Bludit

Open-source PHP blogging, honestly reviewed. No marketing fluff, just what you get when you skip MySQL entirely.

TL;DR

• What it is: MIT-licensed flat-file CMS — stores all content as JSON files on disk, no database required [README].
• Who it’s for: Bloggers, small-site owners, and developers who want a dead-simple PHP CMS that installs on any shared hosting plan without touching MySQL [1][4].
• Cost savings: Runs on $2–5/mo shared hosting (or even free-tier hosting with PHP). No MySQL license, no managed database fees, no Heroku Postgres add-on. Compare to Ghost Cloud at $9/mo minimum.
• Key strength: Zero database dependency makes backup, migration, and hosting dramatically simpler. You backup your site by zipping a folder [1][README].
• Key weakness: Small and slowing community (1,402 GitHub stars, last version 3.17.2), some plugins are outdated, no visual menu editor, and not designed for content-heavy sites with complex navigation [1].

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What is Bludit

Bludit is a PHP CMS that stores content in JSON files instead of a relational database. You get a full admin panel, a Markdown editor, a WYSIWYG editor, theme support, and a plugin system — but none of it requires MySQL, PostgreSQL, or any database configuration. The README description says it plainly: “Simple, Fast, Secure, Flat-File CMS” [README].

The project is maintained by Diego Najar and community contributors. It’s been available since at least 2016, is MIT-licensed, and sits at version 3.17.2 as of this review. GitHub shows 1,402 stars — a fraction of Ghost’s or Grav’s numbers, but the project is functional and stable.

The flat-file approach is the core architectural choice that either makes Bludit the right tool for you or the wrong one. Instead of writing a post and having it land in a wp_posts table, Bludit writes a JSON file to bl-content/pages/your-post-slug/index.json. Your entire site’s content is portable, readable plain text that you can version-control, back up with rsync, or inspect in a text editor without logging into a database client [README][4].

The trade-off: anything requiring relational queries — complex category intersections, multi-author workflows, high-volume comment systems, full-text search across thousands of posts — starts to strain a flat-file architecture. Bludit is not trying to replace WordPress for a media company running 10,000 articles. It’s trying to replace WordPress for a founder running a company blog with 50 posts.

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Why people choose it

The review pool for Bludit is thin compared to more prominent CMSes. AlternativeTo [1] has the most substantive user commentary, LinuxLinks [4] documents the feature set, and a 2025 German roundup [5] mentions it in passing as a WordPress alternative — but the dedicated review sites haven’t spent much ink here. That’s consistent with Bludit’s position: it’s a specialist tool with a loyal small audience, not a category leader.

The users who do write about it land in a consistent place. One AlternativeTo reviewer who has built sites since the early web era says flatly: “I would now recommend Bludit as the best software for building and maintaining a site. It is simple, light on the server so it will load fast and you can do a lot with the software” [1]. Another writes: “Bludit is an easy-to-use and easy-to-extend FlatFile Content Management System. It allows creating individual websites without any big troubles” [1].

The recurring reasons people pick Bludit over alternatives break into three categories.

No database. On shared hosting — the type that non-technical founders are most likely running — database setup is a friction point. You have to create a MySQL database, set a password, paste credentials into a config file, and pray the PHP extension versions match. With Bludit, you upload files and visit the URL. That’s the whole install [README][1].

Backup simplicity. Several reviewers mention this directly. Because all content is files, a backup is cp -r bludit/ backup/. You don’t need mysqldump, scheduled cron jobs exporting SQL, or third-party backup plugins. One reviewer notes: “There is no database so it is important to make back ups of your site, but this is no different from any other CMS. Bludit will back up for you so I don’t see this as a negative at all” [1]. The built-in backup plugin handles it in the admin panel.

Easy theming without PHP mastery. Multiple reviewers call out that creating a custom theme requires only HTML, CSS, and basic PHP — not deep WordPress template hierarchy knowledge. One writes: “It’s easy to create individual themes, provided you know HTML, CSS and a little PHP. Also, there are a lot of free themes available” [1].

The honest counterpoint, also from AlternativeTo: “it is not a super-flexible CMS, of which there are admittedly only a few on the market. A menu editor is missing, and you can only have one editable area, apart from the sidebar” [1]. This isn’t a criticism leveled by someone hostile to the project — the same reviewer calls it “one of my top favourites” [1]. It’s a real constraint you should know going in.

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Features

Based on the README, the LinuxLinks review [4], and the official website:

Content types: Bludit supports five states for content [4]:

• Page — standard post or page, appears on the home feed
• Static — doesn’t appear on the home page; useful for About, Contact pages
• Sticky — appears before other published pages
• Draft — saved but not published
• Scheduled — publish at a future date/time

Editors: Both a Markdown editor and a WYSIWYG editor (TinyMCE) ship with the default install. You don’t need a plugin to switch between them [README][website].

Themes: Official theme directory at themes.bludit.com. Themes are PHP/HTML/CSS — buildable without a complex templating language [1][README].

Plugins: Official plugin directory at plugins.bludit.com. A selection are preinstalled and can be activated in the admin panel. Notable: the Bludit API plugin exposes an HTTP interface for integrating with external systems [4]. Worth knowing: some community plugins haven’t been updated in several years [1].

SEO: Built-in meta title and description fields per page, canonical URL support, and a sitemap plugin [website].

Privacy / GDPR: Bludit doesn’t load any external tracking scripts and doesn’t collect visitor data by default. The website explicitly lists “GDPR compliant” as a feature point [website].

Docker: Official Docker image available. Quick start: docker pull bludit/docker:latest && docker run -d --name bludit -p 8000:80 bludit/docker:latest [README].

What’s missing or limited:

• No built-in visual navigation menu editor — you manage menus through static pages or theme customization [1]
• Only one main editable content area (plus sidebar) per page — no multi-region layout editing [1]
• Full-text search across all posts is not built-in; requires a plugin
• User management is basic — not built for multi-author editorial workflows out of the box
• Comments aren’t built-in; you’d add a third-party service (Disqus, Giscus) or plugin

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Pricing: SaaS vs self-hosted math

Bludit itself: Free. MIT license. No usage tiers, no seat limits, no API call costs [README].

Bludit PRO: The README mentions that Patreon supporters receive “Bludit PRO” as a thank-you, but the feature differences between free and PRO aren’t documented in the README or the website body scraped for this review. The main product is functionally free.

Hosting cost:

• Shared hosting (Hostinger, Namecheap, Bluehost) with PHP 8.0+: $2–5/mo. No MySQL required.
• VPS (Hetzner CX11, DigitalOcean Basic): $4–6/mo. Use for Docker deployment.
• Self-managed: your time, effectively $0 software cost.

Comparison points:

• WordPress.com (hosted): Free tier with subdomain, $4/mo Personal, $8/mo Premium, $25/mo Business (custom plugins). Self-hosted WordPress.org needs PHP + MySQL hosting, $3–8/mo on shared.
• Ghost Pro (hosted): $9/mo Starter, $25/mo Creator, $50/mo Team. Ghost self-hosted needs a Node.js VPS, minimum $6/mo (DigitalOcean), plus setup time considerably longer than Bludit’s.
• Squarespace: $16–49/mo, fully hosted, no self-hosting option.

For a founder paying $16/mo on Squarespace or $9/mo on Ghost Pro for a simple company blog, migrating to self-hosted Bludit on a $4 Hetzner VPS cuts the recurring cost to essentially hosting-only. Over a year, that’s roughly $60–180 saved depending on current plan — not dramatic compared to Zapier-scale savings in automation tools, but the effort-to-savings ratio is excellent given Bludit’s installation simplicity.

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Deployment reality check

Bludit is genuinely one of the easier self-hosted tools to install. The requirements are [README][4]:

• PHP 8.0 or higher
• PHP modules: mbstring, gd, dom, json — all standard on any modern PHP host
• A web server (Apache, nginx, Caddy)
• No database

On shared hosting: Download the zip from bludit.com, extract, FTP the files to your hosting account’s public_html, visit the URL, fill in the five-field installer. That’s it. No SSH required, no database creation, no environment variables. The total clock time for someone who has done this before is under 15 minutes.

On a VPS with Docker: Two commands from the README get you a running instance on localhost. Add a Caddy reverse proxy with automatic HTTPS and you have a production-ready setup in about 30 minutes.

What can go sideways:

• Upgrading between versions requires manually replacing files and clearing browser cache — there’s no one-click updater. The README’s upgrade steps are clear but manual [README].
• If you’re behind Cloudflare or another CDN cache, you need to purge cache after upgrades or UI components like TinyMCE may load from old cached versions [README].
• Plugin compatibility: since some plugins haven’t been updated in years [1], you may encounter plugins that claim to work but produce errors on PHP 8.x. Check the plugin’s last-updated date before installing.
• The community is small. If you run into an unusual configuration issue, the forum and GitHub issues are your options — there’s no large Stack Overflow community the way WordPress has.

Realistic time estimates:

• Shared hosting, first-time user following documentation: 20–45 minutes
• VPS with Docker + domain + Caddy HTTPS: 45–90 minutes
• First blog post published and site looking presentable: add another hour for theme selection and customization

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Pros and cons

Pros

• No database. Removes the single biggest source of complexity in traditional CMS hosting. Setup, backup, and migration are all simpler [README][1].
• Works on cheap shared hosting. Any PHP 8.0 host, including $2/mo plans that don’t offer MySQL. This is a genuine advantage over Ghost, Strapi, and anything Node.js or Python-based [README].
• MIT license. Use it commercially, fork it, embed it, modify it freely [README].
• Backup = copy a folder. Your entire site, including all content and configuration, lives in one directory tree. No database export needed [1].
• GDPR-compliant by default. No external tracking, no third-party scripts loaded on visitor pages [website].
• Markdown + WYSIWYG both ship in the box. You don’t need a plugin to switch between editing modes [README].
• Five content types give you enough structure to separate posts from static pages from drafts without needing custom post type plugins [4].
• Docker image available for consistent deployment [README].

Cons

• Small and slowing community. 1,402 GitHub stars and some outdated plugins suggest the project isn’t growing rapidly [1][merged profile]. If you need a CMS backed by a large ecosystem, this isn’t it.
• No visual menu editor. Navigation menus are managed through static pages or theme customization, not a drag-and-drop admin panel [1].
• One editable content area. If your design requires multiple editable regions per page (header text, body, sidebar callout), you’ll need to work around this limitation [1].
• Plugin quality is uneven. Some plugins haven’t been updated in years and may have PHP 8.x compatibility issues [1].
• No built-in multi-author workflow. Fine for a solo blogger; limited for editorial teams with roles (editor, contributor, reviewer).
• No full-text search built-in. For small sites this often doesn’t matter; for content archives it does.
• Not suited for complex sites. No e-commerce, no membership system, no complex taxonomy. These can theoretically be built with plugins, but you’re swimming upstream [1].
• Manual upgrades. No update button in the admin panel; you replace files manually [README].
• Bludit PRO benefits unclear. The Patreon tier is mentioned but feature differences are not documented in available materials.

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Who should use this / who shouldn’t

Use Bludit if:

• You’re a solo founder or freelancer who wants a company blog or personal site without configuring a database.
• You’re on shared hosting that doesn’t offer MySQL or where database management is a headache.
• Your content is primarily text posts and static pages — not a complex product catalog or multi-author magazine.
• You want a self-hosted alternative to Ghost Pro that doesn’t require a Node.js server.
• Backup simplicity matters to you — you want to be able to zip your site and call it done.
• You know basic HTML and PHP and want to build a custom theme without learning WordPress’s template hierarchy.

Skip it (pick WordPress) if:

• You need a large plugin ecosystem (WooCommerce, Elementor, multilingual plugins, membership systems).
• You need a visual page builder with multiple content regions.
• Your site will grow to thousands of pages where flat-file storage becomes a performance concern.
• You have non-technical content editors who expect polished multi-user workflows.

Skip it (pick Ghost) if:

• You want a modern, polished editor experience with newsletter and membership features built-in.
• You’re willing to pay for Ghost Pro or run a Node.js VPS.
• You’re monetizing content through subscriptions and need those tools natively.

Skip it (pick Grav) if:

• You want a more feature-rich flat-file CMS with better plugin quality and a larger community — Grav has roughly 14,000 GitHub stars and a more active ecosystem while keeping the flat-file architecture.

Skip it (pick a static site generator) if:

• You don’t need a dynamic admin panel at all. Hugo, Eleventy, or Astro give you flat-file storage without any PHP surface area to maintain.

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Alternatives worth considering

• WordPress — the obvious comparison. Infinitely more extensible, massive ecosystem, but requires MySQL and grows complex fast. Self-hosted on shared hosting at the same price point.
• Ghost — cleaner editor, built-in membership and newsletter features, but needs Node.js (more expensive or complex hosting), and Ghost Pro starts at $9/mo.
• Grav — the flat-file CMS with a larger community, more plugins, Twig templating, and a more actively maintained ecosystem. Steeper initial learning curve than Bludit but more capable long-term. Worth evaluating before choosing Bludit [4].
• Pico — even more minimal than Bludit. No admin panel; you write Markdown files directly. Right for developers, wrong for non-technical users [4].
• GetSimple CMS — another flat-file, XML-based PHP CMS. Less actively maintained than Bludit [4].
• Publii — desktop app that generates and publishes static sites. No server-side PHP needed at all; files are just HTML. Excellent for non-technical users who want a visual editor without server maintenance.
• Squarespace / Wix — if the command line is not something you’ll ever touch, fully hosted site builders eliminate all server management at the cost of monthly fees and vendor lock-in.

For a non-technical founder the realistic shortlist is Bludit vs Grav vs Ghost. Pick Bludit for maximum simplicity and shared-hosting compatibility. Pick Grav if you want more flexibility and don’t mind a slightly steeper setup. Pick Ghost if newsletter/membership features matter and you can absorb the Node.js hosting requirement.

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Bottom line

Bludit does one thing well and doesn’t pretend to do more: it’s a flat-file PHP CMS you can install in 15 minutes on the cheapest hosting you can find, with no database, no complicated configuration, and no ongoing database maintenance. For a solo founder who needs a company blog or personal site and has been putting it off because “setting up WordPress” sounds like an afternoon of Stack Overflow, Bludit removes the friction almost entirely. The trade-offs are real — the community is small, some plugins have aged out, there’s no visual menu editor, and it tops out before you need complex content structures. But within its scope, it’s honest, lean, and free in the most literal sense. If Grav’s extra complexity isn’t worth it to you and Ghost’s Node.js requirement is a blocker, Bludit is the quiet, unglamorous choice that just works.

If you want Bludit running on a VPS with HTTPS and a custom domain and don’t want to touch the terminal yourself, that’s exactly the kind of one-time deployment upready.dev handles for clients.

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Sources

1. AlternativeTo — Bludit user reviews and feature tags. https://alternativeto.net/software/bludit/about/
2. Softaculous News — Bludit 3.9.1 release note (May 2019). https://www.softaculous.com/news/date/2019/05
3. Softaculous News — Bludit 3.14.1 release note (September 2022). https://www.softaculous.com/news/date/2022/09/page/12
4. LinuxLinks — Bludit: simple and flexible content management system. https://www.linuxlinks.com/bludit-simple-flexible-content-management-system/
5. Sonoya — Open Source Übersicht: WordPress-Alternativen 2025 für Self-Hosting (March 2025). https://sonoya.com/open-source-uebersicht-wordpress-alternativen-2025-fuer-self-hosting.html

Primary sources:

• GitHub repository and README: https://github.com/bludit/bludit (1,402 stars, MIT license)
• Official website: https://www.bludit.com
• Plugin directory: https://plugins.bludit.com
• Theme directory: https://themes.bludit.com
• Documentation: https://docs.bludit.com