Alternatives
Products that do what I built a minimal open-source CMS (FREE) does
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!
- 1MN
Hi guys, I've created an open source web builder framework (https://grapesjs.com) years ago, which I'm still maintaining, and now I'm excited to publish a side project based on it, Grapedrop (https://grapedrop.com). It's a simple web page builder which allows you to design and publish your web pages very quickly. The project is still in beta with a lot of stuff to improve but I'd really like to share it and hear what people think about it and maybe also get some constructive feedback.
2018
- 2IM
In the last few years I've been doing a lot of technical writing, both for my own programming blog and others, and I've noticed there is a lack of good tools for this kind of writing. Whether that was a programming blog post or documentation, I always had to move back an forth between different editors, and sometimes even other apps for content management and the actual content publication. A lot of copy-pasting, and wasted time. Based on this experience I decided to try and build a tool that could provide a good experience for this kind of content from writing to publishing. This (I call it…
2023 · vrite.io
- 3SH
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
- 4IB
I've been frustrated by so many blogging platforms. Last I used Ghost. I thought it was expensive and I hated that www I had to prefix on custom domain. So, I built https://lykhari.com just for myself and then opened for public. If you want something simple do try. It became profitable and hence self sustaining!
2025 · lykhari.com
- 5
- 6OS
I got tired of collecting open source projects in my chrome bookmarks so I decided to compile a curated list of: - Recently active projects on GitHub - Mostly dev tools (but also productivity, analytics) - Projects which are "Alternative to X software" My bookmarks are finally empty:D If you have a great open source tool you use, I'd be glad to hear your suggestions. Also, any feedback is greatly appreciated.
2025 · alternativeoss.com
- 7SL
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
- 8CL
Hey HN, this is a side-project I've been working on for my senior year independent work in CS. Would appreciate any comments or feedback. www.aperator.com Thanks!
2012
- 9IM
Hey HN, When I was learning to code I was always intrigued to see the guys on twitter making money with a SaaS. I always wondered how to make them and after a few months I developed my own. I wanted to share a Boilerplate for any new devs who are wondering how to start their own SaaS or wonder how things work. Boilerplate comes with Auth, Payments, UI and all the good stuff. Ali
2024 · github.com
- 10RM
Hello HN! Being a software engineer and an SEO guy I wrote a heap of tools and scripts to make my life easier. Now I've decided to share some of them with the community, and made a small site where I will be publishing them. They are all completely free (yes, free forever) and you don't even need to sign up for the site. Just use the thing as you like, no limits. Currently you can access 4 instruments: - Backlink retriever - Thin/weak content analyzer - Traffic trend analysis - Visitor list retriever I am planning on releasing more free tools with time, and trying to stay original by…
2018
- 11IM
I spent the past few weeks making an open source cloud code editing environment with an AI copilot and multiplayer collaboration! It's fully self-hostable in 5-10 minutes. There's a lot of minor improvements to be made, and some are already listed in the Github issues. Let me know what you think and feel free to try it out.
2024 · github.com
- 12MC
I've been building mmerch.com alone for roughly the past two years part time. I'm really hoping I can get some reviews/critiques on it. Thanks! mmerch.com
2013
- 13WW
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
- 14MS
I have finally convinced my son to take a step forward to publish something in public domain. As he is learning Python these days, he made a scraper to download Cambridge past papers (GCSE / IGCSE). If you like it, encourage the kid by pressing the Star button :) https://github.com/UsamaKashif/CambridgePastPapersDownloader
2019
- 15IM
I'm documenting everything about my process. From learning to code, to building the app, and all the way to my outreach efforts. I'm learning as I go and sharing it with everyone who's not a programer, and is daunted to build a software on their own. Trust me. If I can do it, anyone can! You can find my updates on: https://Claritask.com ...as well as video updates on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdmqmifW4kIcPclXigay1dQ Would love to hear your feedback on my progress and if you have any suggestions on what I can do better. There's so many task managers out…
2017
- 16OS
Hey Hackers, Webstudio is an Open Source alternative to Webflow, and we just launched Webstudio CMS! We took an unusual approach to CMS because we wanted to prioritize maximum scalability, performance, and flexibility. So technically there is no CMS, but instead you can integrate with any headless CMS and its live! Go try it out! Here is a deep-dive using it with Hygraph https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC6Y7BHduLw To celebrate the launch we are giving away 3 Month of Pro account for free (expires in 24h): HACKERNEWS
2024 · github.com
- 17IM
Hey Hacker News, I'm the maker of Kopage, a free & self-hosted Website Builder. While working on new, cool features (AI, of course), it would be great to hear some HN feedback :) Thanks, Simon
2024 · kopage.com
- 18IH
Hey HN This project took almost two years and is probably one the best alternatives for tools like Miro and MindMeister Let me know what you think
Nov 2025 · nodeland.io
- 19IB
Hi HN! My name is Yossi, and I'm a solo indie maker. SEO tools are super pricey and free tools often fall short, leaving most users to costly subscription-based tools. So, I built SEO Stuff, a keyword tool that uses a credit-based system for builders like me who use SEO more sporadically. Have a great day!
2024 · seo-stuff.com
- 20AM
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…
2022 · mindwi.se
- 21AF
https://github.com/inoda/private_journal Built this to use myself, and I'm curious if anybody would be interested in using it. I'm also wondering if anybody has tips to make it more secure (I'm super super new to encryption and whatnot). The security is probably a bit overkill since chances are that nobody cares about what I'm journaling, but it is fun to implement from a code standpoint.
2019
- 22LO
2024 · youtube.com
- 23CL
Hey people! I have been compiling a database of opensource alternatives and I'm super proud of it so far. It serves as a searchable directory for high-quality opensource. After tons of hours I've managed to compile a database of 1000+ opensource software. I've seen other sites which have the same premise and all the GitHub Awesome Lists, but they lack in showing if the repo is active, abandoned, experimental, buggy/unstable, has a restrictive license or corporate influence like this does. Thanks for your time, if you have any recommendations for features/additions I'd love to hear.
Feb 2026 · opensrc.me
- 24MF
My friend and I left our jobs a month ago to get our side project, Cloud Cannon, ready for launch. Cloud Cannon makes it easy to get a simple website with a CMS online and launched. It does this by: 1. Syncing with Dropbox. You drag your files into Dropbox, Cloud Cannon then syncs them to our server and makes them live on the internet under the domain you've provided. 2. Integrated CMS. Have your clients update their own website using our simple CMS. Add a class of "editable" to any div you want your clients to edit. All changes your client's make will be pushed live and saved back to your…
2013
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