The latest articles on DEV Community by sam3maker (@sam3maker). https://dev.to/sam3maker https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3926805%2F472ab705-72a2-4ae3-b8a4-405381dedc83.png https://dev.to/sam3maker en sam3maker Tue, 12 May 2026 10:20:40 +0000 https://dev.to/sam3maker/i-built-a-free-open-source-blog-platform-with-flask-and-tidb-4ea4 https://dev.to/sam3maker/i-built-a-free-open-source-blog-platform-with-flask-and-tidb-4ea4 <h2> The Problem </h2> <p>I wanted a blog platform that was:</p> <ul> <li> <strong>Free</strong> to host (no monthly bills)</li> <li> <strong>Lightweight</strong> (not a 500MB WordPress install)</li> <li> <strong>Open source</strong> (full control over my content)</li> <li> <strong>Modern</strong> (Markdown editor, dark mode, i18n)</li> </ul> <p>Everything I found was either too heavy, too expensive, or too restrictive. So I built <strong>OpenBlog</strong>.</p> <h2> What is OpenBlog? </h2> <p>OpenBlog is a fully open-source blogging platform built with <strong>Python/Flask</strong> and <strong>TiDB</strong> (MySQL-compatible serverless database). Deploy it on <strong>Hugging Face Spaces for free</strong> — zero cost, zero credit card.</p> <p><strong>Live Demo:</strong> <a href="https://sam3maker-openblog.hf.space" rel="noopener noreferrer">sam3maker-openblog.hf.space</a><br> <strong>Source Code:</strong> <a href="https://github.com/sam3maker/openblog" rel="noopener noreferrer">github.com/sam3maker/openblog</a></p> <h2> Key Features </h2> <h3> Dual Editor </h3> <p>Write in <strong>Markdown</strong> with live preview, or switch to <strong>Rich Text</strong> (Quill.js) — your choice.<br> </p> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight markdown"><code><span class="gh"># Hello World</span> This is <span class="gs">**Markdown**</span> with live preview. </code></pre> </div> <h3> Community Features </h3> <ul> <li>Likes &amp; Bookmarks</li> <li>Nested comments with replies</li> <li>Follow system &amp; activity timeline</li> <li>User profiles with avatars</li> <li>User blocking</li> </ul> <h3> Admin Dashboard </h3> <ul> <li>Content moderation &amp; report system</li> <li>User management (activate/deactivate/ban by IP)</li> <li>Site-wide configuration</li> <li>Statistics &amp; analytics</li> <li>Audit logging</li> </ul> <h3> Multi-language (i18n) </h3> <p>7 languages out of the box: Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, French, German, Spanish</p> <h3> Security </h3> <ul> <li>2FA with TOTP &amp; recovery codes</li> <li>CSRF protection on all forms</li> <li>HTML sanitization (nh3)</li> <li>Rate limiting on auth &amp; API</li> <li>IP banning with auto-expiry</li> <li>OAuth state signing (HMAC)</li> <li>Account lockout after 5 failed logins</li> <li>Security headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Content-Type-Options)</li> </ul> <h3> More Features </h3> <ul> <li>Dark/Light theme toggle</li> <li>Full-text search</li> <li>Image upload with auto-compression (PNG, JPEG, WEBP, GIF preserved)</li> <li>Scheduled publishing with background scheduler</li> <li>Article version history</li> <li>Tag &amp; category system</li> <li>GitHub &amp; Hugging Face OAuth login</li> <li>CJK-friendly URL slugs</li> <li>RSS feed &amp; sitemap &amp; robots.txt</li> <li>SEO-ready meta tags</li> <li>Responsive design (Bootstrap 5)</li> </ul> <h2> Tech Stack </h2> <div class="table-wrapper-paragraph"><table> <thead> <tr> <th>Layer</th> <th>Technology</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Backend</td> <td>Python 3.10+ / Flask / SQLAlchemy</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Frontend</td> <td>HTML5 / CSS3 / JavaScript / Bootstrap 5</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Database</td> <td>TiDB (MySQL-compatible, serverless)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Editor</td> <td>Marked.js + Quill.js</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Hosting</td> <td>Hugging Face Spaces (Docker)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Cache</td> <td>FileSystemCache (cross-worker)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Auth</td> <td>Flask-Login + OAuth + 2FA</td> </tr> </tbody> </table></div> <h2> Deploy in 5 Minutes </h2> <h3> Option 1: Hugging Face Spaces (Free, Recommended) </h3> <ol> <li> <strong>Fork</strong> the repo on GitHub</li> <li>Go to <a href="https://huggingface.co/spaces" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hugging Face Spaces</a> → Create new Space → Select <strong>Docker</strong> </li> <li>Link your GitHub repo</li> <li>Add environment variables in Space Settings: </li> </ol> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight properties"><code> <span class="py">MYSQL_HOST</span><span class="p">=</span><span class="s">your-tidb-host</span> <span class="py">MYSQL_PORT</span><span class="p">=</span><span class="s">4000</span> <span class="py">MYSQL_USER</span><span class="p">=</span><span class="s">your-username</span> <span class="py">MYSQL_PASSWORD</span><span class="p">=</span><span class="s">your-password</span> <span class="py">MYSQL_DATABASE</span><span class="p">=</span><span class="s">openblog</span> <span class="py">SECRET_KEY</span><span class="p">=</span><span class="s">your-secret-key</span> <span class="py">MYSQL_SSL_CA_CONTENT</span><span class="p">=</span><span class="s">&lt;your SSL cert content&gt;</span> </code></pre> </div> <ol> <li>Done! Your blog is live.</li> </ol> <h3> Option 2: Local Development </h3> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight shell"><code>git clone https://github.com/sam3maker/openblog.git <span class="nb">cd </span>openblog <span class="nb">cp</span> .env.example .env <span class="c"># Edit .env with your TiDB Cloud credentials</span> pip <span class="nb">install</span> <span class="nt">-r</span> requirements.txt python run.py </code></pre> </div> <p>Visit <code>http://localhost:5000</code> — the admin account is created automatically.</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>TiDB Cloud free tier</strong> gives you 5GB storage, 50M request units/month — more than enough for a blog.</p> </blockquote> <h2> Project Structure </h2> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>openblog/ ├── app/ │ ├── config.py # Configuration │ ├── models.py # 13 database tables │ ├── i18n/ # 7 languages │ ├── routes/ │ │ ├── auth.py # Auth, OAuth, 2FA │ │ ├── blog.py # Blog CRUD, RSS, scheduler │ │ ├── community.py # Likes, bookmarks, comments, follows │ │ ├── admin.py # Admin panel │ │ ├── user.py # Profiles, settings │ │ └── api.py # REST API │ └── utils.py # Helpers &amp; utilities ├── templates/ # Jinja2 templates ├── static/ # CSS, JS, uploads └── run.py </code></pre> </div> <h2> API Endpoints </h2> <div class="table-wrapper-paragraph"><table> <thead> <tr> <th>Endpoint</th> <th>Method</th> <th>Description</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td><code>/api/search?q=</code></td> <td>GET</td> <td>Global search</td> </tr> <tr> <td><code>/api/tags</code></td> <td>GET</td> <td>Tag list</td> </tr> <tr> <td><code>/api/categories</code></td> <td>GET</td> <td>Category list</td> </tr> <tr> <td><code>/api/stats</code></td> <td>GET</td> <td>Site statistics</td> </tr> <tr> <td><code>/api/upload</code></td> <td>POST</td> <td>Image upload</td> </tr> <tr> <td><code>/feed</code></td> <td>GET</td> <td>RSS feed</td> </tr> <tr> <td><code>/sitemap.xml</code></td> <td>GET</td> <td>Sitemap</td> </tr> </tbody> </table></div> <h2> Why TiDB? </h2> <p>Most blog platforms use SQLite or PostgreSQL. I chose <strong>TiDB</strong> because:</p> <ul> <li> <strong>Serverless</strong> — no database server to manage</li> <li> <strong>MySQL-compatible</strong> — uses standard SQLAlchemy</li> <li> <strong>Free tier</strong> — generous limits for personal blogs</li> <li> <strong>Scalable</strong> — grows with your traffic</li> </ul> <h2> What's Next? </h2> <ul> <li>Plugin system for community extensions</li> <li>API documentation (Swagger/OpenAPI)</li> <li>Docker Compose for one-command local dev</li> <li>Database backup &amp; export</li> </ul> <h2> Contributing </h2> <p>OpenBlog is open source under the <strong>MIT License</strong>. Issues and Pull Requests are welcome!</p> <p><strong>GitHub:</strong> <a href="https://github.com/sam3maker/openblog" rel="noopener noreferrer">github.com/sam3maker/openblog</a></p> <p>If you find this project useful, please give it a ⭐ on GitHub — it helps a lot!</p> flask opensource python website