Publify

A Ruby on Rails blogging platform, formerly Typo, for multi-user blogs with short messages, themes, plugins and IndieWeb principles.

1.9k stars, 3.6k forks Less On GitHub since October 2008

Visit website View on GitHub How to run it

Publify at a glance

Open sourceYes, MITNo paid parts in the repository
Health60 of 100Actively developed
Self-hostingFrom sourceSteps in the README
Interface16 languagesIncluding English, German and French
Issue repliesWithin ~17 hoursMedian first reply; 69% of recent issues answered

What is Publify?

Publify has existed since 2004 and calls itself the oldest Ruby on Rails open source project still alive. It is a classic multi-user blog engine with short messages that can be connected to Twitter, text filters for Markdown, SmartyPants, mentions and hashtags, widgets, a plugin API, custom themes and SEO settings. It follows the IndieWeb idea of publishing on your own site and syndicating elsewhere. The admin is localized into 16 languages, and a demo resets every hour.

Good fit if

  • You run a personal or small group blog and are comfortable with Ruby on Rails hosting.
  • You like owning your posts and syndicating them outward.

Look elsewhere if

  • You need a general website CMS with a big plugin market: WordPress.
  • You want a Python-based CMS for structured sites: Wagtail.

Before you adopt it

Publify is MIT-licensed and has no paid parts. A single maintainer authored every commit of the past three months. Install a stable release rather than the master branch, which the README warns can break at any time. There is no Docker setup in the repository.

Drafted with AI from the project's README and repository data, then checked against that data on 31 October 2026. Report a correction

How to run Publify yourself

Docker
No Docker files in the repository
Compose file
None in the repository
Setup effort
Not rated: no compose file to judge from
Kubernetes
No Helm chart in the repository
Desktop and mobile
No app builds in GitHub releases
Interface languages
16 languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Japanese and Chinese
Show all 16

Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Lithuanian, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish

Install instructions: publify.github.io or the README on GitHub.

Publify health: is it still maintained?

60 of 100, actively developed

Release rhythmEvery ~4 months2 releases in 12 months; latest v11.0.1
Issue repliesWithin ~17 hoursMedian first reply; 69% of recent issues answered
Bus factorHigh riskOne person wrote all recent commits
  • Activity
    39 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 23 October 2026.
    19 / 30
  • Contributors
    1 person wrote the 39 commits of the last 90 days; the most active wrote 100% of them.
    2 / 20
  • Releases
    2 releases in the last 12 months; the latest, v11.0.1, on 23 October 2026.
    15 / 20
  • Replies to issues
    Maintainers answered 69% of recent issues, with a median first reply after 17 hours.
    18 / 20
  • Security practices
    OpenSSF Scorecard 5.8 of 10.
    6 / 10

Read from GitHub on 6 November 2026. How the score works

Publify security practices

OpenSSF Scorecard checks how a project is developed and released: reviews, protected branches, pinned dependencies, signed releases. It does not audit the code itself.

OpenSSF Scorecard5.8 of 10How the project is built and released
Security policyNoNo SECURITY.md or similar

What each check found

  • Binary files10 / 10No compiled binaries checked into the repository
  • Dangerous workflows10 / 10No risky patterns in GitHub Actions
  • License file10 / 10A license file is present
  • Maintained10 / 10Steady commits and issue activity in the last 90 days
  • Static analysis10 / 10Code is scanned for bugs on every change
  • Token permissions10 / 10CI tokens have only the rights they need
  • Branch protection3 / 10Rules on the main branch are partly enforced
  • Best-practices badge0 / 10No OpenSSF Best Practices badge
  • Code review0 / 10Changes are merged without review
  • Fuzzing0 / 10No fuzz testing found
  • Pinned dependencies0 / 10Dependencies are not pinned to fixed versions
  • Security policy0 / 10No security policy

From the OpenSSF Scorecard of 19 October 2026. Checks that do not apply to Publify are left out.

Publify license: is it open source?

Publify uses MIT, an open-source license approved by the OSI.

  1. October 2008First published on GitHub.
  2. TodayMIT.

Publify for developers

Written in

  • Less 53%
  • Ruby 41%
  • HTML 5%
  • CSS <1%

Getting involved

Contributing guideYesCONTRIBUTING.mdOpen issues78On GitHub
Authors, 90 days1Of 39 commits

Language shares are GitHub’s count of the code in the repository.

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All 9 projects in Websites & CMS

Questions about Publify

Is Publify open source?

Yes. Publify is published under MIT, an OSI-approved open-source license.

Is Publify still maintained?

Its health score is 60 of 100 (actively developed). It had 39 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 23 October 2026, and its latest release came out on 23 October 2026.

How do I run Publify?

The repository has no Docker files or app builds, so you build it from source. The README on GitHub has the steps.

What is Publify written in?

Publify is written mainly in Less (53% of the code), with Ruby (41%) and HTML (5%), by GitHub’s count of the repository.

What languages is Publify available in?

The repository has interface translations for 16 languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish and Russian.

What are the alternatives to Publify?

Close alternatives in the Websites & CMS category include Umbraco, Wagtail, Joomla.