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Explore Publii's features

A closer look at the tools for writing, organizing, customizing and publishing a static website, all from your desktop.

See what's new in Publii

Workspace

  • Windows, macOS and Linux

    Use the same desktop CMS across the three operating systems. Your content, themes and website settings live on your computer.

  • Offline editing

    Write, organize content and adjust your site without an internet connection. Connect when you need to download resources or publish your changes.

  • Multiple websites

    Keep separate websites in one app, each with its own content, theme, settings and hosting connection. Switch between them from the website selector.

  • Separate website windows

    Open different websites in separate windows. Leave an article open on one site while checking content or settings on another.

  • A colour for each website

    Choose a workspace accent for each site to tell its window apart from the others. The accent works in light and dark modes.

  • Light and dark modes

    Choose a light or dark interface to suit your working environment. Your website's design is controlled separately by its theme.

  • Interface translations

    Install a language pack and use Publii in your preferred language. The app's interface language is separate from the language of your website.

  • Adjustable interface size

    Scale the app's interface to make controls and text more comfortable on your display, without changing the appearance of your published website.

  • Notification center

    See available app, theme and plugin updates in one place. Open release details and decide when to download and install an update.

Explore the app settings

Writing

  • Block editor

    Build content from paragraphs, headings, quotes, images and other blocks. Move individual sections without cutting and pasting the surrounding text.

  • WYSIWYG editor

    Write in a visual document with familiar formatting controls. Add links, lists, media and other elements directly from the toolbar.

  • Markdown editor

    Write with Markdown syntax for headings, lists, links and code. Formatting markers remain visible while you edit; preview the generated page when needed.

  • Block outline and bulk editing

    See your article's blocks in a side panel. Reorder, duplicate or remove blocks there, with the selected block highlighted in the main editor.

  • Tables

    Add tables in the Block or WYSIWYG editor to present comparisons, specifications and other structured information inside your posts and pages.

  • Table of contents

    Generate a linked table of contents from your headings in the visual editors. Update it after changing sections in a longer article or guide.

  • Code samples and HTML

    Include code examples and custom HTML in your content. The optional Syntax Highlighter plugin adds code highlighting on the published website.

  • Drafts and autosave recovery

    Keep unfinished posts and pages as drafts. The WYSIWYG editor also keeps a recent local recovery draft of the content while you write.

  • Find and replace

    Find words or phrases in the WYSIWYG editor and replace one match or all matches. Use case-sensitive and whole-word options when needed.

  • Writing statistics

    Check words, unique words, characters, sentences and paragraphs in the WYSIWYG editor. Estimated reading time helps you judge the length of an article.

  • Custom excerpts

    Use a read-more marker to choose where a post's introductory text ends. Your theme can use that introduction in its post listings.

Compare the three editors

Organization

  • Posts and pages

    Publish regular updates as posts and keep lasting information in separate pages. All three editors are available for both content types.

  • Nested pages

    Arrange pages into parent pages and subpages. With pretty URLs enabled, the page hierarchy can also appear in your website addresses.

  • A page as your homepage

    Choose a page for the front of your site, with a supporting theme. Keep a separate blog listing by setting a posts prefix.

  • Convert posts and pages

    Turn selected posts into pages, or pages into posts, as your site changes. Review options that differ between the two content types.

  • Tags and main tags

    Group related posts with tags and choose a main tag when your theme uses one. Tag pages give readers another way to browse your content.

  • Author profiles

    Assign posts to authors and add profile descriptions, avatars and website links. Supporting themes can display author pages and their published articles.

  • Nested navigation menus

    Build menus from content links and custom URLs. Drag items into order, create submenus, duplicate items or hide entries you are not ready to display.

  • Multiple menu positions

    Assign a menu to the positions provided by your theme. Reuse one menu in several positions and control its allowed nesting depth.

  • Search, filters and bulk actions

    Find content in the app's lists, change its sorting and filter the results. Select several items to apply the available actions together.

  • Post visibility controls

    Mark posts as featured, hide them from regular listings or exclude them from the homepage. Your theme determines how featured content is presented.

Media

  • Image uploads

    Add images from your computer, including by dragging them into the visual editor. Enter alternative text and captions to describe the images in your content.

  • Responsive images

    Generate image sizes defined by your theme and let the browser choose a suitable version for the visitor's screen. Original image files are kept.

  • WebP and AVIF conversion

    Choose WebP or AVIF conversion for generated images. Publii applies the selected format to supported thumbnails, responsive images and gallery thumbnails.

  • Image quality settings

    Adjust generated-image quality and the available format-specific compression options. Regenerate thumbnails to apply changed settings to your existing images.

  • Editable image galleries

    Add gallery images, reorder them and enter captions and alternative text. Choose the column layout; a gallery plugin provides the optional lightbox.

  • Video and audio embeds

    Embed supported video services or add media with a URL or embed code. Check playback in the local website preview before publishing.

  • File manager

    Upload and organize documents, downloads and other files. Select them from the link dialog when you want to include a file in your content.

  • Replace and duplicate files

    Manage existing files from their action menus. Replace or duplicate a file, copy its URL or local path, and resolve upload filename conflicts.

  • Thumbnail regeneration

    Rebuild generated images after changing themes or image settings. Leave the progress screen and return later to check completion or review failed images.

Publishing

  • Local HTTP preview

    Preview your site through a web server running on your own computer. It starts automatically and lets you test scripts, media and pretty URLs locally.

  • Several active previews

    Keep previews for different websites active at the same time. Manage them from the Local preview panel and clear generated files when needed.

  • FTP and SFTP

    Publish to hosting that accepts FTP or SFTP connections. Enter your host's connection details and synchronize the website directly from Publii.

  • Cloud hosting connections

    Use built-in deployment connections for Netlify, Amazon S3, S3-compatible storage and Google Cloud Storage, with the account and hosting configuration each service requires.

  • GitHub and GitLab Pages

    Publish the generated website to a configured GitHub or GitLab repository. Use the corresponding service's Pages settings to make it available online.

  • Git repository publishing

    Send the generated website to a Git repository using Publii's Git deployment option. Configure the repository, branch and connection credentials in the app.

  • Manual deployment

    Export your generated website to your computer and upload the files yourself. This also lets you use a deployment workflow outside Publii.

  • File change detection

    Publii checks generated files for changes. Deployment methods that support incremental uploads can send changed files without uploading every unchanged asset again.

  • Static website output

    Publish finished HTML, stylesheets, JavaScript and media. The public website needs no Publii application, PHP or CMS database running on the server.

See publishing options

SEO & privacy

  • Titles and meta descriptions

    Set defaults for your site and content types, then override individual titles and descriptions. Supported variables help keep metadata consistent across larger sites.

  • Pretty URLs and prefixes

    Edit content slugs and use readable directory-style URLs. Configure prefixes for posts, tags and authors to fit the structure of your website.

  • Canonical and robots settings

    Set canonical URLs and indexing directives for supported content types and individual items. Choose which content you want search engines to index.

  • XML sitemap

    Generate a sitemap and choose whether to include tag and author pages. Exclude selected files and control which content is listed for search engines.

  • Structured data

    Publii generates JSON-LD from your website and content details, including supported author information. Keep those details accurate for the pages you publish.

  • Social sharing metadata

    Generate Open Graph tags and Twitter Cards, with sharing image settings. These supply metadata that social platforms can use when a page is shared.

  • RSS and JSON feeds

    Offer feeds for readers and feed applications. Adjust feed content and choose whether publication or modification dates are used for RSS items.

  • HTML and CSS compression

    Minify the generated HTML and CSS and optionally remove HTML comments. Configure these options from the website speed settings.

  • Native lazy loading

    Add native lazy-loading attributes to supported media so browsers can defer off-screen resources. Loading behaviour also depends on the browser and theme markup.

  • Consent for embedded content

    With a supporting theme, hold configured embeds behind consent placeholders. Privacy settings also include YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode and Vimeo's do-not-track option.

Explore SEO and performance

Customization

  • Ready-made themes

    Choose from free and premium Publii themes. Install a theme archive and manage the site's selected theme and available updates from Site Settings.

  • Visual theme settings

    Adjust the layout, colours, typography and other controls exposed by your theme. Theme authors decide which settings are available.

  • Content templates

    Use alternative post and page templates supplied by your theme. Theme developers can also give the homepage and blog listing their own layouts.

  • Theme overrides

    Keep customized templates and assets in a separate override directory. Publii uses those files when generating the site, leaving the installed theme files separate.

  • Custom CSS and HTML

    Add CSS rules and insert HTML into supported areas of your website. Preview changes locally before publishing the updated files.

  • Locally hosted fonts

    Supporting themes can package and generate the font files used by your site. Choose their available typography settings without depending on a remote font service.

  • Plugins for each website

    Enable and configure installed plugins separately for each site. Search and filter the plugin list, or use bulk controls to change several plugins together.

  • Search and comments plugins

    Add site search or comments through optional plugins. Available solutions include Static Search, DocSearch and integrations with external comment services.

  • Analytics integrations

    Optional plugins connect services such as Plausible, Matomo or Google Analytics. Choose which service to use and configure its settings and consent requirements.

  • AI discovery tools

    Optional plugins generate llms.txt and Markdown copies of pages or add rules for AI crawlers. Choose the formats and access directives your site publishes.

  • Theme and plugin development

    Build with Handlebars templates, helpers and plugin hooks. Add custom settings, repeatable groups and content-specific fields through Publii's theme and plugin APIs.

Open the developer documentation

Migration & backups

  • WordPress content import

    Import a WordPress WXR/XML export into a new or existing site. Bring across posts, pages, authors and navigation menus, along with supported images, galleries and SEO metadata.

  • Menus and page hierarchy

    Import WordPress navigation menus with their order and nesting, and keep parent relationships between pages. Assign imported menus to your theme's positions afterwards.

  • Slugs, categories and tags

    Choose whether to preserve imported slugs or generate new ones. Convert WordPress categories, tags or both into Publii tags.

  • Compatible SEO metadata

    Import supported SEO values from Yoast SEO, Rank Math and All in One SEO when they are present in the WordPress export.

  • Import report and URL map

    Review missing images, unresolved links and unsupported WordPress elements. Use the generated URL map to prepare redirects for your hosting provider.

  • Local website backups

    Create named backup archives and manage saved copies in the app. Choose where new backups are stored and keep additional copies on another device.

  • Restore or start from a backup

    Restore a local website or create a new site from a backup archive. After moving computers, reinstall needed plugins and check the publishing connection.

  • Duplicate a website

    Clone an existing site's content and theme configuration for another project. Set up the duplicate's deployment connection before publishing it.

Read the WordPress import guide

Create your first website with Publii

Join thousands of creators who chose independence. Create content locally and publish lightning-fast, secure websites on your own terms.

Download Publii

Free and open source. Windows, macOS and Linux.

Read the getting started guide