MiDy Enters Public Beta for Mildly Dynamic Websites

Designed for websites that need only limited server-side behaviour, MiDy has entered public beta as a PHP publishing tool positioned between static site generators and full content management systems. The beta was announced in a 1 August 2026 blog post by software engineer Larry Garfield, who used MiDy to rebuild GarfieldTech after almost 20 years on Drupal. Garfield said he wanted a simpler setup for a personal site, with content managed through Git and files on disk, and more direct control over theming.

MiDy keeps most content in a file tree rather than requiring a conventional application structure for every page. Pages may be static files, Markdown rendered through Latte, Latte templates, redirects, or PHP classes for dynamic requests such as form submissions. Templates can query a read-only SQLite-backed page index for listings and feeds, while static assets and non-PHP pages can be pre-generated for production. Current documentation requires PHP 8.5 and SQLite and states that the beta is intended for personal blogs and small company sites rather than enterprise-grade or mission-critical deployments.

For Drupal practitioners, the migration is more useful as a platform-fit example than as a verdict on Drupal. Garfield's stated technical requirements centred on a small personal site, Git and files-on-disk management, and simpler theming, while Drupal's broader value becomes more relevant when a site needs structured editorial workflows, governance, multiple users, and longer-term operational complexity. The comparison gives Drupal advocates a practical distinction to make: use Drupal's broader capabilities where the requirements justify them, while recognising that a smaller developer-managed site may not need the same platform scope.