https://startuplab.io/blog

It's very flexible, written in python, easy to customize, has plugins for any purpose. It supports markdown, latex, code snippets (with syntax highlighting). It's very simple to set up and you can use it for any purpose.

I've made a custom theme, configured it a bit, and served it with nginx on digital ocean(but you could also host it for free on github pages).

You can see the code and my custom theme here:

https://github.com/raymestalez/startuplab

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Here's a few simple things I want to recommend, based on my experience:

- Immediately setup a mailchimp account and an RSS feed. Add a link in the header, and under each post (you can see how it works on my blog), you want to start build a list of followers right away.

- Ideally, write a short ebook or a guide to give people extra incentive to subscribe. The sooner you do this - the better. Here's a sexy landing page I've made for my blog to use as an example:

https://startuplab.io/free-guide

- Keep the design elegant and simple, nobody needs distracting sidebars or popups, avoid them unless absolutely necessary.

- Underneath my posts, I have 3 boxes recommending my other articles (or promoting my projects), it's a really neat way to keep people on your site.

- Don't forget to set up metadata and social images for good SEO and sharing. You can see how I did it in my template here:

https://github.com/raymestalez/startuplab/blob/master/themes...

- For a very simple commenting system I highly recommend isso:

https://posativ.org/isso/

It's really easy to setup and a pleasure to use. Although personally, I share my posts on HN/reddit, and have a link to the discussion thread automatically embedded in the post footer. That way you don't need any complex setup, and it's better for the exposure.