Best WordPress Blog Alternatives (That Don't Pay Me to Recommend Them)

Every “Best WordPress Alternative” article recommends the same garbage: Wix ($100 commission), Squarespace ($150 commission), Ghost ($50+ commission), WordPress.com ($50 commission). Notice a pattern? They’re ranked by commission, not quality.

Here’s what they won’t tell you: There are superb WordPress alternatives like Bear Blog ($5/mo), Mataroa ($9/year), and Astro ($0) that are faster, cheaper, and actually good. Why haven’t you heard of them? Because review sites make $0 promoting them.

Look, I’m going to be upfront: I don’t make a cent from most platforms here. Bear Blog? $0. Mataroa? $0. Telegraph? $0. Astro? $0. Hugo? $0. Eleventy? $0. I could write the same bullshit article flogging Wix and Squarespace and 4x my income. But here’s the thing: those platforms are overpriced, bloated garbage designed to extract maximum dollars from people who just want to write.

So yeah, I’m part of the problem. I take affiliate money when it exists. But I’m ranking blogging platforms by actual value, not by who pays the most. Sue me.

Why Every “Best Blog Platform” Article Is Bullshit

Every review site follows the same playbook:

1. WordPress.com - Top recommendation! ($50 affiliate commission)
2. Wix - “Great for beginners!” ($100 commission)
3. Squarespace - “Beautiful templates!” ($150 commission)
4. Ghost - “For serious writers!” ($50+ commission)

Notice a pattern? They’re ranking by commission, not quality.

Meanwhile, actually good platforms like Mataroa ($9/year) and Astro (literally $0 when deployed to Cloudflare Pages) don’t even make the list. Why? Because honesty doesn’t pay the bills.

The WordPress Blog Alternatives Actually Worth Your Time

Look, I know you’re busy. Here’s the table showing what actually matters. Notice the “Affiliate?” column, that’s why you’ve never heard of most of these.

🆓 Free Forever

💰 Paid But Honest

🗑️ Overpriced Garbage

Legend:

• Speed: ⚡ = Slow, ⚡⚡ = Fast, ⚡⚡⚡ = Stupidly Fast
• Privacy: 🔒 = Basic, 🔒🔒 = Good, 🔒🔒🔒 = Actually Private
• Affiliate: ❌ = I make $0, ✅ = What review sites actually recommend

See the pattern? The platforms that pay me nothing are faster, cheaper, and more private. The platforms review sites recommend? Slow, expensive, and built to extract maximum revenue.

TL;DR: If you can code, use Astro ($0), Hugo ($0), or Eleventy ($0). If you can’t code, use Mataroa ($9/year) or Bear Blog ($5/mo). Everything else depends on your specific needs, which I’ll explain below.

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1. Astro (astro.build)

Technical Skills: 4/5

What it costs:

• $0 (open-source)
• $0 hosting on Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, Vercel
• TOTAL COST: $0

When to USE:

• ✅ You can code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
• ✅ You want 100% control
• ✅ Performance is critical
• ✅ You want the absolute cheapest option ($0)

When NOT to use:

• ❌ You can’t code
• ❌ You want a quick 5-minute setup
• ❌ You’re intimidated by Git/GitHub

Astro builds fast content sites, powerful web applications, and dynamic server APIs. It’s a static site generator, which means you write code, build HTML, deploy to free hosting, done.

Yes, it requires technical knowledge. But if you can code, why the fuck would you pay $15/month for Wix when you can host for free? Astro’s zero JavaScript approach by default keeps pages lightweight and fast.

• Astro Official Site
• Astro Documentation
• Astro GitHub

Here is my guide to how to start a blog with Astro + Cloudflare Pages

2. Telegraph (telegra.ph)

Technical Skills: 1/5

What it costs:

• 100% FREE

When to USE:

• ✅ You need to publish something RIGHT NOW
• ✅ Complete anonymity is required
• ✅ One-off posts (tutorials, manifestos)
• ✅ You’re sharing via Telegram

When NOT to use:

• ❌ You want a cohesive blog/brand
• ❌ You need to edit posts later (without @Telegraph bot)
• ❌ You’re building a long-term content library
• ❌ You might lose your links (there’s no way to link posts to the same writer)

Telegram launched Telegraph in 2016 as an anonymous publishing tool. No registration, no account, just write and publish.

It’s not a blog platform. It’s an anonymous publishing tool that happens to work for quick posts. If you lose a link to a post you created, you won’t be able to find it again as there aren’t any usernames or history. Use it for one-offs, not your life’s work.

• Telegraph Official Site
• Telegraph API Documentation

3. Hashnode

Technical Skills: 2/5

What it costs:

• 100% FREE with all features including custom domain

When to USE:

• ✅ You’re a developer/programmer
• ✅ You want a built-in dev community
• ✅ You need syntax highlighting, code blocks
• ✅ You want GitHub backup integration
• ✅ Free custom domain is a priority

When NOT to use:

• ❌ You’re not technical (community is dev-focused)
• ❌ You want non-tech content (recipes, travel, etc.)
• ❌ You need e-commerce

Hashnode lets developers blog on custom domains with GitHub sync, and it’s completely free. No bullshit “free plan” with restrictions, actually free.

You can backup posts to GitHub and export in JSON format, which means no vendor lock-in. In my opinion, this is how every platform should work. Your content, your control.

• Hashnode Official Site
• Hashnode Documentation

4. Hugo

Technical Skills: 3/5

What it costs:

• Free: Everything (open source)
• Hosting: $0-10/month (Netlify/Vercel free tier, Cloudflare Pages, GitHub Pages)

When to USE:

• ✅ You have thousands of posts and need speed (builds 1000 pages in seconds)
• ✅ You’re comfortable with the command line
• ✅ You want complete control over your site’s structure
• ✅ You’re migrating from WordPress and never want to deal with PHP again

When NOT to use:

• ❌ You’ve never touched a terminal
• ❌ You need a WYSIWYG editor for non-technical contributors
• ❌ You want plugins for everything (Hugo’s ecosystem is smaller)
• ❌ Go templating syntax makes you want to cry

Hugo is the nuclear reactor of static site generators: absurdly fast, incredibly powerful, and you need to read the manual. Built in Go, it’s the fastest SSG out there, not by a little, by a lot.

Write in Markdown, choose a theme (or build your own), run hugo, and you’ve got a complete static site. No database, no server-side processing, just pure HTML that loads instantly. The learning curve is real, but once you’re over it, you’ll wonder why you ever tolerated slow build times.

• Hugo Official Site
• Hugo GitHub
• Hugo Documentation

5. Eleventy (11ty.dev)

Technical Skills: 3/5

What it costs:

• Free: Everything (open source)
• Hosting: $0-10/month (Netlify/Vercel free tier, Cloudflare Pages)

When to USE:

• ✅ You want flexibility without the framework bloat
• ✅ You like JavaScript but hate being locked into one templating language
• ✅ You’re building a blog that might evolve into something more complex
• ✅ You appreciate tools that don’t force opinions down your throat

When NOT to use:

• ❌ You want an out-of-the-box solution with zero configuration
• ❌ You need a visual interface (it’s all code)
• ❌ You’re allergic to npm and Node.js
• ❌ You want a massive theme marketplace

Eleventy is the indie darling of static site generators. It’s what happens when someone builds a tool that respects your intelligence and doesn’t assume you want to do things their way.

Use Nunjucks, Liquid, Handlebars, Markdown, JavaScript, or mix them all, Eleventy doesn’t care. It takes your content, processes it however you want, and spits out static HTML. No client-side JavaScript required unless you add it. The community is small but passionate, and the documentation actually makes sense.

• Eleventy Official Site
• Eleventy GitHub
• Eleventy Documentation

6. Mataroa (mataroa.blog)

Technical Skills: 1/5

What it costs:

• Free: .mataroa.blog subdomain
• $9/YEAR ($0.75/month, cheapest paid option)

When to USE:

• ✅ You want absolute bare minimum
• ✅ Budget is extremely tight
• ✅ You hate visual clutter
• ✅ Text-only content

When NOT to use:

• ❌ You want ANY customization
• ❌ You need themes or design options
• ❌ You want to organize by tags well

Mataroa is a naked blogging platform for minimalists, no ads, zero tracking. At $9/year, it’s probably the cheapest paid blog option out there.

It’s so minimal it makes Bear Blog look bloated. Mataroa may not have customizations but is a well-rounded, properly minimalistic out-of-the-box free blogging solution. Perfect for getting started without getting overwhelmed.

• Mataroa Official Site
• Mataroa GitHub

7. Bear Blog (bearblog.dev)

Technical Skills: 1/5

What it costs:

• Free: .bearblog.dev subdomain
• $5/month or $199 lifetime: Custom domain, media uploads, analytics, up to 10 sites

When to USE:

• ✅ You want the fastest possible blog (no JavaScript, no tracking, no bullshit)
• ✅ Privacy matters to you
• ✅ You’re writing text-heavy content
• ✅ You hate the modern web’s bloat

When NOT to use:

• ❌ You need a visual page builder
• ❌ You want e-commerce features
• ❌ You need complex media galleries

Bear Blog is what blogging should be: write, publish, done. Created in 2020, it now hosts over 5,500 blogs from people who remember when websites loaded in under a second.

No tracking, no JavaScript, no ads. Just your words on a page that loads faster than you can blink. In my opinion, if every blog platform worked like this, the web would be 90% less insufferable.

• Bear Blog Official Site
• Bear Blog GitHub
• Bear Blog Documentation

8. Micro.blog

Technical Skills: 2/5

What it costs:

• $5/month for hosted microblog

When to USE:

• ✅ You want blog + social network hybrid
• ✅ IndieWeb principles matter to you
• ✅ You want to cross-post to Facebook, Twitter, Medium, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Tumblr
• ✅ You hate toxic social media

When NOT to use:

• ❌ You just want a simple blog (too many features)
• ❌ You don’t care about IndieWeb
• ❌ The social aspect doesn’t interest you

Micro.blog is a microblogging service that’s part of the Fediverse and supports IndieWeb standards. No follower counts, no hashtags, no trending topics, no algorithmic recommendations.

It’s what social media should have been before it turned into a dopamine-extracting hellscape. Even if Micro.blog doesn’t work out, you’ve still got your own blog with your domain and all your content.

• Micro.blog Official Site
• Micro.blog Documentation

9. Pika (pika.page)

Technical Skills: 1/5

What it costs:

• Free: Up to 50 posts
• $6/month or $60/year: Unlimited posts, custom domain, analytics

When to USE:

• ✅ You’re a complete beginner
• ✅ You want beautiful design out-of-the-box
• ✅ Visual editing appeals to you
• ✅ You like active development

When NOT to use:

• ❌ You need custom SEO meta tags
• ❌ Platform longevity concerns you (launched in early 2024, very new)
• ❌ You’re risk-averse

Created by Good Enough team with focus on making writing enjoyable. Pika is what happens when someone actually designs a blogging platform for humans instead of for extracting maximum subscription revenue.

The downside? It’s the youngest platform reviewed here, so longevity is uncertain. But hell, at least they’re trying to build something good instead of another WordPress clone.

• Pika Official Site
• Pika Help Center
• Building Pika Out Loud Blog

10. Write.as

Technical Skills: 1/5

What it costs:

• Free: Limited features, anonymous posting
• $6/month or $240/5 years: Custom domain, themes, CSS/JS, up to 3 blogs

When to USE:

• ✅ Privacy/anonymity is critical
• ✅ You don’t want to give your email to sign up
• ✅ You want ActivityPub/Fediverse integration
• ✅ You’re fleeing social media toxicity

When NOT to use:

• ❌ You need strong SEO tools
• ❌ You want lots of themes
• ❌ Media handling is important (it’s clunky)

Launched in February 2015 by Matt Baer as an alternative to the pervasiveness of social media. The platform doesn’t even log your IP address.

Write.as is for people who actually give a damn about privacy. It powers over 550,000 blogs and supports the Fediverse, which means your blog can federate with Mastodon. Try doing that with WordPress.com.

• Write.as Official Site
• Write.as Documentation

11. Scribbles (scribbles.page)

Technical Skills: 1/5

What it costs:

• Free: Up to 25 posts
• Paid: TBD (platform is new)

When to USE:

• ✅ You want modern, clean design
• ✅ You’re testing blogging waters
• ✅ You like WYSIWYG editors
• ✅ You need passcode-protected blogs

When NOT to use:

• ❌ You need long-term stability guarantee (one-person project)
• ❌ You want extensive customization
• ❌ You need your main business site

Created by Vincent Ritter, developer of tinylytics and Gluon app for micro.blog. Scribbles offers a distraction-free editor, ability to manage up to 5 blogs, and custom domains.

It’s new, it’s actively developed, and it’s refreshingly simple. The risk? It’s a one-man project under active development, so it may not be the best place for your main web presence.

• Scribbles Official Site

12. Obsidian Publish

Technical Skills: 2/5

What it costs:

• $20/month or $192/year per site

When to USE:

• ✅ You already use Obsidian for notes
• ✅ You want a digital garden (interconnected notes)
• ✅ You love backlinks and knowledge graphs
• ✅ You’re building documentation/wiki

When NOT to use:

• ❌ You want traditional blog format
• ❌ Price is a concern (most expensive option here)
• ❌ You don’t use Obsidian already

Obsidian Publish brings your connected notes online with hover previews, graph view, and stacked pages. It’s not really a blog platform, it’s for digital gardens and knowledge bases.

If you’re already deep in the Obsidian ecosystem, this makes sense. Otherwise, it’s expensive as hell for what amounts to a fancy note-taking interface on the web.

• Obsidian Publish
• Obsidian Official Site

Which One Should You Actually Use?

If you can code: Astro. It’s free, it’s fast, and you own everything. This is the very best platform to start a blog on.

If you can’t code but want simplicity: Bear Blog or Mataroa. Both are honest platforms that don’t try to upsell you into oblivion.

If you’re a developer: Hashnode. Free custom domain, built-in community, GitHub integration. No brainer.

If you need anonymity: Write.as or Telegraph. One for long-term blogging, one for quick anonymous posts.

If you want pretty and easy: Pika. Just know it’s new and unproven.

If you’re already in Obsidian: Obsidian Publish, but only if you really need those interconnected notes online.

If you want social + blog hybrid: Micro.blog. It’s what Twitter should have been.

If you want to test blogging: Scribbles. 25 free posts, clean interface, no commitment.

If you want to use Github: Hugo and Eleventy. Free, fast, and hosted on Github.

The Bottom Line

I don’t make money from these recommendations. I could be shilling WordPress.com, Wix, and Squarespace like every other review site and 4x my income. But those platforms are designed to extract maximum revenue from you, not to give you the best blogging experience.

These platforms? They’re built by people who actually give a shit about writing, privacy, and the open web. Some are free. Some are cheap. None of them are trying to lock you into a $300/year subscription for features you don’t need.

Yeah, I’m part of the problem. I take affiliate money when it exists. But at least I’m ranking by value, not by commission. Don’t trust me, try these platforms yourself and see which one doesn’t feel like a scam.