emdash

EmDash is a TypeScript CMS built on Astro that runs on Cloudflare Workers or plain Node.js, pitched squarely as the modern WordPress replacement for developers. Content is stored as structured Portable Text instead of HTML soup, plugins run sandboxed in isolated Workers, and there is a visual schema builder in the admin panel. MIT licensed and fully free.

The Cloudflare-native path uses D1 for the database and R2 for media, which means near-zero ops if you already live on Cloudflare's edge. Node.js deployment works with local SQLite. Since the last look it has grown up noticeably: a WordPress import wizard for actually migrating off WordPress, passkey-first (WebAuthn) auth, full-text search, scheduled publishing, and an MCP server so AI agents can manage content directly.

Developer-first teams comfortable with beta software should experiment here. Ghost is still the better pick for straight publishing today, and Payload is the more production-hardened TypeScript option. EmDash's edge is the Astro plus Cloudflare deployment story and now a credible migration path off WordPress. Solo devs on the edge stack: worth a real trial. Larger teams: wait for the plugin ecosystem to fill in.

The catch: it is still beta, and the sandboxed plugins that make it interesting need a paid Cloudflare Workers plan (about $5 a month) to run dynamically. The foundation is stronger than it was, but the third-party ecosystem is thin, so you are still building most of what you need yourself.