I wanted to explore simple WYSIWYG website editors (markdown acceptable) for personal academic sites, focusing on those that can be hosted on GitHub Pages for free, or that you at least own your content. Here's what I discovered:
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Montaigne is quick with Apple Notes and creates a presentable site. -
Introducing Webtrotion by ME! can be used to make websites with a blog component. It is built off Notion to Astro blog by otoyo0122 is excellent for basic blogs. -
Publii – Static CMS for Fast, Secure, GDPR & CCPA-Compliant Websites is an open-source CMS that integrates well with Github Pages or Netlify.
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Primo is another visual website builder that's open-source. -
Quarto requires local writing, but has many templates. -
Welcome to Quartz 4 integrates well with obsdmd Obsidian - Sharpen your thinking.
- Git-based CMS options like
Decap CMS Decap CMS | Open-Source Content Management System and Tina The Markdown CMS provide a WordPress-like experience.
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Nuxt Studio The Git-based CMS for Nuxt is a new git-based visual CMS. - sites.google.com is a WYSIWYG option but you don't own the content.
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Astro with 
Darkmatter - CMS for Astro content collections are for those familiar with Astro. -
Make your website editable is easy to use but complex to install. - Hugo (Paper mod) and Jekyll are for those who are tech-savvy.
Paid options: 
Blot(which I highly recommend, you still own your content!), 
WordPress.org Blog Tool, Publishing Platform, and CMS - WordPress.org, 
Webflow: Create a custom website | Visual website builder, and wix.com Your website, your business, your future｜Wix.com
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