A quieter way to run a website
Websites used to be simple. A folder of files you understood, kept somewhere you controlled, doing exactly what you told them to. Somewhere along the way that got buried — under databases and dashboards, plugins and platforms, accounts that rent you back your own words.
plain is a small attempt to get it back.
Your content is ordinary Markdown files in a Git repository. Your settings are one JSON file you can read in a minute. A build turns them into a fast, static website — nothing to keep running, nothing to patch, nothing that falls over at two in the morning.
What that means in practice
- You own everything. Every page is a file in your repository. Move it, back it up, search it, keep it for twenty years.
- It stays fast. The published site is plain HTML and CSS. No JavaScript is required to read a single word of it.
- Nothing to run. No server, no database, no monthly bill for a box that mostly sits idle. It hosts anywhere static files live.
- Edit how you like. Write in your editor and commit, or use the browser admin — every save is just a commit, with full history and one-click restore.
Boring on purpose
There is no clever framework here, no build that needs rewriting every year. plain does a small number of things and expects to still be doing them a decade from now. Boring is what survives.
Read the longer story · See the code · Start your own site
You are reading this on a plain site. This whole page is a Markdown file.