How to make a personal doll blog or website in 2026
In my last post I extolled the virtues of having a personal (doll) site or blog. But what if you don't know where to start? I have some suggestions!
You mostly want to blog
You can write a blog on any site that lets you publish HTML. A blog is, at its core, a series of posts. However, there are some conventions to blogs, like having an RSS feed. This lets people add your blog to an RSS reader, so they can see the latest posts from blogs they follow in one place. Blogging services make all of this easy for you.
The services I'm recommending all allow you to export your data easily and support the idea of the IndieWeb. This is important to me. Also, they have no ads or tracking.
Side note: I personally wouldn't recommend Wordpress or Blogger these days. I think there are better offerings out there for hobbyist bloggers. However, using a less established platform does mean that you run the risk of that platform going away in future.
Bear Blog
A privacy-first, no-nonsense, super-fast blogging platform. No trackers, no javascript, no stylesheets. Just your words.
I've personally used Bear Blog and found it to be a thoughtfully-created, simple but powerful blogging service. I love the ethos of the creator; he wrote a manifesto and some thoughts on building for longevity. If you like, you can make your posts appear on the discover page, for a bit of added community.
- You write in Markdown
- You can make pages to round out your site (e.g. doll profile pages)
- Has post tags
- There's a lot of customisation e.g. via CSS, but also built-in themes
- You can set up post templates
You'll need to pay for: image hosting, a custom domain.
As of May 2026, it's $5/month (USD) or around $50/year. You can also buy a lifetime subscription which is a one-time cost.
Mataroa
Mataroa's mission is to provide a space for people to write without distractions and to help them publish in a minimal fashion.
Mataroa is extremely minimal, but that might be okay if you just want to get started. It has a very similar ethos to Bear blog.
You write in Markdown. Image hosting is included for free (with some reasonable limits). It includes comments, but each comment must be manually approved by the blog owner to prevent spam.
It doesn't include:
- post tags or categories
- any visual customisation or themes - this is probably the deal breaker for most doll hobbyists.
- pagination of blog pages (all blog post titles appear in a single list)
You'll need to pay for: a custom domain. It's extremely affordable at $9/year.
Pika
We build Pika for the blogging masses
Who want to write on their own site
Without writing code
Without worrying about servers
The blogs built on Pika look really great - I think they did a great job with the design, and the interface and post/page editor seems very easy to use.
- A user-friendly interface and rich text editor for writing posts (you can also use Markdown if you prefer)
- You can make pages as well as posts
- Includes a guestbook
- Has post tags
- Themes and customisation. including custom CSS
You'll need to pay for: more than 50 posts, more than 3 pages, a newsletter, more than 50 guestbook entries, using your own domain name and some other advanced features.
Pagecord
Create your home page and blog in seconds. Then just write. A powerful editor when you need it, post by email when you don't. Pagecord is independent, open source, and built to last. Own your corner of the web.
- User-friendly rich text editor in case you don't want to write Markdown (but you can use Markdown as well)
- Or you can write by email
- Create pages as well as blog posts
- Has post tags
- Themes
You'll need to pay for: image hosting, page view analytics, a contact form, custom CSS, your own domain name, post likes and some other advanced features.
Honourable mentions
Dreamwidth has been around for eons which shares many of the same features as the options above. Pillowfort is a similar offering which I've personally used, though I have some doubts about its stability/longevity. Both feel a lot more old-school, but that's nice sometimes. The vibe is definitely "a Dreamwidth blog" or "a Pillowfort blog" rather than your own thing.
Both have community blogs built-in, plus features like reblogging and likes. Also, if privacy is important to you, these are very good options - there are more privacy controls than on a more traditional blog, like just sharing posts with friends.
You want to tinker and build your own site
The most accessible options here are neocities.org (very established) or nekoweb.org (a newer option). Both services include a generous free tier and image hosting. You can use in-browser editors to change the code, or you can upload HTML, CSS and JS files directly (or via API).
But if you can write your own HTML and CSS (maybe with a bit of JavaScript), the world is your oyster. You might try a static site generator to make things easier (e.g. to help with generating an RSS feed, if you want to make a blog) and after that you can upload your files to any hosting provider. Some hosting providers will have a way for you to automate this.
What I use
Making websites is my day job, so unfortunately I could not resist the siren call of getting the chance to waste a whole lot of time and customise the entire experience exactly to my liking. As of today, I use 11ty as a static site generator with Sanity Studio as a headless CMS, hosted on Netlify's free tier. I only pay for the domain name.
Disclaimer: I would not necessarily recommend this stack to others, for a number of reasons (complexity and the likelihood of better alternatives, to name two). I also chose them a few years ago, and I might make different choices now.
In conclusion
I hope this is useful and at least a little interesting. I also know that for many, using social media is just more appealing and easier - and honestly, that's true. There's a built-in community on social media, and there's a reason people use it. (Partly because it's designed to be addictive.)
But I don't like being the product. I would actually happily pay to not be the product and not see ads, and have posts in chronological order, and not have influencers and celebrities and short-form video pushed at me (some short-form video is genuinely charming; it gets less charming when it's the fastest route to making money). So, I will keep championing personal sites, and hope to spread the word to at least one other human.
