NewWe moved nine sites onto HotDog in a day. Here's how.

Write in Markdown. See it live. Publish from git.

HotDog CMS is a website builder for people who want a fast, safe site without babysitting a server. Your pages are plain files, every change is a commit, and the public site is nothing but pages.

Get started Watch the tutorial

content/index.md

          

          

            
 Live preview draft-welcome.localhost:8160

            
            
Corner Bakery


Fresh bread every morning, from 7 until it's gone.


This week


    

  • Rye and caraway
    • 

  • Olive focaccia, Fridays only
    • 

  • Cinnamon knots
    • 





Go on, change a word. The page keeps up.





          

        

        

          main
          ✓ checks pass
          Nothing changed yet
          
        

        

      

    

    
This is the editor's split view, running in your browser. Nothing you type leaves this page.



  

  





  
Edit on your git platform. Publish anywhere.

  

    
    
      
  • GitHub
  • Gitea
  • Forgejo
  • Codeberg
  • GitLab
  • Bitbucket
  • Plain git
  • nginx
  • Caddy
  • Apache
  • Docker
  • Podman
  • systemd
  • Bare metal
  • Any VPS
  • Raspberry Pi
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What it's for

      
A website without the babysitting.

      
The things that make a site a chore, like logins to attack, plugins to update and changes nobody can undo, aren't there to begin with.



    

    
    
      
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    Security
    
        
    Nothing to break into
    
        
    The editor never runs on your web server. The public site is plain files, plus one small endpoint if you want forms.
    

      
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    History
    
        
    Every change is a commit
    
        
    Drafts are branches, publishing is a merge, and going back is a revert.
    

      
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    Previews
    
        
    See it before anyone else
    
        
    A private preview of every draft, built exactly the way it will be published.
    

      
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    Checks
    
        
    Caught before it goes live
    
        
    Broken links, missing alt text, statistics that load before consent and the other small mistakes.
    

      
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    For everyone
    
        
    Every skill level
    
        
    A visual editor for beginners, Markdown for most, the command line for power users. The same checks for all.
    

      
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    Hosting
    
        
    Run it where you like
    
        
    One program for bare metal, a VPS or a container. You decide how and where your sites are published.
    

      
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    Forms
    
        
    Forms that work
    
        
    Contact forms on a plain-files site. One small endpoint checks each message and emails it to you.
    

      
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Our own sites

      
We moved all nine of ours in a day.

      
    

    
    
      
  • 9websites moved in one afternoon and evening
  • 48 → 4known vulnerabilities in each site's image
  • 64%less software to deploy
  • < 1 sto build a 430-page docs site
    • 
    

    
Read how we did it, with the numbers before and after.



  







  

    

      
Built with HotDog

      
Same engine. Every look its own.

      
A company site, product sites, documentation and a blog, all HotDog, none of them alike.



    

    
    
      
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    Company site
    
        
    Coffey Labs
    
        
    Products, news, a press kit and long articles with tables and figures.
    
      
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    Product site
    
        
    inbuxa
    
        
    Mail, calendars, contacts and files you own. Rebuilt on its own whenever a new release comes out.
    
      
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    Documentation
    
        
    inbuxa docs
    
        
    430 pages in the product site's design. The settings reference is generated from each release.
    
      
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See all nine 

  






  

    

      
Moving in

      
Coming from WordPress?

      
Bring your site with you. One command copies your posts, pages and pictures from a live WordPress site or an export file. Your old links redirect to the new pages, and a report lists anything that didn't come across cleanly.


Watch it done in a three-minute tutorial. Ghost, Hugo, Jekyll and MkDocs sites come in the same way: see how.



    

    

      

$ hotdog-cms import wordpress -url https://your-old-site.example
reading https://your-old-site.example…
214 page(s) found; writing…
  content/news/spring-opening-hours.md
  content/news/the-new-sourdough.md
  …
209 written, 0 skipped, 5 kept as HTML, 388 picture(s), 214 redirect(s).
$ hotdog-cms check
Built 231 pages (1204 files) into public in 412ms.
No problems found.


    

  






  

    

      
Packs

      
Hot dogs come in packs.

      
Thirty-three ready-made features, from events to recipes. A pack is templates and styles copied into your site, never code, so adding one can't open a hole.



    

    
    
      
  • author-boxWho wrote an article, with a bio and their links.
  • breadcrumbsA Home › Articles › This page trail.
  • calendarEvents, an upcoming list and a feed to subscribe to.
  • changelogRelease notes, a page per release, and a feed to follow.
  • coming-soonA holding page with a launch date and a sign-up.
  • contact-formsQuote, booking and sign-up forms, beside your details.
  • directoryBusinesses or members by category, a page each.
  • docsA documentation section with a sidebar and On this page.
  • downloadsFiles to download, with their type and size.
  • faqQuestions that open to show their answers.
  • galleryA grid of pictures that open full size.
  • glossaryTerms A to Z, each with its own link.
  • jobsOpenings with closing dates; closed ones leave by themselves.
  • link-in-bioOne page of big buttons for your profiles.
  • location-and-hoursAddress, map link, phone and opening hours.
  • logo-wallCustomers, sponsors or "as seen in".
  • menu-and-pricesA price list in groups, and plans side by side.
  • payment-linksBuy, book and donate buttons for your payment provider.
  • podcastEpisodes with a player, and the feed apps subscribe to.
  • portfolioProjects with a cover, details and pictures.
  • recipesIngredients, steps, times and servings.
  • related-postsThe articles that share the most tags with this one.
  • reviewsStar ratings, with the average.
  • seriesArticles in parts, with the previous and next part.
  • share-linksMastodon, Bluesky, LinkedIn and email, with no tracking.
  • shopA catalog with a page per product and a Buy button.
  • status-pageWhat's working, incidents and a feed.
  • table-of-contentsA long page's headings, linked, at its top.
  • tablesA table from a spreadsheet saved as CSV.
  • teamA page per person, and a list of everyone.
  • testimonialsQuotes from customers, with a name and a role.
  • timelineDates down a line, with what happened.
  • videosA video library from your own files.
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hotdog-cms pack add calendar

      All the packs 
    

  






  

    

      
Look

      
Make it yours. Keep it readable.

      
Colors, font and corners come from your theme's Look settings. Try a few on this little site. The editor offers the same choices, and the checks won't publish a color pair that's hard to read.



    

    

      

        
Colors

        

          
        

        
Font

        

          
          
          
          
        

        
Corners

        

          
          
          
        

        
# site.yaml
look:
  accent: '#c8352a'

        
✓ Text on background 17.6 : 1

      

      

        
Corner BakeryMenuVisitNews

        

          Open from 7 every morning
          
Bread worth getting up for.

          
Sourdough, croissants and the cinnamon knots people queue for. Everything baked here, every morning.

          See the menuFind us
        

        
TodayRye, olive and the Friday focaccia.
HoursTue to Sun, 7 until sold out.
OrdersCakes with two days' notice.

      

    

  







  

    

      
About HotDog CMS

      
    

    
    
      
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    Open source
    
        
    The engine and the editor are AGPL-3.0. The starter site and themes are MIT, so what you build with them is yours to keep, change or sell.
    

      
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    Why HotDog?
    
        
    It's a nod to HotDog, the 1990s HTML editor that gave beginners and experts their own views of the same page, with a live preview. Those two ideas are at the heart of this editor.
    

      
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    Who's making it
    
        
    Coffey Labs, the small company behind inbuxa and ihasmail. HotDog CMS started as the setup behind our own websites.
    

      
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Try it in five minutes.

    
Install one program, start from the template, and you'll have a site to edit in your browser. Linux, macOS and Windows.



    
Get started Ask on the forum

    
hotdog-cms new mysite