[opensourcedex]

htmly is a free, open source blogging & personal sites project written in PHP and released under GPL-2.0. It has 1,362 GitHub stars, 306 forks and 54 open issues, and was last pushed 8 months ago. On this registry it ranks #21 of 25 tracked projects in Blogging & Personal Sites, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available.

What is htmly?

What it is

HTMLy is an open source blogging platform and flat-file CMS written in PHP. It serves people who want a blog or simple website without running a database server. The project stores content in files and uses an algorithm to list material by date, type, category, tag, or author. It lives in the PHP web publishing ecosystem.

The problem it solves is the setup burden of a database-backed site. HTMLy removes the database requirement, so an operator can install the software on a web server, grant write access to cache and content directories, and publish through an admin panel. The README says performance remains fast even with ten thousand posts and hundreds of tags.

Key capabilities

  • HTMLy runs as a databaseless PHP blogging platform and flat-file CMS.
  • It lists or finds content by date, type, category, tag, or author.
  • It supports Markdown-based writing, as indicated by the project topics.
  • It includes an admin panel accessible at the site URL plus /login.
  • It assigns roles so an admin user can edit or delete posts from all users.
  • It requires PHP 7.2 or greater, plus Mbstring, XML, INTL, GD, and ZIP extensions for backup functionality.

Who uses it and how

  • Individuals and small teams use HTMLy to run personal blogs or simple websites on a PHP-capable web host.
  • Operators who want a flat-file CMS use it to publish posts without configuring a database.
  • Writers use the admin panel to create and manage content, while an admin role can manage posts across users.
  • Site maintainers use the source release or online installer to deploy the platform into a root directory or subdirectory.

Getting started

Typical installation uses the latest source release from GitHub, uploaded and extracted to a web server, followed by the install.php script. An alternative is the online-installer.php script, which installs HTMLy without downloading the source archive first.

When to use it — and when not to

HTMLy is a good fit for self-hosted blogs and simple PHP sites where avoiding a database is a priority. It is less suitable when a project needs database-backed features, complex workflows, or managed hosting with no server file access. A self-hoster must operate the PHP environment, grant write access to cache and content directories, and manually remove install.php or online-installer.php if the installer remains.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

HTMLy logo

HTMLy is an open source databaseless blogging platform prioritizes simplicity and speed written in PHP.

It uses a unique algorithm to find or list any content based on date, type, category, tag, or author, and it's performance remain fast even if we have ten thousand of posts and hundreds of tags.

Requirements

HTMLy requires PHP 7.2 or greater, PHP-Mbstring, PHP-XML, PHP-INTL, PHP-GD, and PHP-ZIP package for backup feature.

Installations

Install HTMLy using the source code:

  1. Download the latest version from the Github repo
  2. Upload and extract the zip file to your web server. You can upload it in the root directory, or in subdirectory such as htmly.
  3. Visit your domain. If you extract it in root directory visit https://www.example.com/install.php and if in subdirectory visit https://www.example.com/htmly/install.php.
  4. Follow the installer to install HTMLy.
  5. The installer will try to delete itself. Please delete the installer manually if the install.php still exist.

Note: If you don't need to log in to the dashboard, just rename config.ini.example to config.ini, delete install.php, and you are set. It's always good practice to set the site.url

Online install

Install HTMLy without downloading the source code and use the online installer:

  1. Download online-installer.php from the latest release
  2. If you upload it in root directory visit https://www.example.com/online-installer.php or if in subdirectory visit https://www.example.com/subdirectory/online-installer.php.
  3. Follow the installer to install HTMLy.
  4. Please delete the installer manually if the online-installer.php and install.php still exist.

Configurations

Set written permission for the cache and content directories.

Users assigned with the admin role can edit/delete all users posts.

To access the admin panel, add /login to the end of your site's URL. e.g. www.yoursite.com/login

Resources

Contribute

  1. Fork and edit
  2. Submit pull request for consideration

Contributors

Thank you to our contributors

Sponsors

Support this project by becoming a sponsor

Copyright / License

For copyright notice please read COPYRIGHT.txt. HTMLy is licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 2.0 (or later).

Frequently asked questions

Is htmly free to use?

htmly is open source under the GPL-2.0 licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does htmly do?

Simple and fast databaseless PHP blogging platform, and Flat-File CMS

What is htmly written in?

htmly is primarily written in PHP. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/danpros/htmly, and it has 1,362 GitHub stars.