Why Self-Hosted Blogging Beats Ready-Made Platforms

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Platforms like Substack and Medium seem pretty appealing at first. They promise you instant setup, built-in audiences, and zero technical headaches. But there’s something most people figure out way too late: you’re trading long-term control for short-term convenience. These platforms are basically pyramid schemes for attention. The early adopters and big names get all the algorithmic love while late movers all compete trying to get any visibility. That whole “gift of discoverability” they promise? It comes at the cost of giving up ownership of your content, your audience, and your entire creative future. Paywalls and walled gardens make reading a pain, and apps get more bloated and slower as time goes on. Furthermore most of the content is owned by them and will be used to train AI models.

Self-hosting your blog is going back to what the web was supposed to be about: ownership, flexibility, and freedom. When you control your own domain and hosting, you’re not at the mercy of some algorithm or platform policy change that could nuke years of your work overnight. You can switch frameworks whenever you want, redesign on a whim (I prefer to keep a style for a few years), try out new tech, and build real relationships with your readers without some middleman taking a cut of everything. Sure, you might not get that initial discoverability boost, but there are way too many people with blogs already. In this oversaturated mess where everyone’s screaming into the void, I would prefer to have my own rather than being on the “right” platform. The web’s best feature has always been that it’s decentralized. When you self-host, you’re not just making content, you’re keeping that vision of an open, creator-owned internet alive.

Platforms come and go all the time, and owning your little corner of the internet isn’t just about creative control. Your blog becomes a permanent address in this crazy shifting digital landscape, a place where your ideas can actually live and grow without constantly worrying about platform dependency. Yeah, the technical stuff might seem scary at first, but learning to manage your own site teaches you way more than any ready-made platform ever could. I enjoy the part of learning web development skills and building and running my own platform that is actually valuable beyond just blogging.