Publify

Publify provides a self‑hosted web publishing platform built on Ruby on Rails, offering a classic multi‑user blogging engine together with a short‑message system that can connect to Twitter. It supports a range of text filters—including Markdown, Textile, SmartyPants, automatic linking of @mentions and #hashtags—allowing authors to format content easily. The software includes a widget system, a plugin API, custom themes, and advanced SEO tools, and it is available in many languages such as English, French, German, Japanese and Simplified Chinese.

The project follows IndieWeb principles, encouraging users to publish on their own sites and syndicate content elsewhere. It has been maintained since 2004, making it the longest‑running open‑source Rails publishing project. Installation requires Ruby 2.5‑2.7, Rails 5.2, a supported database (MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQLite3), ImageMagick, and a JavaScript runtime for asset compilation. Documentation covers local setup, server deployment, and Heroku configuration, with a demo site reset hourly for quick evaluation.