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blogging platforms like WordPress are database-driven software that use SQL engine at the back-end to store content and related metadata. This introduces latency in page rendering when end users make too many database calls to fetch the required information. If you're making a simple website or blog without bells and whistles, a flat file blogging platform is an ideal choice. What's the advantage of using such platforms? They're free of any dependency on SQL engines and stores content in simple files. The result is lightning fast page rendering since the browser only has to fetch the ordinary files without any calls to the database engine. There are several good flat file blogging software available for bloggers. Following is the list of 5 best flat-file blogging engines that are lightning fast with several user-friendly features.
![Dropplets - Flat file blogging software]()
Dropplets - This lightweight flat-file blogging platform can be installed on your web server in less than half a minute. The entire installation wizard is user-friendly with a few easy steps. If you can have a few of your pages ready beforehand, your blog will be live in just 2 or 3 minutes flat. Since it has an MIT license, users can freely develop it and can license it as per their requirements. It comes with a free default theme that can be easily modified by intermediate level users. This software is designed to be a simple flat file blogging engine without any additional bells and whistles.
- Markdown composing - Dropplets use markdown syntax to format blog posts. Simple text files with .md extension stores the post content in markdown syntax.
- Online or offline editing - You can easily compose and edit your posts offline in any simple text editor. Once completed, simply upload the post file to the server from within Dropplets dashboard. It's that simple.
- Premium theme marketplace - In case, you do not want to use the default theme included in the installation package, you can find dozens of gorgeous themes in the marketplace at an affordable rate.
![FlatPress flat-file blogging software]()
FlatPress - As the name implies, this flexible blogging engine use flat files to store content and data. It is powered by PHP and requires a simple text file to store post content. This blogging engine is also lightweight and blazing fast with a simple directory structure. The generated code is XHTML format and is compliant with standards. It also has an active forum of users where you can get the required assistance to get started. It is further supported by rich documentation and tutorials to help new users get familiar with the software through a step-by-step process.
- Easiest backup system - Unfortunately, most blogging engines have a hectic backup procedure. That's not the case with this one. You just have to copy its primary content directory to take a secure backup of the entire blog.
- Complete plugin support - Fortunately, this platform has complete support of plugins allowing you to extend the features with new innovative functions.
- Widget support - Due to widget support, you can easily create custom content sections within your FlatPress blog design template.
- Themes - And last but not the least, it supports themes that can be installed and changed very easily. Power users can even edit these themes to give a unique look to the blog.
![HTMLy flat-file blogging software]()
HTMLy - This is yet another promising candidate for a powerful and flexible flat file blogging platform. It has several exciting features and the developer regularly adds and updates the entire platform through an active development schedule. This blogging engine also uses markdown syntax to store and format posts and pages. Its unique file naming convention is used to store important post metadata without any complexity. This blogging engine also runs on PHP and does not require database software. Several other prominent features of this blog platform are as follows.
- Static pages - Unlike other flat file blogging platforms which does not support static pages, this one lets you create them out-of-the-box.
- SEO metadata - Canonical URLs, meta description are some of the important SEO options that are supported by this excellent blogging platform.
- Pagination - Its flexible pagination feature lets you easily traverse the archives right from the home page back in time.
- Archives - It supports 3 formats of archives pages viz., year month and day. This helps visitors mine out content within a specific time period quite easily.
- RSS support - And, through its RSS feed, you can not only offer subscription service to the visitors, but can also use it to export the content to a different platform.
![TextPress flat-file blogging software]()
TextPress - This PHP-powered flat-file blogging platform is quite popular among professional bloggers. It has a clean and unambiguous directory structure to store the content and assets. Security is one of the primary features of this flexible blogging engine that keeps your content safe from hackers. Integration of Twitter Bootstrap framework ensures the front end is consistent and renders properly in all modern browsers. You can enable or disable markdown support for this platform. This can help you easily import un-formatted content from other blogging platforms.
- Publish though Git - Power users can use this feature to publish the content directly from their Git repositories. This way, they can also maintain different versions of their blog posts.
- DISQUS integration - You can easily integrate DISQUS comment system within this blogging engine giving your visitors rich interaction experience.
- Google analytics integration - Integrating the most popular analytics system with your TextPress blog is a cakewalk. It requires minimal configuration to start tracking your traffic through Google analytics on TextPress.
- Enable/disable markdown support - As mentioned earlier, you can easily enable or disable markdown support to use either plain text or markdown files to compose your blog content.
![Pivotx flat-file blogging software]()
PivotX - This flat file blogging platform can use both flat files as well as a database engine to store the content. It has a clean and user-friendly interface to manage the entire blog. Bloggers can use its support forum to get help from the community. Since it is open source, advanced users can make significant changes in it to meet the exact requirements. It has a very active development cycle and is frequently updated with new and impressive features. It is a secure flat-file blogging engine and following are some of the useful features that make it stand apart from its competitors.
- Powerful theme engine - It has a flexible template engine that powers and run the installed themes on the blog. This opens the doors for making unlimited custom themes for the platform.
- Spam control - Its inbuilt anti-spam measures keeps spam bots and similar malware away from your blog so that you can concentrate on content creation.
- Multi-author support - Very less flat file blogging platforms support multiple authors, and PivotX is one of them.
- Extensions (plugins) - With large numbers of extensions, you can easily add useful features to your blog without messing with code.
- Native comments & moderation - This blogging engine supports native commenting and includes a powerful interface to moderate and manage all commentators.
Dropplets - This lightweight flat-file blogging platform can be installed on your web server in less than half a minute. The entire installation wizard is user-friendly with a few easy steps. If you can have a few of your pages ready beforehand, your blog will be live in just 2 or 3 minutes flat. Since it has an MIT license, users can freely develop it and can license it as per their requirements. It comes with a free default theme that can be easily modified by intermediate level users. This software is designed to be a simple flat file blogging engine without any additional bells and whistles.
FlatPress - As the name implies, this flexible blogging engine use flat files to store content and data. It is powered by PHP and requires a simple text file to store post content. This blogging engine is also lightweight and blazing fast with a simple directory structure. The generated code is XHTML format and is compliant with standards. It also has an active forum of users where you can get the required assistance to get started. It is further supported by rich documentation and tutorials to help new users get familiar with the software through a step-by-step process.
HTMLy - This is yet another promising candidate for a powerful and flexible flat file blogging platform. It has several exciting features and the developer regularly adds and updates the entire platform through an active development schedule. This blogging engine also uses markdown syntax to store and format posts and pages. Its unique file naming convention is used to store important post metadata without any complexity. This blogging engine also runs on PHP and does not require database software. Several other prominent features of this blog platform are as follows.
TextPress - This PHP-powered flat-file blogging platform is quite popular among professional bloggers. It has a clean and unambiguous directory structure to store the content and assets. Security is one of the primary features of this flexible blogging engine that keeps your content safe from hackers. Integration of Twitter Bootstrap framework ensures the front end is consistent and renders properly in all modern browsers. You can enable or disable markdown support for this platform. This can help you easily import un-formatted content from other blogging platforms.
PivotX - This flat file blogging platform can use both flat files as well as a database engine to store the content. It has a clean and user-friendly interface to manage the entire blog. Bloggers can use its support forum to get help from the community. Since it is open source, advanced users can make significant changes in it to meet the exact requirements. It has a very active development cycle and is frequently updated with new and impressive features. It is a secure flat-file blogging engine and following are some of the useful features that make it stand apart from its competitors.