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Ask HN: Self-host a blog securely – how? (WP? Staticgen?)

6 points by mancerayder ↗ HN
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.

17 comments

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smt88
Why self-host?
mancerayder
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.
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.
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.

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

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

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.

dalerus
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.
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.

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.

[dead] BlueLeafHosting
Hello,

Might I suggest going with a one click Wordpress installation using cPanel from blueleafhosting.com/cpanel-hosting. It's very simple, and you'll be able to manage, DNS, Email, and much more from one place. It's not exactly what you described, but it's managed, giving you more time to develop and not worry about all the setup. We also provide 24/7 support and affordable pricing!