v1.0.0 · MIT License · Built on Eleventy

Publishing, owned by the publisher.

Project Broadsheet is an open-source publication framework with 27 reader tools, nine editorial sections, and zero recurring fees. Your content stays in Markdown, in Git, under your name.

27+ reader tools built in Nine editorial sections ~12s builds for 500+ pages $0 recurring

What's included

Everything a publication needs. Nothing it doesn't.

Project Broadsheet ships with every feature an indie newsroom, a newsletter, or a small magazine would otherwise stitch together from paid plugins and SaaS subscriptions.

Reader experience

Twenty-seven reader tools that other platforms don't have — and never will.

  • Text-to-speech with synced word highlighting
  • 27 font choices with six highlight colors
  • Reading ruler, focus mode, and reading list
  • Voice search and form dictation
  • Export everything as portable JSON

Editorial sections

Nine editorial verticals configured out of the box, each with pagination and its own RSS feed.

  • News, Opinion, Analysis, Arts & Culture
  • Science & Tech, History, Letters, Reviews
  • Per-section accent colors
  • Author-specific RSS feeds
  • Editions: numbered issues, printable as PDF

Specialty content

Formats designed for real publications, not blogs.

  • Reviews: books, films, podcasts, documentaries
  • Public-domain library with chapter navigation
  • A-to-Z glossary with hover tooltips
  • Events calendar with recurrence
  • Games, quotes, and curated collections

Search and SEO

Built to rank, built to find.

  • Pagefind full-text search, client-side
  • JSON-LD structured data
  • Open Graph and Twitter Cards
  • XML sitemap and per-author RSS
  • Print stylesheets for articles and editions

Integrations

Everything you'd pay a SaaS for, wired up in a single config file.

  • Buttondown newsletter (no tracking)
  • Umami analytics (cookieless)
  • Cusdis comments (privacy-first)
  • Web3Forms for any submission form
  • Pages CMS for browser-based editing
  • GTranslate across nine languages

Zero lock-in

Plain Markdown in Git. Migrate away in an afternoon.

  • MIT license — use it for anything
  • No database, no runtime, no platform fees
  • Content portability by design
  • Static output deploys anywhere
  • ~12-second builds for 500+ pages
See every feature
How it works

Three commands. One live publication.

1
Fork

Clone jonajinga/broadsheet and rename the repo. Nothing to sign up for.

2
Configure

Edit site.json for metadata and sections. Edit tokens.css for colors and fonts.

3
Publish

Push to GitHub. Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, or Vercel deploy in under a minute.

The math

Ghost charges $9–199/mo. Substack takes 10%. Project Broadsheet costs $0, forever.

See the full comparison

Self-host free — or let us launch it for you.

Project Broadsheet is MIT-licensed and free to use, forever. If you'd rather not touch the terminal, we offer setup, migration, and care plans starting at $999.