Plenty of apps let you write a blog post on an iPhone. Far fewer let you finish the job there – turn that post into a web page and put it on a server you control – without a platform in the middle.
If what you want at the end is plain HTML files on your own domain, readable in any browser in twenty years’ time, the choice narrows quickly. This is a guide to what to look for, what the main options actually do at the time of writing, and where each one fits.
What to look for
Six questions sort the field.
What is the output? Some apps post into a platform’s database; the page only exists while that platform runs. Others produce actual files: HTML, CSS, images, a feed. Files are the durable option. You can copy them, archive them and serve them from anywhere.
Where does it publish? A hosted platform, or a destination you choose: your own server over SFTP, object storage such as S3, or a static host such as Netlify, Cloudflare Pages or GitHub Pages.
Does it work on the phone alone? Many “mobile” workflows quietly depend on a computer or a cloud build service to do the real work. That is fine if you know it going in.
Is there an account? Every account is a dependency, and a place your writing and credentials sit that you don’t control.
How are credentials stored? Server passwords, SSH keys and API tokens should live in the iOS Keychain, not in an app’s own database or synced in plain text.
Can you see exactly what will be published? A preview that matches the live page saves a lot of republishing.
The landscape
WordPress and Jetpack apps
The official WordPress app is a capable mobile editor for WordPress sites, with the block editor, media uploads and drafts. Automattic splits its mobile features between it and the Jetpack app, which adds stats, notifications and more.
The output is WordPress: posts go into the site’s database and pages are generated by PHP on the server. If you already run WordPress, these apps are the obvious choice and they are good at it. They do not produce HTML files you own; they edit an application you have to keep running and patched. We compare the two approaches in WordPress vs a static site.
Micro.blog
Micro.blog is the closest thing to “blogging from your phone” as a complete, friendly service. There are native apps for iPhone, Mac and Android, hosted blogs, custom domain support, cross-posting to social networks and, on higher plans, email newsletters and multiple blogs. At the time of writing hosted plans start at $1 a month for Micro.one, with the full Micro.blog plan at $5 a month.
Under the hood, Micro.blog builds hosted blogs with Hugo, a static site generator, and it offers an export of your theme and posts as Markdown in a Hugo-style folder. That is a better exit than most platforms offer. But the site is hosted by Micro.blog, not published to a server you run, and it is a subscription. For many people that trade is exactly right.
Ghost in the browser
Ghost does not have an official native iPhone app for writing. Its admin editor runs in Safari and works on a phone, and there is at least one third-party app, Publisher for Ghost, that talks to a Ghost site.
Ghost pages are rendered by a Node.js application backed by a database, whether on Ghost(Pro) or on your own server. It is a strong platform with newsletters and memberships built in – see Substack alternatives that you actually own – but it is not plain HTML.
Working Copy and a static site generator
This is the developer’s route, and it genuinely works. Working Copy is a Git client for iOS: you clone the repository holding your Hugo, Jekyll or Eleventy site, write Markdown in its editor (or in any app that can open files in its folders), commit and push.
The catch is what happens next. The iPhone does not build the site. The push triggers a build elsewhere – GitHub Actions, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages – and that service produces the HTML. You need the site set up from a computer first, you need to be comfortable with Git, and pushing requires Working Copy’s paid pro features (a one-off purchase of $35.99 at the time of writing; the app is free to download and has a trial).
For developers who already live in Git, it is a fine setup. For everyone else it is a lot of moving parts for a blog post.
iA Writer and other writing apps
iA Writer is an excellent place to write, and on iPhone and iPad it can send a document to WordPress, Ghost, Medium, Micro.blog or any Micropub endpoint. It creates a draft on the destination, which you then open and publish there.
That makes it a writing front end for a platform, not a publisher. The output is whatever the destination produces. Several other writing apps take the same approach. If you love the writing experience and already have a platform, this pairing works well.
Summary
| Output | Publishes to your own server | Needs a computer or build service | Cost (at the time of writing) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress app | WordPress site | Your WordPress install | No, but needs a running WordPress | Free app; hosting extra |
| Micro.blog | Hosted site (built with Hugo) | No, hosted by Micro.blog | No | From $1/month |
| Ghost in Safari | Ghost site | Your Ghost install, if self-hosted | No, but needs a running Ghost | Ghost(Pro) or your server |
| Working Copy + SSG | Static HTML | Yes, via a build service | Yes | $35.99 one-off for push |
| iA Writer | Draft on a platform | No | No | One-off app purchase |
None of these is wrong. They answer different questions. What most of them don’t do is let you write on the phone and have the phone produce the finished static site and upload it to a place you chose.
Where Selfish fits
That gap is what Selfish is for: a native app for iPhone, iPad and Mac – £3.99 once, no subscription – that builds a complete static site – HTML, feeds, sitemap – and publishes it over SFTP or to S3-compatible storage, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages or GitHub Pages, with credentials kept in the Keychain and no Selfish account. It does not do comments, newsletters or imports from other platforms. It is out now on the App Store, at a £3.99 introductory price, rising to £9.99 in December; the user guide shows how writing works, and the themes page shows what the output looks like.