Next Blog Kit is a free, open-source blog starter template for Next.js that uses MDX for content authoring and Tailwind CSS for styling, created by MakerKit.
What is Next Blog Kit?
Next Blog Kit is a ready-to-use blog starter project bootstrapped with create-next-app, designed to launch a blog, portfolio, or online publication. It takes MDX files as content inputs and produces a fully responsive, SEO-optimized static site with automatically generated sitemap and RSS feed. The template runs on the Next.js framework and can be deployed to Vercel with minimal setup. It is maintained by MakerKit and is available on GitHub.
Key Features
- Fully responsive Blog/Portfolio Site — The layout adapts to screen sizes out of the box, giving you a mobile-friendly blog without extra design work.
- MDX content support — Write articles in MDX format, which lets you embed JSX components and interactive elements directly inside your markdown posts.
- Core Web Vitals = 100 — The starter is built to achieve perfect scores on Google's Core Web Vitals metrics, leading to fast page loads.
- SEO out-of-the-box — Search engine optimization is preconfigured, saving you time on meta tags and structured data.
- Automatic sitemap and RSS — Sitemap and RSS feed are generated automatically, helping search engines index your content and readers subscribe.
- TypeScript, ESLint, and Prettier — The codebase is written in strict TypeScript, validated with ESLint, and formatted with Prettier for consistent, maintainable code.
Who is it for?
- Developers who want a modern, fast blog boilerplate without building the infrastructure from scratch, and prefer a TypeScript codebase with linting and formatting already configured.
- Content creators who need a straightforward way to publish long-form articles using Markdown or MDX, with automatic SEO and RSS support.
- Designers and portfolio owners who want a responsive, clean layout to showcase work or writing, with minimal configuration.
What can you do with Next Blog Kit?
- Bloggers: Publish MDX articles by adding files to the _posts directory, with frontmatter for title, collection, author, date, and description.
- Portfolio owners: Customize collections and authors via JSON files in _collections and _authors to organize projects or posts.
- Online publications: Configure site-wide metadata in a single configuration.ts file and deploy to Vercel for a fast, static website.
How does Next Blog Kit work?
- Clone the repository from GitHub and run npm install and npm run dev to start the development server on localhost:3000.
- Edit configuration.ts to set your site name, description, theme color, URLs, and social handles.
- Add collections and authors as JSON files, then create MDX posts in _posts with frontmatter referencing them.
- Deploy to Vercel using the official Next.js deployment flow.
Pricing
Next Blog Kit is free and open-source, released by MakerKit. There are no paid tiers or subscription fees mentioned; you can use it for personal or commercial projects.
FAQ
Is Next Blog Kit free?
Yes, Next Blog Kit is free and open-source. The GitHub repository is publicly available, and you can clone, modify, and deploy it without paying any licensing fees.
What tech stack does Next Blog Kit use?
The template is built with Next.js, MDX, and Tailwind CSS, and written in strict TypeScript. It also uses ESLint for validation and Prettier for formatting.
How do I configure my site?
Open the configuration.ts file at the root of the project. It contains a configuration object with fields for site name, description, theme color, site URL, social handles, and language. Update these values to match your brand.
How do I deploy Next Blog Kit?
The easiest way is to use the Vercel Platform, as the project is a standard Next.js app. Connect your GitHub repository to Vercel, and it will build and deploy automatically. Alternatively, follow the Next.js deployment documentation for other platforms.
