Ask HN: What is the best way to author blogs in 2024?

Hacker News Discussion ↗

Choosing how to blog in 2024 largely comes down to a tradeoff between control and convenience: many technically inclined writers favor static site generators (like Hugo, Jekyll, Astro, Zola, Eleventy or Quarto) with Markdown, Git-based workflows, and cheap or free hosting on GitHub Pages, Netlify, or Cloudflare for speed, portability, and low maintenance. Others prioritize ease of use and built‑in tooling by opting for hosted platforms such as WordPress.com, Ghost, Substack, Bear, Hashnode, or even Blogger, accepting less control in exchange for simpler publishing, comments, and newsletters. Across approaches, common advice is to use your own domain, provide an RSS feed, and ensure content can be easily exported so you’re not locked into any single platform.

Static site generators + Git hosting

  • Many favor static site generators (SSGs) like Hugo, Jekyll, Astro, Zola, Eleventy, SvelteKit, Bridgetown, Nuxt, Quarto, and custom scripts.
  • Common pattern: write in Markdown, store in Git, auto-build on push, and host on GitHub Pages, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, AWS Amplify, GitLab CI + S3, or similar.
  • Pros cited: very low maintenance, fast, cheap (often free), version-controlled content, offline-friendly workflow, easy custom domains + HTTPS.
  • Some warn that tools like Hugo or Eleventy have confusing conventions or bugs and can be hard to re-learn if you update the site infrequently; others explicitly praise their stability and performance.
  • Several recommend picking “whatever SSG you like” and not over-optimizing.

Full CMS / hosted platforms

  • Ghost, WordPress, and Substack are repeatedly endorsed for people who want rich CMS features, comments, newsletters, and themes without coding.
  • Ghost is praised for easy self-hosting and upgrades; newsletter sending is tightly coupled to Mailgun, which some dislike.
  • WordPress is seen as powerful and mature, but self-hosting is high-maintenance and a security risk; exporting to static HTML is suggested as a good compromise.
  • Blogger, Hashnode, Medium, Notion publishing, dev.to, Write.as/WriteFreely, and Substack are mentioned as workable hosted options, especially if you don’t want infrastructure.

Minimal / opinionated hosted blogs

  • Lightweight, markdown-based or minimalist platforms (Bear Blog, Mataroa, Prose/pico.sh, Scribbles, Wisp, Memos, Dreamwidth, static “smallweb” hosting) appeal to those wanting simplicity over features.
  • These often trade advanced customization for a clean writing experience and easy setup.

Hand-rolled and HTML-first approaches

  • Some advocate pure HTML (possibly with htmx/zero-md) or tiny custom generators, arguing it’s simpler than learning a big framework.
  • Others counter that building/maintaining your own stack distracts from actually writing, though it can be fun and educational.

General advice & long-term considerations

  • Strong preference for owning a personal site and domain rather than relying solely on third-party platforms that may “turn to crap” over time.
  • Common requirements: RSS feeds, custom domain, markdown export, easy migration, and static hosting on a CDN for the next decade.
  • Comments are double-edged: good for engagement but bring spam and moderation overhead.