
Ask HN: Self-host a blog securely – how? (WP? Staticgen?) - mancerayder
I have some material for a tech blog I&#x27;d like to put someplace.<p>I&#x27;d like to self-host it, but sometimes the part of the drive that enables creativity contradicts &#x2F; is interfered with by the part of the brain that is required for technical planning, even something as minor as a tech blog setup.<p>At least for me.<p>I&#x27;m thinking I host a WordPress instance privately, at home, and I use a staticgen system (Pelican??) to export and push that out to a STATIC public site on a VPS I control.  It still feels like a lot of work though.<p>I&#x27;m a systems guy and I&#x27;d like the WYSIWYG-type platform on which I can focus on ideas and post my blog without worrying about security, hosting, etc.  And it needs to be at least somewhat pretty, with a discus or other commentary plugin at the bottom and ability to show pretty screenshots.<p>Has anyone experimented with Wordpress -&gt; Pelican or is there something better?<p>If I spend too much time hacking away at edge conditions, then that&#x27;s less time I get for creativity.<p>Any ideas would be appreciated.
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samirmalpande
We are using SimplyStatic ([https://wordpress.org/plugins/simply-
static/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/simply-static/)) for genrating a static
site from WordPress. It has many options which make genrating and deplying a
static site with WordPress easy.

If you want to host site on S3 you can use the fork of Simply Static
[https://github.com/kennu/simply-static-s3](https://github.com/kennu/simply-
static-s3)

~~~
mancerayder
Wow, I think this has the most potential. I'm a fan of simplicity. I
downloaded a theme, made a few edits and ran this plugin, and so far so good
as a POC.

This is faster than having to learn Pelican and even those other systems which
might also be great, but a bit heavy weight for my purposes.

Thank you, this might be the solution I was looking for.

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akg_67
> I'm thinking I host a WordPress instance privately, at home, and I use a
> staticgen system (Pelican??) to export and push that out to a STATIC public
> site on a VPS I control. It still feels like a lot of work though.

What is the purpose of this exercise? Blogging or learning WP->static page
migration path? If your purpose is blogging and you have no interest in admin
and revenue generation, just host on WordPress.com. If you want more
flexibility, just self-host WordPress.

Why make it more complicated by adding another path of WP->Static Pages?

~~~
mancerayder
_Why make it more complicated by adding another path of WP- >Static Pages?_

WordPress can pretty insecure if not micromanaged. It's often a vector for
hacks, and requires meticulous updating.

~~~
mancerayder
Here is some support for the claim that WordPress is insecure:

[https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2016/03/attackers-gain-
access...](https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2016/03/attackers-gain-access-
wordpress-sites/)

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thenomad
Hugo with Discus will do the job you're looking to complete: it's the approach
I've taken with nearly all my sites these days, precisely because of the
performance and security headaches.

You don't even need to run a VPS, although if you do so you can set up a nice
publication pipeline with Git. But you can equally just throw the static
content up on S3 or Google Cloud Storage, optionally with a CDN in front of
it.

You can also run your blog on Gitlab if you feel inclined: they have a CI
process meaning that when you commit new source content to your git repo,
it'll automatically get built and appear on your site. I found the domain
support a little flaky there when I tried it, but apparently they've updated
their setup since then.

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type0
Just use Caddy server with built in Hugo generator (you can choose it as an
option when you download)

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siscia
I am hosting a whole webshop about developer stickers(WallOfStickers.com) on a
static web page.

Simply put your file in an S3 bucket and point the name server.

If you need a httpS connection (and I needed to take payments) simply use
cloudfront and you are set.

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Mz
FWIW, I hand coded my first blog, moved it to self hosted Word Press to try to
focus more on content, less on the back end stuff and later moved to BlogSpot.
I have been much more satisfied with BlogSpot.

They also have very recently released new themes.

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rubatuga
Ghost is great

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stevenhubertron
Jekyll + Netlify (CMS) and hosting.

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smt88
Why self-host?

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tedmiston
With Ghost specifically it's because they charge way too much for the hosted
service. $29/month ($19/month with annual commitment) for a blog is not worth
it to me. If they offered a $5–10/month plan, I would probably use them over
self-hosting.

