Which PHP-based blogging tool should I use?

March 6, 2006 2:23 PM

Which PHP-based blogging tool should I use?

I'm getting married this summer, and with most guests coming from out of town, I thought it would be a good idea to set up a blog for any news and information I need to provide. I have a domain and hosting I'd like to use, and I have PHP/MySQL setup on the server. Which package would fit my needs? It would be nice if it a) was free and b) has some decent tempates, my design sucks.

posted by sauril to Technology (14 answers total)

Best answer: Wordpress is the most popular choice, and it fits all you requirements. It is very easy to install.
posted by davar at 2:31 PM on March 6, 2006

Best answer: Wordpress is easy to install. There are a variety of templates for it (some of them even look good).

I'm sure there are other reasonable options, but for your use, it doesn't sound like its really worth much effort evaluating them.

If you know how to create users in mySQL, I doubt it would take you more than 30 minutes to download WP and have it running.
posted by Good Brain at 2:35 PM on March 6, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks, I'll check wordpress out.
posted by sauril at 3:06 PM on March 6, 2006

Another vote for Wordpress.
posted by camcgee at 3:06 PM on March 6, 2006

wordpress seems nice. but for diversity's sake just wanted to drop

geeklog
drupal
posted by eustatic at 3:09 PM on March 6, 2006

I've played around with Textpattern and it seems quite nice. I don't think there are a lot of default built in templates, but there's a growing list of them at various sites (see Textgarden and Textpattern Resources.
posted by skynxnex at 3:16 PM on March 6, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks for the quick responses.

I downloaded and installed wp in about 5 minutes. It'll do the job no problem.
posted by sauril at 3:36 PM on March 6, 2006

I'll second textpattern. Steep learning curve, but it is powerful.
posted by charmston at 4:31 PM on March 6, 2006

No idea about this one, but I just saw it on digg, remembered this question, and thought I'd pass it on.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:08 PM on March 6, 2006

Most any host that lets you run PHP/MySQL will run Movable Type, though it's written in Perl. The big advantage over most tools mentioned above is that you can run an unlimited number of blogs on it (instead of reinstalling the app for each blog) and you can design templates and stuff in GoLive or Dreamweaver, even with the free tryouts that Adobe makes available.

(Disclaimer, I work with the team that makes MT.)
posted by anildash at 12:29 AM on March 7, 2006

Oh, um, and you can do a lot with PHP and PHP plugins with it. Which is why this was a relevant answer. :)
posted by anildash at 12:29 AM on March 7, 2006

We used TexPattern for our wedding site last year. Short setup and my wife had no problems.
posted by yerfatma at 4:15 AM on March 7, 2006

Even though I use WP you could use a simple forum like phpBB or whatever. Assign everyone a login and keep all the misfits in the general population out of your business. Not only that but this way everyone could contribute and post up comments ... BBS style !
posted by madderhatter at 5:13 PM on March 7, 2006

I use TextPattern.

This should be closed, shouldnt't it?
posted by fjom at 2:02 PM on October 4, 2006