Framework vs. Platform
Inkform ships in two modes that read and write the same files — neither is a stripped-down version of the other.
The unified model
A user editing a blog post in the hosted platform's web editor and a user
editing the same file in VS Code are doing the same thing: manipulating MDX
in a Git repository. Changes from either path show up in the other through
Git's normal sync. There is no separate "framework format" and "platform
format" — docs.json, series.json, and the MDX files themselves are
identical either way.
What the framework gives you (this site)
- The full rendering engine — docs, blog, changelog, from one MDX-based format.
- Six themes, all switchable without rewriting content.
- Search, an OpenAPI-backed API reference, slug-history redirects, interactive components with a bring-your-own-backend contract.
- Zero platform dependency. No account, no billing, nothing running on Inkform's servers. Deploy anywhere Next.js runs.
- MIT-licensed, forever free.
What the platform adds
- A hosted, AI-native block editor — no terminal, no local Git required. Drag-and-drop media, widget previews, a slash-command menu.
- GitHub-App auto-drafting — on every PR merge, a webhook opens a draft changelog entry pre-filled from the PR's metadata.
- A fully-managed newsletter pipeline — subscriber management, sending,
delivery analytics, all wired to Resend under the hood. Framework mode's
<SubscribeForm>only gives you the UI contract; the platform gives you the whole backend. - A dashboard — workspace/project model, analytics, GitHub App installation, all without touching a terminal.
- AI content assistance (drafting, tone matching, SEO generation) — entirely optional, and entirely absent from the framework by design; the framework must work fully without AI, so users who want to write everything themselves face no degraded experience.
Adopting an existing framework site into the platform
If you've built a site with this framework — following the
Quickstart — and later want the hosted
editor, GitHub-App drafting, or managed newsletters on top of it, the
platform can detect and adopt your existing repository directly: it
recognizes the content/ + docs.json structure this framework already
uses and starts editing those same files. There's no export/import step and
no re-platforming — see
the platform's own docs
for the exact walkthrough.
Which one should you use?
| If you want... | Use |
|---|---|
| Full ownership, zero recurring cost, your own deploy pipeline | The framework, standalone |
| An AI-native editor and managed newsletter without giving up MDX-in-Git | The platform |
| Both — start free with the framework, add the platform later with zero migration | Either, in either order — they're the same file format |
Neither path locks you in. The framework has no platform coupling to remove later, and the platform never becomes the only place your content lives — it's committed to your own repository the whole time.