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Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

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24 alternatives to A Minimal PHP Wiki

First, I'm by no mean a programmer. Second, I am reading HN for years, just registered to make this public and see if it can be useful for someone. I have nothing to gain monetary. A while ago, I decided that no blogging system was simple enough and I looked for a small wiki to use as a CMS/blog. Found WikWiki on C2.com and I mixed it with some basic Markdown syntax, a minimal template and added password protection. The result is a single php file, no database and no dependencies. Code is a mess, not modulable, probably wrong in so many ways, but it can probably used by some as personal…

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. A Minimal PHP Wiki launched in 2022; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1

    Hello HN! I've found my SQL knowledge to be lacking, so I made a project that uses SQLite as a backend. As it is intended for self-hosting I aim to make it easy to set up and maintain. Getting it up & running takes no more than a few commands (bar setting up a proxy such as nginx, which is out of scope). I've set up a "demo" site at https://forum.agreper.com/ if you want to try out the UI.

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

  2. 2BH

    Like others on here, I was inspired by the "personal blogs" post :) [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36575081 In proper HN fashion, the site is open-source and requires no JS! There's instructions on how to add/edit a blog on the Github README. [1] https://github.com/surprisetalk/blogs.hn Note that your blog might appear in blogs.json, but not on the site! Right now I'm using the following code to filter out blogs. Your blog might appear if you add more metadata: if ( 3 > 0 + !!blog.title + (blog.desc.length > 40) + !!blog.about + !!blog.now +…

    2023 · blogs.hn · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    I built this last year but never posted it anywhere, but now with Reddit hiatus it seems like the right time to give it a shot. The main goal of zsync is to foster high quality content and discussion. That's it. If it can't accomplish that, then to me it is a failure. I watched Reddit go from having high quality discussion in 2008-9 to devolving into the PC meme dumpster it is today [1]. HN still has the highest discussion quality of any "forum" I know of, but (1) it can sometimes randomly be very hostile/toxic to new tech, the most glaring example being crypto. (2) HN is basically a…

    2023 · zsync.xyz · its alternatives →

  4. 4
    Wisp CMS▲410

    Delightful way to create + manage blogs on existing websites

    2024 · wisp.blog · its alternatives →

  5. 5
    Hashnode▲250

    A friendly and inclusive Q&A network for coders

    2015 · hashnode.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6
    H.php▲8

    H.php : The Minimalist PHP Framework!

    2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7PB

    phpbestpractices.org ist Ihre erste und beste Informationsquelle über phpbestpractices. Hier finden Sie auch weitere interessante Links. Wir hoffen, dass Sie bei Ihrer Suche erfolgreich sind!

    2012 · phpbestpractices.org · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    Hey HN, maker here. It was a serious 4-6 months of effort to build this. I have never poured as much love, attention and detail into a project before. So I really appreciate you having a looksie! The homepage has a fresh list of articles every hour and is open to all. Still, I recommend signing up so you can add stuff to your reading list and follow blogs. My initial plan was to monetize this with subtle ads, but that didn't work out as the traffic to the site isn't nearly enough for that. That said, I have a fair bit invested in this and I need your help figuring out a way to make this…

    2023 · boredreading.com · its alternatives →

  9. 9

    Today's internet is filled with dopamine wells of content. I wanted to steer away from that and foster meaningful writing. So I made a site where you can only have a single post. The intention is to encourage thoughtful posts like the blogs we all love here at HN (Paul Graham's, fasterthanlime, Bartosz Ciechanowski's, etc). For now posts are only markdown, but I intend to make some markdown extensions to make posts more dynamic.

    2022 · app.pressnt.net · its alternatives →

  10. 10AH

    I've been trying to write my "go on rails" framework for years. I never quite got it like I wanted. There is gin and echo and all sorts of other frameworks and patterns but I finally found something I really like: /foo/ /foo/bar/ /foo/bar/more/ That's it. Just three levels and all my controllers get passed in what's between the / with var names first, second, third. In order to really make sure this framework could build something real I made a Hacker News clone. RemoteRenters.com is a HN just for articles about the remote work revolution…

    2023 · remoterenters.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11AW
  12. 126O
  13. 13DO
  14. 14
  15. 15CO

    https://github.com/turboblack/HamsterCMS No database required! You only need one file to work! Works on PHP 8 without preinstalled frameworks Just copy the files to the server (or hosting). No settings needed. Perfect for a simple home page. The hamster works very quickly. The hamster code is simple and clear! Open source and free! Multi-template Easy to adapt templates.

    2024 · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    Hello HN community ! Finally I have a "Show HN" post. I'm bootstrapping my first Mac app, it's a standalone Xdebug PHP debugger. It aims to help any PHP developers out there who don't want to use IDE to debug code. My app it's slimmer, faster to load and easy to work and setup :) Hope you guys like it Site: http://codebugapp.com/

    2012 · codebugapp.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    I built a minimal opensource CMS, I use it myself for my blog and for other SaaS. l love blogging, and sometimes I post random thoughts on my blog. The only thing is, I always did it with .md files, which is fine too However, I was excited about the idea of using a CMS that was very minimal and avoiding the option of connecting something like WordPress or other big platforms. Open source (if you want to fork it or contribute) and free to use (unless I see you have a million views haha). Star the repo if you like it!

    Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18SL

    So a while ago I was thinking it would be neat to build a site that had the most absolute utility. The idea I came up with was a site to store those little protips that are super useful, if you know them ahead of time. I hired a guy to work on it with me, and ClueDB was born: http://cluedb.com/ Please give it a whirl (it uses Twitter auth as login but doesn't tweet anything) and tell me what you think! (Various trivia: My first try at a project coded by someone else and "product managed" by me. Runs on Flask + MongoDB. Also, this is totally unrelated to my startup.)

    2011 · cluedb.com · its alternatives →

  19. 19MF

    Hi all :) Saturday, I launched my first side project. It's basically a job board for PHP devs. https://php-at.work In the moment, everyone can post a job listing for free. I review it and activate it manually. I would love to hear any kind of feedback :) I posted it already on saturday, but probably it should be better in Show HN section.

    2018 · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    Hey HN! For a while I’ve been trying (unsuccessfully) to find a community for tech bloggers to get together and share what they’re working on, so here’s my attempt at making my own. It’s a completely free website and designed to be super straightforward to use. Functionality wise it’s pretty minimalist right now, with just the ability to register accounts, post drafts, and comment on other user’s posts. Support for more features like tagging post topics, user profiles and more are coming soon! Thanks for checking it out, and I’d love to hear any thoughts from the community. P.S. if you don’t…

    2024 · review.caleb.software · its alternatives →

  21. 21WW

    Over three months ago, I posted my book on HN and got tremendous +ve reponse. I am happy to inform that I have published the book to leanpub as per the comments I got on HN itself! It is pay as you go model, and the minimum is $0 because I wanted to contribute back to the FOSS Community

    2016 · its alternatives →

  22. 22IM

    I'm writing a book which teaches Python/Django web app development for non-programmers, and fundraising on Kickstarter (passed minimum funding, 2 days left): http://hellowebapp.com https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1868398473/hello-web-app-intro-to-building-web-apps-with-djan It's basically the process I used to teach myself programming as a web designer a few years back, which I then launched a small web app (infant-version of WeddingInviteLove.com), which has grown into my bootstrapped startup which supports me full-time (WeddingLovely.com). Most…

    2014 · its alternatives →

  23. 23IB

    This is a simple PHP framework I built myself from scratch with minimal dependencies from composer. It has Autowiring DI and some simple routing provided by the Slim router. The code: https://github.com/cipher-code/phpframework

    2022 · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    I couldn't find a CMS that met all my needs, so I built this prototype. It works for my purposes. I'm curious if anyone else finds it interesting or useful. If there's enough interest, I may continue working on it. Feedback welcome!

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

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