Top Ethical Blogging and CMS Alternatives

In today’s obsessive privacy focused online world, where big organisations want your data and Joe in the street doesn’t want to give it, it’s good to know there are ethical alternatives when it comes to getting your content out there.

Naturally, as we’ve been utilising WordPress as a CMS for over a decade, we totally recommend its usage but, in this article, we look into alternative platforms that are available for those that want to use something different, that is also open source and adaptable, but more ethical to run.

Ghost
First up is Ghost which lists itself as a ‘powerful platform for creating an online blog or publication’.
Like WordPress you can either self-host or utilise their fully managed Ghost(Pro) infrastructure (similar to wordpress.com) starting from $29 up to $249 per month.

What makes Ghost ethical?
Ghost was founded in 2013, as a non-profit organisation to create a new platform focused solely on professional publishing.

More info: https://ghost.org

Backdrop CMS
If your current business website is struggling on an old version of Drupal and you’re looking for something a bit more ‘modern’ then Backdrop CMS might be the answer.

Billed as a perfect fit for comprehensive non-profit, educational, corporate, or government websites, Backdrop CMS values the needs of every one of its users; developers, contributors, editors alike.

What makes Backdrop CMS ethical?
Built as a fork for Drupal 7, Backdrop CMS is a free and open source CMS aimed squarely at SMEs, non-profits and educational institutions.

More info: https://backdropcms.org

Anchor
Next on the list is Anchor a super-simple, lightweight blog system, made to let you just write.
The Anchor website features a comprehensive FAQ so getting up and running should be quick and easy.
Although their featured free themes are a bit old, they’ll make a good starting point.

What makes Anchor ethical?
As it states on the website, ‘Anchor has been, is, and always will be 100% free of charge to everyone’.

More at: https://anchorcms.com

Sigle
A beautiful, unique and minimalist publishing platform based on the blockchain.
Use their WYSIWYG text editor, to write and edit then simply copy the link and share it to the world.

What makes Sigle ethical?
Sigle claims to be ‘A beautiful decentralized & open source blog maker’ where no one but you owns your data or your content.

More at: https://www.sigle.io

Textpattern
Textpattern is another free, open source, self hosted platform. Its fast, clean, multilingual code ensures your website is free from outside code dependencies or script libraries.

What makes Textpattern ethical?
Over a decade of community development has gone into Textpattern, it’s available in 40 languages and user contributions are very welcome.

More at: https://textpattern.com

If you need to discuss your current CMS options or simply looking to improve your business website, get in touch today.