The Fediverse has become a lively digital landscape filled with chatter, creativity, and community. Yet amid the noise of Mastodon, Lemmy, and other bustling platforms, one project has carved out a space for something quieter — a space built for writing. That project is Write.as and its open-source sibling, WriteFreely.
A Minimalist Writing Platform That Speaks Fediverse
At its heart, WriteFreely is a blogging engine that connects directly to the fediverse using the ActivityPub protocol — the same language spoken by Mastodon, Pleroma, and others. When federation is enabled, posts from a WriteFreely site can appear in fediverse timelines, and readers can follow authors directly from their Mastodon accounts.
What makes WriteFreely stand out is its simplicity. There are no sidebars, no algorithmic feeds, no distractions. Just a clean Markdown editor, your words, and a publish button. Its commercial counterpart, Write.as, offers a hosted version for those who want to write without worrying about servers.
Together, the two form a beautifully minimal publishing ecosystem — one that’s fast, privacy-friendly, and surprisingly social.
Managed Hosting: Ready-Made Homes for Your Words
If you’d rather not maintain your own server, several hosting options make it easy to launch a WriteFreely community in minutes.
- WriteFreely.host — the official managed service — offers plans designed for multi-user communities.
- Village — $10/month for up to 100 blogs
- Town — $20/month for up to 200 blogs
- City — $30/month for up to 300 blogs Custom and white-label options are also available for organizations or large groups. Write.as — perfect for individual writers — starts at around $6/month for a Pro plan. It’s WriteFreely’s creator-run platform, giving you the same minimal interface without the technical upkeep. Cloud68.co, an EU-based partner host, provides managed WriteFreely instances from €49/month (for up to 15 writers). Their team handles setup, updates, and backups. K&T Host, an independent provider, lists WriteFreely hosting from $3.75/month, though you’ll want to review their support and uptime details before committing.
In short, whether you’re a solo writer or running a 200-member creative collective, there’s a managed plan to fit the need.
How Popular Is WriteFreely?
While WriteFreely doesn’t dominate the fediverse in sheer numbers, it has a quietly growing footprint. According to public trackers such as libera.site, as of early 2025 there were roughly 900 active WriteFreely instances and over 440,000 accounts spread across the network. Not every server reports its data, but these figures suggest a healthy, active ecosystem — a community that values writing over noise.
It’s not Twitter-scale, but that’s the point. WriteFreely is where fediverse writers go when they want to slow down and focus.
The DIY Path: Self-Hosting WriteFreely
For those who love tinkering, self-hosting WriteFreely is refreshingly straightforward.
- Choose Your Server
A modest VPS will do — 1 vCPU and 1GB of RAM is plenty for a personal blog or small community. Many users opt for affordable providers like Hetzner, DigitalOcean, or Vultr.
- Install WriteFreely
Download the prebuilt binary, generate a configuration file, and choose your database — SQLite for simplicity or MySQL/MariaDB for multi-user communities.
Example setup commands:
writefreely config start
writefreely keys generate
- Add a Reverse Proxy
Set up Nginx or Caddy to handle HTTPS via Let’s Encrypt, ensuring your blog loads securely at your custom domain.
- Configure Email
Recent WriteFreely versions support both SMTP and Mailgun, letting you handle password resets and notifications easily.
- Keep It Running
Create a simple systemd service to start the app automatically on boot, or use Docker Compose if you prefer containerized deployments.
Optional: Docker
If you want to skip most of the setup, the community provides Docker Compose templates with preconfigured MySQL and Nginx stacks. Spin them up with one command.
Estimating Self-Hosting Costs
A modest WriteFreely setup won’t break the bank:
VPS: €5–€8/month for a 1vCPU / 2GB RAM instance
Storage & backups: €1–€5/month
Domain: $10–$20/year
Email relay: $10–$15/month (using Postmark or Mailgun)
So for around €10–€15 per month, you can run your own federated writing community with full control — less than the cost of most managed CMS platforms.
Managed vs. Self-Hosted: Which Should You Choose?
Go managed if you want zero maintenance, automatic updates, and reliable uptime.
Self-host if you value autonomy, customization, or want to integrate WriteFreely with your own services.
Both paths lead to the same elegant writing experience — the difference lies in who holds the wrench.
Final Thoughts
In a fediverse dominated by micro-posts and memes, WriteFreely and Write.as stand as refuges for long-form thought. They prove that the fediverse isn’t just about conversation — it’s also about reflection.
Whether you publish through Write.as, spin up a community with WriteFreely.host, or roll your own instance, you’re joining a quiet, resilient corner of the open web where words — not ads, not metrics — take center stage.
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