs had commits within days of this update. Zenblog's last commit was in September 2026, and Comma is archived.
Why look for a Medium alternative?
Medium is a proprietary platform where your articles live on its domain, its paywall and recommendations decide your reach, and your subscribers belong to the platform. Open-source tools let you publish on your own domain, own your subscriber list, and export your content, but you lose Medium's built-in distribution.
ghost.org
MIT open-source publishing platform with a modern editor, built-in newsletters, memberships, paid subscriptions, Stripe integration, themes, SEO, Content API, self-hosting, and managed Ghost(Pro).
55.5K12KMITSelf-hosted
Pricing: Open-source self-hosted edition and managed Ghost(Pro) service.
- Modern publishing with built-in newsletters and memberships
- Paid subscriptions, Stripe, themes, SEO, and Content API
- Self-hosted or managed hosting through Ghost(Pro)
- Smaller plugin ecosystem than WordPress
- More publishing-focused and less suitable for arbitrary apps
- Ecommerce capabilities are narrower
wordpress.org
WordPress is a content management system for everything from simple blogs to complex stores, with an intuitive dashboard, thousands of themes and plugins, SEO tools, multi-language support, and WooCommerce. It is licensed under GPL-2.0-or-later. Newsletters and paid memberships require plugins or external services.
21.5K13KGPL-2.0-or-laterSelf-hosted
Pricing: Free and open source; hosting, themes, and plugins have separate costs.
- Huge ecosystem of themes and plugins
- Flexible for blogs, stores, and sites
- Massive community and hosting support
- No built-in newsletters or paid memberships
- Needs updates, security, and plugin maintenance
sigle.io
Sigle is a decentralized writing platform built on the Bitcoin blockchain, with Bitcoin Ordinals support for permanent content storage, NFT-gated subscriptions through Unlock Protocol, custom domains, newsletters, and privacy-focused analytics. It targets Web3 writers and crypto analysts.
48882MITDecentralized
Pricing: Free and open source.
- Content permanence through Bitcoin Ordinals
- NFT-gated subscriptions and custom domains
- MIT license
- Niche audience tied to crypto
- Complex compared with Substack or Ghost
github.com
AGPL-3.0 blogging CMS using a modern TypeScript stack and focused on simple publishing. Self-hosting documentation and deployment workflows are still developing.
25418AGPL-3.0Self-hosting in development
Pricing: Open-source early-stage project; self-hosting guidance is evolving.
- Simple blogging focus and modern stack
- Lightweight and developer-friendly
- AGPL-3.0 source
- Young project with very small ecosystem
- Self-hosting documentation is still evolving
- Not ready for WordPress's range of site types
comma.to
AGPL-3.0 site builder for personal sites, profiles, portfolios, articles, newsletters, and link pages. The repository has been archived by its owner and is no longer maintained.
22624AGPL-3.0 (archived)Hosted service
Pricing: Free plan with limited content; Pro from $6 per month; the repository is archived.
- Fast site creation for profiles, portfolios, articles, and projects
- Newsletter capture, analytics, and custom-domain positioning
- Low setup complexity for personal sites
- Repository archived and no longer maintained
- Not a full CMS replacement
- Small project
pagecord.com
Personal blogging platform with publishing through email, a web editor, Obsidian, iA Writer, CLI, or API, plus RSS, subscribers, custom domains, analytics, exports, and self-hosting. It is source available under the Pagecord Licence, which allows self-hosting for your own blog but forbids offering it as a hosted service.
19416Pagecord Licence (source available)Self-hosted
Pricing: Free to self-host for your own use; the hosted pagecord.com has a free tier and paid Premium.
- Publish by email, web editor, Obsidian, CLI, or API
- RSS, subscribers, custom domains, and analytics
- Full HTML/Markdown export and self-hosting
- Primarily for personal blogs
- Smaller ecosystem and no WordPress-style plugins
- Not intended for complex corporate sites
hyvor.com
Hyvor Blogs is an AGPL-3.0 publishing platform for blogs and publications with multi-site and multilingual support, themes, built-in SEO, and a headless Data API. It can run on a custom domain, in a sub-directory of an existing site, or headless. The repository is small, with about 23 stars.
236AGPL-3.0Self-hosted
Pricing: Free to self-host; managed hosting is a paid service.
- Multi-site and multilingual
- Sub-directory and headless modes
- Built-in SEO and developer APIs
- Very small community
- Far fewer themes and integrations than WordPress or Ghost
Compare Medium alternatives
| Alternative | Type | License | Self-hosted | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghost | Publishing platform | MIT | Yes | Writers who monetize |
| WordPress | CMS | GPL-2.0-or-later | Yes | Any kind of site |
| Sigle | Web3 blogging | MIT | Yes | Bitcoin-oriented writers |
| Zenblog | Blog platform | AGPL-3.0 | Yes | Developers |
| Pagecord | Blog platform | Pagecord licence (source available) | Yes | Simple personal blogs |
| Comma | Site builder | AGPL-3.0 (archived) | Yes | Not recommended for new setups |
| Hyvor Blogs | Blog CMS | AGPL-3.0 | Yes | Multi-site publications |
Which one should you choose?
Want the closest publishing experience with paid memberships
Ghost provides a clean editor, newsletters, and Stripe-powered paid subscriptions with no platform fee.
Want maximum flexibility and plugins
WordPress has thousands of themes and plugins and runs anything from blogs to stores.
Want to post by email with minimal setup
Pagecord lets you publish by email, from Obsidian or iA Writer, or via API, under a source-available licence.
Want a developer-oriented markdown blog
Zenblog is a minimalist markdown blog with syntax highlighting and Git integration.