(updated 7/24/2026: I removed the stuff that had nothing to do with the article. I'm arguing against the idea, not the guy, and I should have done as such from the start).
Adam Newbold posted on his website an article "Hardcore IndieWeb: Run your own website 100% independently for only $0.01/day"
It's hard for me to disagree with the idea of people learning how to do things for themselves when it comes to technology but I think the whole premise of this idea is flawed from the first principles.
He starts:
If you’re not familiar with the IndieWeb movement, it’s a practical approach to maintaining your presence on the web that emphasizes fully owning your identity and your content.
There is nothing practical about the IndieWeb approach. Practical would be using one of the services he's arguing against.
IndieWeb.org says:
By joining the IndieWeb, your content stays yours and in your control.
There isn't a modern blogging platform that says they own your content. There is no modern blogging platform that doesn't give the sort of control they talk about either. And frankly, once your content is on the Internet it's out of your control. The idea that anyone has full control of anything public on the Internet is a fallacy.
Adam continues:
In fact, when you use one of those services, you’re actually taking a step back from real independence, because your content often winds up living in someone else’s database on someone else’s server. They’ll tell you that’s OK because you can always export it whenever you’d like, in open formats, and of course that’s nice. But you still don’t fully fully own and control your content when you’re dependent on someone else’s service.
[...]
But if the idea of having complete independence and control over your content on the web is appealing to you, read on. Because that’s what Hardcore IndieWeb is all about.
You will always be dependent on someone else's service. The idea that there is some independence is the biggest fallacy of the whole "IndieWeb" idea. If you have to use someone else's server and/or connectivity you will always be dependent.
Adam's two major criteria are:
- If your content doesn’t primarily exist on your own hard drive, you don’t fully control your content.
- If you don’t have a copy of your published HTML and web assets on your own hard drive, it’s not truly portable.
I mostly agree with the first point (other than the fallacy that you fully control anything you publish on the Internet) but there is nothing preventing someone from having their content on their own computer system with any web platform. Many of us frequently write in other tools and publish from those tools. I tend to use Ulysses or iA Writer. That doesn't require knowing HTML or any other web technology.
I completely disagree with the second point in terms of published HTML. Nobody needs that to have truly portable content. Markdown is a superior format to have an archive of your content in a truly portable ASCII text format. Easy to read, and easy to process, a person is better off sticking with Markdown.
Adam asks:
Your ability to move to a new service depends entirely on your ability to export your data. What if you can’t export it? The service provider may have told you that you own your content, but what good does that do if you can’t access it?
I'm trying to figure out exactly which platform he's talking about. It certainly isn't the 800-pound gorilla in the room, WordPress. WordPress is one of the easiest platforms to export content from and one of the most supported in terms of importing elsewhere because of its ubiquity as a content management platform. From a personal website standpoint this problem doesn't exist.
He continues:
From a portability standpoint [...] Sure, you can export your data in an open format and move house. But now you have to find another service that can work with that format, or convert everything and adopt an entirely new set of tools or processes. And you have to move house, which is a major pain.
I think this is a problem that just doesn't exist in boutique blogging platforms, or big ones like WordPress and that "Hardcore IndieWeb" is a solution looking for a problem. If you really want a more hands-on way to maintain your website at that level look into static site generators (SSGs) like Jekyll or Hugo. If you can learn all of the stuff in that article you can learn an SSG and reap all of the "rewards" Adam's article suggests while making things a lot easier on yourself.
Better yet? Find a good hosting service for your blog/website and have fun writing vs. worrying about the plumbing. My recommendations?
Magic Pages. Ghost hosting run by a fabulous person deeply involved in the Ghost ecosystem. It's not cheap but Jannis, the owner, is constantly working on making the service better. If you need Substack-level newsletter support this is the way to go.
Pika. Good Enough is two great guys running a constantly evolving blogging platform. They've been on fire with the updates. I can't recommend this platform enough. You’re reading this here.
Write in their web-based editor, export to Markdown for portability.
Pagecord. Olly, the owner, like his counterparts at other sites, is constantly evolving his platform for a ridiculously low price. Pagecord's standout feature? Posting via email.
Write in their web-based editor (or email), export to Markdown for portability.
Scribbles. Vincent the owner is constantly working on this platform. Another great guy, he's very open to ideas. It's gorgeous, well-maintained, and has features none of the other ones do (bulk editing anyone? how about ephemeral posts?)
Write in the web-based editor, export to Markdown.
micro.blog. This is the OG "IndieWeb" subscription platform from Manton Reece and it does a lot (newsletters, podcasts, video, etc.), including one of the main pillars of "IndieWeb": POSSE. If you're interested in making sure your posts make it to your social media accounts this is a great place to start.
Write in the web-based editor in Markdown, or one of the many Markdown tools that support it directly (Ulysses and iA Writer for example), export to Markdown.
I'd also note that behind the scenes micro.blog uses the SSG Hugo mentioned above to publish your blog/website.
At a lower level (i.e. closer to the HTML):
Bear. Herman is running a more "bare metal" environment here but it's still easy to use.
Write in Markdown in their editor, export to Markdown.
blot.im. This is post-by-folder. Set up a Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. folder. Save a Markdown file to that folder. Boom - instant blog post.
Write in Markdown, no need to export because you already have a folder full of posts.
They all do RSS feeds. They all allow custom domains. Which one you choose will be based on the other features you need.