Modern Webring Tools: What Exists, What Sucks, and What’s Next

Webrings are back. But the tools? Eh.

We’re in a bit of a renaissance moment. People are rediscovering personal sites, hand-built homepages, and the magic of being found through something other than search or social.

But if you’ve tried to actually create or manage a webring lately, you’ve probably noticed something:

Most of the tools out there feel like they haven’t been touched since 1999.

What exists now

Let’s break it down.

• Webring.js and Other JS-based Rings – Lightweight, easy to embed. But there’s zero interface, no moderation tools, and no way to handle scaling or curation.
• Neocities-style Rings – Full retro vibes. Great for the aesthetic, but often clunky to manage and not intuitive for newer users.
• Blogrolls & RSS Aggregators – Technically useful — but not rings. There’s no network flow or shared trail of discovery
• Forum-based Ring Threads – Some forums host informal ring collections (think personal site threads on Reddit or Indie Hackers). Good spirit, but no automation or visual connection.

What kinda sucks

• No dashboards: You can’t see who’s in your ring, how it’s growing, or what people are clicking.
• No discovery: Most rings are just “next / previous” links slapped on footers. There’s no visual sense of place, purpose, or theme.
• No onboarding: Tools assume you already know how this works. New folks? Left in the dust.
• No moderation: Bad actors can sneak in, and ring creators have no real tools to keep quality high.

What’s next — and what we’re building

That’s where Webring Studio comes in. We’re designing tools that:

• Help you start a ring with intention, not frustration
• Let you curate who joins and how your ring is presented
• Give you visibility into your ring’s growth, activity, and vibe
• Offer gentle AI assists for naming, descriptions, and creative nudge moments
• Still keep the spirit of human-powered discovery intact

We’re not trying to build a platform that owns your content.

We’re trying to build a toolset that makes webrings joyful again — and viable in 2025.

Want to help shape what comes next?

We’re building Webring Studio with the indie web — not just for it. Join the waitlist, share your thoughts, and help us make the future of webrings something worth circling back to.