Looking for a simpler blogging platform

For years I’ve been using WordPress for all my blogging needs. But lately, every time I log in to WordPress and try to write a new post, I’m annoyed by all of the administrative options. I get it; they are useful, but I want to get basic analytics and an editor for my blog, that’s it.

I’ve been looking at other options such as Ghost, Tumblr, Posthaven, Substack, Medium, and even launching a custom-written blog. At first, I thought using a Ghost instance hosted under my DigitalOcean account will work, but it didn’t.

Let me explain, I like DigitalOcean, and the Ghost blogging platform seems reasonable, but like WordPress, Ghost has been adding more features and making the blogging platform less simple.

Posthaven is also another blogging platform that looks interesting. The founders promise to keep it simple and not selling the company to anyone, which I appreciate. However, Posthaven looks a bit abandoned. The last post in their blog as of the writing of this post, it’s from 3 years ago.

I also signed up for Substack, but it’s not what I am looking for after looking closely. Substack targets their platform to people who have newsletters or want to charge for their content.

I’m writing these words using the Ulysses app, and I wish there were a service out there that will allow me to publish these words directly from my text editor to a web page previously configured with my custom domain; that’s it. Now, the Ulysses app allows me to publish my writing directly to WordPress and other platforms, but I still have to deal with WordPress at the end of the day.

Maybe there is something out there that I haven’t discovered yet, or perhaps I should write or customize one of the many open-source blogging apps available out there. I don’t know.

I want to start writing more and manage my blog less. I know it is possible, and maybe I’ll find what I am looking for within WordPress; maybe the Post by email feature will suffice, but if you have any other suggestions, please send them my way.

Cheers.