What Is IndieWeb? A Community, Not a Platform

Updated

IndieWeb is a community of independent personal websites built around three principles: owning your domain and using it as your primary online identity, publishing on your own site first (optionally elsewhere), and owning your content. It is not a product, a single platform, or a service you sign up for — it is a people-focused alternative to the "corporate web," and the site at indieweb.org is its hub. If you want your posts to belong to you rather than a company, and you're willing to run your own site, IndieWeb is for you. If you're looking for a hosted tool that does everything for you, it isn't.

The core principles

The IndieWeb community defines itself by principles rather than a single project:

  • Your content is yours. When you post on the web, it should belong to you, not a corporation. The community points out that too many companies have gone out of business and lost all of their users' data.
  • You are better connected. Your articles and status messages can be distributed to any platform, not just one, so you can engage with everyone. Replies and likes on other services can come back to your site so they're all in one place.
  • You are in control. You can post anything you want, in any format, with no one monitoring you. You also share simple, readable, permanent links such as example.com/ideas.

How it differs from other decentralization efforts

The site is explicit that IndieWeb is different from previous efforts and communities:

Dimension IndieWeb approach
Organizing principle Principles over project-centrism
Number of approaches A plurality of approaches and projects, not one monoculture project for all
Conduct The community has a code of conduct
Priority Publish on your site; show before tell
Building order Design first, protocols and formats second
Scope Simpler building blocks; adopt, improve, and create open standards when necessary

In practice, that means the community prioritizes making what you need, creating and iterating on your own site, and focusing on a good user experience with the minimum necessary formats and protocols.

What you actually do as a participant

  1. Get started. The site's "Join the IndieWeb" section links to a Get Started guide.
  2. Set up your own site with your own domain as your primary identity, and publish there first.
  3. Connect and learn. Join the #indieweb chat (with a real-time log) to share your website, get inspiration, or ask about services and projects for setting up your IndieWeb site.
  4. Keep up weekly. Read This Week in the IndieWeb for weekly highlights.
  5. Blog with the community monthly. Several monthly collaborative blog carnivals let you join by posting on your own site: the IndieWeb Carnival, IndieWeb Movie Club, IndieWeb Book Club, and IndieWeb Fiction Carnival. Each month features a different topic, theme, or movie.
  6. Meet locally. Homebrew Website Club is the community's recurring meetup format listed on the main page.

Is there a cost?

The main page mentions subscribing (the site's pricing signals include the keyword "subscribe"), but it does not state prices or login requirements. Treat any cost as something to confirm on the specific page or service you use — the site does not present itself as free or as requiring no login. The core model is that you own and host your own site, so your costs depend on the hosting and domain you choose.

Who should consider it

  • Good fit: people who want a personal site as their primary identity, who care about content ownership and permanent links, and who are comfortable choosing their own tools and iterating.
  • Poor fit: anyone expecting a single turnkey platform, a monoculture project that handles everything, or a corporate-hosted account where the company holds the data.

The clearest next step is to read the Get Started page, then join the #indieweb chat with your site (or your plan for one) and ask about services and projects that match what you want to publish.