# A batteries-included, self-hostable web3 alternative to Substack, and Mirror.

Source: https://github.com/fountain-ink/app

## Summary

Fountain is a self-hostable, decentralized publishing app positioned as an alternative to Medium, Substack, and Mirror, with a stated aim of letting users own their content and audience. It is built on Lens Protocol for decentralized social features, Grove for decentralized storage, and Supabase for off-chain storage, with Next.js, Plate.js, Y.js, and Listmonk handling the frontend, editor, collaborative sync, and mailing lists. The project is still in early development, and self-hosting documentation is listed as coming soon, along with a docs portal and deployment SDKs slated for Q2. The code is licensed under AGPLv3.

## Article

A batteries-included, self-hostable web3 alternative to Medium, Substack, and Mirror.

Own your content and audience through decentralized publishing

Stack

The Fountain app is entirely self-hostable and is built using the following tools:

Lens Protocol - Decentralized social protocol

Grove - Decentralized storage

Next.js - React framework for the frontend

Plate.js - Customizable editor framework

Y.js - Collaborative sync layer for the editor

Supabase - Off-chain storage

Listmonk - Mailing list manager

Note: The Fountain app is still in early development, self-hosting documentation is coming soon.

Coming Soon

Docs portal (Q2)

Deployment SDKs (Q2)

Getting Started

Installation

Using Bun (v1.2.5 or higher)

# Clone the repository git clone https://github.com/fountain-ink/app.git cd app # Install dependencies bun install # Create a .env file (and edit the variables) cp .env.example .env # Start the development server bun run dev # Run the collaboration server (for yjs sync) bun run collab # Run the notifications server (WIP) bun run notifications

Building for Production

# Build the application bun run build # Start the production server bun run start

License

AGPLv3 - See LICENSE for more information.

## Comments

**timdaub.eth**: Isn‘t blogging already decentralized?

**kualta.eth**: it is, but with fountain you get distribution and monetization for free

**timdaub.eth**: Cool, did you just launch this? I see this includes also the new Family Wallet connect dialogue

**hushbubble.eth**: Great job. Looks very polished. Is there a way to discover other peoples' content?

I created something similar a few years ago but it didn't go anywhere. https://seedling-d.app

**kualta.eth**: hey thank you for kind comments! we just launched this and im currently busy polishing the ux further and building new features, other people's content feed is coming soon!