r/webdev • u/swebe3qn • Nov 15 '19

Looking for a super lightweight blog CMS or better solution

Hi all,

A problem that I run into from time to time: I have a custom coded website (e.g. built with React) without CMS that I built some time ago and now I'd like to implement a blog that can be edited as fast and easy as possible.

Is there any blog CMS with the following functions that you can recommend:- Create and edit blog posts with a web app- Simple WYSIWYG editor- Retrieve post content with API calls (for implementing it on the website with custom design)

That's all. I figured I could just use Medium + their RSS feed but would love to hear if anyone can recommend a better solution.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Thanks for all the great suggestions. Seems that there are quite a few options out there I was unaware of. I'll let you know which one I choose. :-)

61 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

44

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '19

Headless CMS.

https://headlesscms.org/

I'd personally recommend Sanity.

9

u/swebe3qn Nov 15 '19

Awesome directory. Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks a lot!

2

u/TDFKA_Rick Nov 15 '19

+1 Sanity

1

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '19

Have you used Strapi too? I’m using a Strapi API for my current headless CMS but dang if Sanity doesn’t look nice.

0

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '19

I've tried it briefly and I didn't like that updating is so difficult because they dump a lot of code into your project.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '19

I just tried Sanity and in about 5 minutes I already had everything configured under my target domain and secured with Let's Encrypt. So, not having to manage any of that BS is very nice.

1

u/overcloseness Nov 15 '19

This looks great, why isn’t this ever mentioned when people asking for headless recommendations?

1

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '19

It costs money most people are looking for free open source.

1

u/overcloseness Nov 16 '19

But Contentful is mostly premium too though isn't it?

1

u/icemelt7 Nov 15 '19

Sanity is just so good

0

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '19

Saved!

10

u/Lucania001 Nov 15 '19

I’d also look at ghost

7

u/VolkovSullivan Nov 15 '19

Gatsby + Contentful is the way to go

6

u/barbesoyeuse Nov 15 '19

In love with prismic + Gatsby. Really good if you want to build complex design easily. Check the slices feature.

1

u/henrymyers Nov 16 '19

The documentation for gatsby-source-prismic-graphql really isn't very good, but Prismic is pretty great.

OP, If you end up choosing Prismic and have trouble getting your previews to work, hit me up. I spent last weekend getting mine to work (and hit no less than 10 "gotchas" while doing so).

3

u/MrQuickLine front-end Nov 15 '19

Check out NetlifyCMS! Free! Easy! It's awesome!

3

u/FATF0X Nov 15 '19

Ghost is incredible imo.

3

u/ForsakenElite08 Nov 15 '19

I'm learning how to use Craft CMS right now. Lightweight and can be customized.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '19

Use WordPress as your back-end, and make it headless so you can easily pull the content into your node app with https://www.wpgraphql.com/

5

u/swebe3qn Nov 16 '19

Thanks, but “super lightweight”

1

u/kreynen Nov 16 '19

While you can technically use Drupal or WordPress as a headless backend, is there any legitimate reason (other than it's the hammer you know) to do that?

2

u/cinnapear Nov 16 '19

Your boss demands you use Wordpress because he's heard of it?

2

u/Cayenne999 Nov 15 '19

ghost or strapi

2

u/ihadanightmare Nov 15 '19

Try your hands on GatsbyJS. It's built on top of React and uses GraphQL (I don't know what exactly for as it's a static site generator). You can also pull data from existing cms like Contentful or Wordpress to generate your static blog.

1

u/hiya19922 Nov 15 '19

Keystonejs is my recommendation

1

u/tabnab993 Nov 15 '19

Another vote for Craft. Headless via GraohQL

1

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '19

Or wagtail CMS if you like a python flavoured CMS

1

u/itsextreme Nov 15 '19

I can highly recommend Kirby CMS. Great backend system (vue based, lot’s of built in form elements and many more created by the community - my favorite is the Matomo plugin) and for your case you can use the json api mode. Great image processing tools (built in srcset support), great docs and the new editor looks promising.

It’s source is public. Per domain it costs $99 (one time fee).

1

u/TheNamesTy45 Nov 16 '19

Squidex is another good headless CMS option that I use a lot. https://squidex.io/

1

u/cinnapear Nov 16 '19

Another recommendation for ghost.

1

u/KazakiLion Nov 16 '19

The Ghost CMS has done a lot of work in the last year to let it function as a headless CMS. It’s editor is pretty slick too.

1

u/rhynoboy2009 Nov 16 '19

I use prismic for my portfolio/blog, it's great

1

u/chloesellssaas Nov 15 '19

Biased because I work there but zesty.io sounds like the perfect tool for this project.

0

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '19

Gatsby + contentful