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Ask HN: Self-host a blog securely – how? (WP? Staticgen?)
6 points by mancerayder on April 8, 2017 | hide | past | favorite | 16 comments
I have some material for a tech blog I'd like to put someplace.

I'd like to self-host it, but sometimes the part of the drive that enables creativity contradicts / is interfered with by the part of the brain that is required for technical planning, even something as minor as a tech blog setup.

At least for me.

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.

I'm a systems guy and I'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.

Has anyone experimented with Wordpress -> Pelican or is there something better?

If I spend too much time hacking away at edge conditions, then that's less time I get for creativity.

Any ideas would be appreciated.




We are using SimplyStatic (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


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.


Thanks for posting the static site plugin. I was looking for something like this. I've been using Wordpress forever and wanted something for personal use, but didn't want to host a public version of Wordpress.


> 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?


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.


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

https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2016/03/attackers-gain-access...


That's why using a hosted option is a good idea so they take care of the security patches and backups for you.


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.


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


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.


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.


Ghost is great


Jekyll + Netlify (CMS) and hosting.


Why self-host?


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.


I ask myself that a lot. Because I'm a devops / systems guy by trade, I already have my own services running on VPSes (minus a web site), because I have guaranteed content control. It's partially irrational, I'll admit. However, hosting it on someone else's tooling is Plan B.




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