Self-hosted alternatives to Substack
They take 10% of your subscription revenue forever, and own the relationship with your readers.
Below are 10 open-source projects that cover the same ground, each scored 0–100 on how actively it is actually maintained — commit volume, release cadence and recent trend. 3 of the 10 are currently rated healthy or better. Ordering reflects that score, not sponsorship.
| Project | Health | Activity (11 mo) | Stars | Licence | Last release |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghost Just a blogging platform. | Thriving · 98 | 55k | MIT | 22 Sept 2026 | |
| Ech0 Lightweight federated publishing platform focused on personal idea sharing (documentation in Chinese). | Healthy · 74 | 2.1k | AGPL-3.0 | 28 Aug 2026 | |
| WriteFreely Writing software for starting a minimalist, federated blog — or an entire community. | Healthy · 71 | 5.3k | AGPL-3.0 | 10 Aug 2026 | |
| Chyrp Lite Extra-awesome, extra-lightweight blog engine. | Steady · 67 | 495 | BSD-3-Clause | 7 Aug 2026 | |
| Listmonk High performance, self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager with a modern dashboard. | Steady · 65 | 24k | AGPL-3.0 | 25 Sept 2026 | |
| Keila Reliable and easy-to-use newsletter tool (alternative to Mailchimp and Sendinblue). | Steady · 62 | 2.2k | AGPL-3.0 | 6 Sept 2026 | |
| FlatPress A lightweight, easy-to-set-up flat-file blogging engine. | Steady · 57 | 215 | GPL-2.0 | 24 Mar 2026 | |
| Serendipity Serendipity (s9y) is a highly extensible and customizable PHP blog engine using Smarty templating. | Slowing · 48 | 227 | BSD-3-Clause | 22 Jul 2026 | |
| Mataroa Naked blogging platform for minimalists. | Slowing · 46 | 368 | MIT | 3 Jan 2026 | |
| PluXml XML-based blog/CMS platform. | Slowing · 42 | 234 | GPL-3.0 | 12 Sept 2026 |
How these were picked
Every project listed here is open source and can run entirely on hardware you control. We start from the categories that match Substack's job — Blogging Platforms, Communication - Email - Mailing Lists and Newsletters — then rank by health score so that a popular-but-abandoned project never appears above a smaller one that is actively shipping. The scoring method is documented in full.
The scores are recomputed from repository data on every rebuild, so this page reflects the state of these projects as of 1 Oct 2026 — not the day it was written.
Ghost
Just a blogging platform.
Best fit: It suits individuals or teams who want a focused, self-hosted space dedicated specifically to publishing a blog without the wider scope of a general content management system.
Worth knowing: You will need to manage your own server updates, backups, and security hardening, as with any self-hosted publishing tool.
Ech0
Lightweight federated publishing platform focused on personal idea sharing (documentation in Chinese).
Best fit: It suits individuals who want to self-host a federated publishing space for personal thoughts and documentation rather than a traditional multi-author magazine.
Worth knowing: The primary documentation is in Chinese, which may create a barrier for non-Mandarin speakers configuring or troubleshooting the platform.
WriteFreely
Writing software for starting a minimalist, federated blog — or an entire community.
Best fit: It is well-suited for individuals or small groups who want a lightweight, federated web presence without relying on mainstream social media or heavy publishing suites.
Worth knowing: The strict AGPL-3.0 licence may present compliance challenges if you plan to modify and distribute the code within a commercial environment. It also offers a very minimalist feature set, meaning advanced layouts and plugins require significantly more manual effort compared to established alternatives.
Chyrp Lite
Extra-awesome, extra-lightweight blog engine.
Best fit: It suits administrators who want a simple, resource-efficient publishing tool for a personal site rather than a complex multi-author publication.
Worth knowing: You may find fewer plugins, themes, and community resources available compared to dominant alternatives like WordPress.
Listmonk
High performance, self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager with a modern dashboard.
Best fit: It is well-suited for developers and organisations who want to run their own bulk email infrastructure without relying on third-party SaaS providers.
Worth knowing: You must manage your own email deliverability reputation, SMTP relay configuration, and bounce handling, which can require significant operational effort. The copyleft AGPL-3.0 licence may also impose restrictions if you modify and network the software.