Bear Blog
Hacker ApprovedRanked 4 of 12 blogging platforms by recommenders
Simple, fast, text-first blogging with a discovery page that gives new blogs exposure, and a free tier with paid extras. Critics mainly flag the date format.
Simple, fast, text-first blogging with a discovery page that gives new blogs exposure, and a free tier with paid extras. Critics mainly flag the date format.
22 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 18
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 82%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 18 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Discovery page brings readers
“They're still out there... See https://bearblog.dev/discover/”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Ask HN: Is building for the web even worth it now?” “One thing I adore about Bear is their discover page”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: I made paperboat.website, a platform for friends and creativity” “the discovery list that Bear Blog does well”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Pagecord Spotlight – discover trending independent posts on Pagecord” - Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?”
Simple, quick to start
“It's got just the features you need, is built by a solo dev, and it's got a very fair split between free and paid features.”
Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?” “just text, very simple and quick to get started.”
Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?” Inspired other bloggers
“bearblog was a huge inspiration for me”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: I made paperboat.website, a platform for friends and creativity” “Definitely a huge inspiration!”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: I made paperboat.website, a platform for friends and creativity”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Date format with comma
“it's so grating to see the "D M, Y" date format with the comma”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Jobs and Software Is Fucked” “He needs to fix the "dd mm, yyyy" date format.”
Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?”
Other blogging platforms people recommend
The four most recommended other blogging platforms, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Substack | 87 | 161 | 35% | 12 | 3 yrs5 owners | — |
| Leaflet (leaflet.pub) | 22 | 1 | 96% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Ghost CMS | 21 | 4 | 84% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Bear BlogThis page | 18 | 4 | 82% | 9 | — | Approved |
| TextLog | 16 | 4 | 80% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
21 of the 27 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Bearblog is relatively diverse, frankly.”
“The platform is surprisingly good at accommodating this use case.”
“it feels just like a worse doomscroll than social media”
“If you just want a website for cheap: Bearblog, carrd.co, etc.”
“It is more like Substack than Hugo.”
“Bearblog and Hugo are popular ones.”
“it's so grating to see the "D M, Y" date format with the comma”
“the discovery list that Bear Blog does well”
“while I loved the product, the community was not healthy”
“Would be really nice to have a same theme adaptation for BearBlog and similar places.”
“bearblog was a huge inspiration for me”
“Definitely a huge inspiration!”
“One thing I adore about Bear is their discover page”
“they didn't have comments”
“Bear Blog is in line with my values, unlike so many other platforms.”
“I ended up subscribing to Bear Blog and calling it a day.”
“just text, very simple and quick to get started.”
“He needs to fix the "dd mm, yyyy" date format.”
“it helps you get exposure”
“It's got just the features you need, is built by a solo dev, and it's got a very fair split between free and paid features.”
“They're still out there... See https://bearblog.dev/discover/”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.