Introducing Kalmia – a free, open-source documentation tool built for speed and simplicity. With a beautiful UI and AGPLv3 licensing, it’s perfect for both technical and non-technical users. Early stage but ready for feedback!
@hackerqed Ah, a true man of culture! 🙌 Thank you for supporting the FOSS movement—your upvotes are powering the revolution one click at a time! 😄
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Interesting idea, UI looks nice but not sure it will stand out in the crowded CMS market, worrying about security honestly, also AGPLv3 license might be too restrictive for some, but hey, could catch on with the right crowd, let’s see how it evolves
@cryptocommexpert Thank you for the feedback! 😊 I totally get your concerns—security is something we're very focused on, and we’re continuously working to ensure Kalmia is safe for everyone to use. As for the AGPLv3 license, we chose it to ensure the software remains free and open for everyone, but we understand it might not be for everyone.
That said, we believe Kalmia’s simplicity, speed, and focus on collaboration make it stand out in the crowded market, especially for teams looking for a self-hosted, cost-effective solution. We're excited to see how it evolves too, and we appreciate you keeping an eye on it!
@peng_wood Thank you so much! 🙌 I'm thrilled to hear you're going to give Kalmia a try. I hope it makes your documentation process easier and faster. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or feedback. Thanks again for the support! 😊
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Cool. Developers will love this. Congrats on this launch! @hayzam
@ruig_d Thank you so much! 😊 I'm really excited to hear that, and I appreciate your support. We built Kalmia with developers in mind, so it's great to see that it resonates. Thanks again, and stay tuned for more updates!
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Looks cool but honestly it feels like another tool that's doing what others are already doing, what's truly different here apart from being open source, also could really use more info on customization options, hoping to see more specific features or use cases soon otherwise it's just another cms in the sea.
@alassanedev At Difuse (the parent company behind Kalmia), we’re not fans of reinventing the wheel either! We’ve tried a wide range of tools—GitBook, TinaCMS (Tinasaurus, based on Docusaurus), mdBook, mkdocs, and Docusaurus. Here’s what didn’t work for us:
* GitBook: While it's a solid tool, it was just too expensive for our bootstrapped startup. We were spending upwards of $150 for 10 users, while now we pay just €3 for a small Hetzner server. It also added friction with versioning and updating docs, whereas Kalmia offers a one-click solution.
* TinaCMS, Docusaurus, mdBook, mkdocs, RsPress (without a GUI) etc. etc.: These are all great, but they’re mainly markdown-to-HTML converters. The problem? Everyone working on the documentation had to know Markdown and how to use Git, which wasn’t feasible for us. We had many technical users (without coding backgrounds) who wanted to contribute, but learning Git and Markdown was too steep of a learning curve. We also needed seamless permission management—none of these platforms offer dynamic user permissions. Kalmia allows you to assign very specific access levels to everyone on the platform.
What sets us apart is excellent versioning, speed (80-90% faster than Docusaurus, which is quite popular), and easy collaboration compared to bare Docusaurus or RsPress—all on top of being FOSS.
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Great to see Kalmia on PH, @hayzam! The focus on speed and simplicity is a game-changer, especially for the open-source community. AGPLv3 licensing is a huge plus for those of us who value customization and self-hosting options. I'm excited to dive into its UI and see how it compares to other tools like Docusaurus. Looking forward to testing it out and providing feedback! Keep up the fantastic work, Makers! 🚀
@star_boat Thank you so much! 😊 I’m thrilled that you appreciate the focus on speed, simplicity, and the AGPLv3 licensing. We really wanted to offer something customizable and easy to self-host for the open-source community. I’d love to hear your thoughts after trying it out, especially how you feel it compares to tools like Docusaurus. We’re always open to feedback, so feel free to share your experience! Thanks again for the support, and we’ll keep pushing forward! 🚀
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Great work, @hayzam! Kalmia sounds like a solid addition for anyone looking for a user-friendly documentation tool. Excited to see how it unfolds. Upvoted!
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