Best Blogging Platform 2020: Top 8 Free & Paid Blog Options

Last Updated on

Crazy fact: Did you know that there are more than 440 million blogs in the world today?

And almost everyone reads blogs. (Yes, including you and I).

But if you’re here reading this post right now, you’re probably not here reading for pleasure, you are looking for a comparison of paid and free blogging platforms so you can set up a blog for yourself right?

Best blogging platforms list
Best blogging platforms list

You are of course in just in the right place as today, I’ll be taking a deep dive into 8 of the paid and free blogging platforms for beginners and the experienced alike.

You should know, that although most of the options below are free platforms, WordPress.org does require you to get your own domain name and hosting. You don’t pay for the software, you pay for the hosting, but…

That does have massive advantages as you will find out.

OK, let’s go through the pros and cons of each and find out which of the platforms will work for your specific needs.

Platform Hosting included? Custom domain included? Designs available Plugins & extensions Ease of use Learn more
WP.org

Yes using this link

1000+
1000+
10/10
WP.com

**

100+
9/10
Squarespace
10+
100+
9/10
Wix
100+
10+
8/10
Tumblr

**

100+
10/10
Medium
10/10
Ghost

/*

**

100+
6/10
Blogger

**

Almost none
8/10

* Hosting included for pro; no hosting for open source
** You get a subdomain but you can hook up your custom domain as well

Here are the 8 best blogging platforms

best blogging platform
  • WordPress.org (Choose this to own your site)
  • WordPress.com
  • Squarespace
  • Wix
  • Tumblr
  • Medium
  • Ghost
  • Blogger

1. WordPress.org (best blogging platform overall)

In a sentence: The most popular blogging platform in the world, easy to use and you are allowed to make money unlike most options.

Could I have started with anything else? Did you know that WordPress is currently powering more than 25 percent of the entire web? Yep, one in every four websites is built using WordPress.org. Just wow!

For a step by step guide, you can look at my guide on how to create a blog to find out how to get going with WordPress.org in the next 30 minutes.

  • Price: Couldn’t be better – it’s $0 for the software itself.
  • Do you get your own domain? No. A custom domain name is something you have to buy separately. Then you can hook it up to your hosting account.

I highly recommend HOSTGATOR for hosting. I’ll tell you why later…

  • Any prior skills required? Self-hosted WordPress certainly isn’t a no-learning-curve kind of thing. Installing it and then configuring it properly will take 20 minutes to an hour if you haven’t done this before. However, after that, using this blogging platform on a daily basis to publish your posts is very fast and straightforward. Plus, you can find great guides online that make the whole thing even easier.
  • Designs available? A ton! There’s more than enough free themes in the official directory at WordPress.org. Plus, there are literally hundreds of theme stores/theme houses that offer myriads of custom designs.
  • Plugins and extensions: WordPress offers extreme extensibility. Again, there are more than 42,000 free plugins in the official directory, and who knows how many more available throughout the web.
  • Hosting included? No. The software you get from WordPress.org is a downloadable package, which you then have to upload/install on a web server you already manage. [For people who are just starting their blogging journey I recommend that they use HostGator as they offer an easy WordPress installation process.] More on this in a bit…

Who's WordPress.org perfect for?

WordPress is a good choice for…

  • Bloggers who want to make money from their blogging.
  • Bloggers who want to make the blog a part of their business.
  • Professional bloggers.
  • Hobby bloggers who want to actually own their site instead of being at the mercy of a large company.
  • Beginners who don’t want to deal with a steep learning curve.

On top of this, because of the extreme WordPress customization possibilities, it’s one of the best blogging platforms if you want to build a professional blog that’s going to play an important role in your business.

With self-hosted WordPress, you retain full control over your website, what is shown on it, and the way it looks and performs.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • The most popular blog platform in the world.
  • A massive number of designs available.
  • A massive number of plugins available.
  • Great community – you will always find someone to help you out with a challenge.

Cons

  • No hosting included.
  • A little bit of a learning curve if you’re just getting started.
  • Setting up your site to suit your needs perfectly can a few hours.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org

I know it’s easy to confuse WordPress.org with WordPress.com, which is a blog hosting service next on this list. 

To make it easier for you, the difference between them is that WordPress.org is free and you install it on your own paid hosting, while WordPress.com is also free, but you can also set up your own site for free there (this has huge disadvantages of course).

Our #1 Choice For Hosting Blogs

62% Off Exclusive Offer Applied at Checkout

Regularly

$6.95/mo

Starting From

$2.64/mo*

  • Free 1 Year Domain Registration on Select Plans
  • FREE SSL Certificate
  • Drag-and-drop Website Builder
  • E-commerce Ready
  • 1-Click WordPress Installation

Why buy hosting instead of using free blogging platforms?

If you want to make money off your blog or gain a serious following, then you need to pay for web hosting (if you want to get a better understanding of what that is, see our “what is web hosting?” article from the search box).

Self-hosted WordPress.ORG blogs allow you to easily monetize the blog with Adsense advertisements, Amazon ads, or sell your own products. This really isn’t possible with the .COM version of WordPress or any of the other free options.

Here’s the truth: WordPress.com (and any other free platform) will own all of your blog posts and will show their OWN ads for random companies on YOUR blog.

They will make money off of your hard work!

Plus you won’t be taken seriously if your domain name is something like Startbloggingonline.wordpress.com versus self-hosted like mine: startbloggingonline.com.

So, if you don’t care about who advertises on your blog, being taken seriously, or making money, then go with WordPress.COM but if you want to earn a part-time/full-time income or be taken seriously as a blogger then go with WordPress.ORG and host it yourself.

It’s a small investment, but less than one cup of coffee at Starbucks a month!

The bottom line: Self-hosted WordPress.org is better than WordPress.com because you get a custom domain and own all of your content. The majority of blogs use WordPress.org for these reasons. That also means you place advertisements on it as you please, customize the theme, and install powerful plugins.

While it does come with a learning curve, we have a great free tutorial on how to set up a blog to help you along the way.

Remember, for serious bloggers or anybody looking to make a little bit of money from their blog you need to get a reliable hosting package to go with it…

2. WordPress.com (best choice for hobby bloggers)

WordPress.com logoIn a sentence: Hosted blogging platform built with the WordPress software that is NOT owned by you.

WordPress.com is a hosted version of WordPress. This means that instead of having to download the software and install it yourself, all you need to do is sign up for an account at WordPress.com, and you can start blogging in a matter of minutes. Used by many influencers, such as Tim Ferriss or even Jay-Z (LifeandTimes.com).

  • Price: Three plans available: $0 – great for basic blogging, $99 / year – great for professional blogging, $299 / year – great for advanced business solutions.
  • Hosting included? Yes, you get your site hosted for no additional payments.
  • Do you get your own domain? By default, you get a subdomain like example.wordpress.com. You can add a custom domain as well (doing so on the free plan costs $18/year. For paid plans a custom domain is included).
  • Any prior skills required? A bit easier to use than the self-hosted version of WordPress, due to the fact that you get much of the heavy lifting taken care of (hosting, site setup, basic configuration). You still need to go through the on-screen wizard, but it’s relatively simple. Plus, there’s the official getting started guide. After the setup phase, using this blogging platform on a daily basis to publish your posts is extra easy.
  • Designs available? There’s a couple of hundreds of themes to choose from, and if you opt for one of the premium plans, you also get the opportunity to customize the design you’re using. Overall, WordPress.com keeps things simple and doesn’t deliver as many design options as self-hosted WordPress.
  • Plugins and extensions: Popular features like sharing, stats, comments, and polls are included, but there’s no option to install third-party plugins.

Who's WordPress.com good for?

  • This is the best blogging platform for hobby bloggers.
  • Anyone who wants to start a blog with no investment at all.
  • Professional bloggers.

Overall, WordPress.com is a simplified version of self-hosted WordPress. It delivers all of the most essential features but also leaves a big chunk of them out. If you care only about blogging and don’t want to experiment with your site’s custom features then WordPress.com is going to be sufficient for you.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Get started in minutes.
  • Hosting and subdomain included.
  • You can use it for $0.

Cons

  • No possibility to install custom themes.
  • No plugins.
  • WordPress.com can pull the plug on your blog at any time if they find your actions, not in tune with their rules.
  • Can be blocked in some countries, thus requiring a VPN from a neighboring country to log in and publish.

3. Squarespace

SquareSpace logoIn a sentence: User-friendly online website builder and website hosting service.

Squarespace is a really good all-in-one website building solution. You can use it to launch blogs, businesses, e-commerce stores, and much more. Fun fact, Squarespace is the only platform on this list that invested in a Super Bowl ad (twice).

  • Price: Subscription-based, $8-$24/month.
  • Hosting included? Yes.
  • Do you get your own domain? Yes, you get a custom domain with your subscription.
  • Any prior skills required? No. Squarespace is ultra easy to use, even if it’s your first time building a website or blog. The interface is clear, intuitive, and powerful. Publishing new content is simple as well, and their custom LayoutEngine lets you arrange your blog content however you like through drag-and-drop.
  • Designs available? A number of great-looking and modern designs to choose from. Squarespace makes it a goal of theirs to always go with the trends and stay on top of what’s popular design-wise.
  • Plugins and extensions: A range of the most important features built-in from the get-go, plus there are external plugins available through another site.

Who's Squarespace perfect for?

  • Business owners who need a great-looking and optimized website, and a blog to go alongside.
  • Artists, musicians, photographers, creatives in general who want to blog and also showcase their work in an effective way.
  • Restaurants, cafes, etc, running a company blog.
  • Users with no design skills who want to be able to build a blog from scratch on their own using website builders.

Overall, it’s potentially the best platform for anyone who wants to build a professional looking website or blog all on their own. No design skills are required, and the whole process is very straightforward.

That being said, if all you need is a blog – without the additional stuff – then there are more suitable solutions out there.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Great customization capabilities and easy to use interface.
  • Hosting and custom domain included.
  • No design or development skills required.
  • Drag-and-drop content building.
  • 24/7 customer support.

Cons

  • Can get expensive over time when we add up the monthly subscription costs.
  • (This will sound strange) Too feature-rich if all you need is a simple blog.

4. Wix website builder

Wix logoIn a sentence: User-friendly online website builder and website hosting service.

To say this simply, Wix is basically like Squarespace, but different. It offers similar features in terms of its website-building and blog-building ability, but the execution is of a slightly different style.

  • Price: Subscription-based, $0-$18/month.
  • Hosting included? Yes.
  • Do you get your own domain? By default, you get a subdomain like example.wix.com. You can also add a custom domain that you already own.
  • Any prior skills required? Wix is very easy to use when it comes to launching a new website. However, you do need to go through a couple of additional steps to add the blog module. Nothing too difficult but still. Overall, Wix gives you a step-by-step wizard to get through the whole process.
  • Designs available? More than 500 designs available.
  • Plugins and extensions: There’s a number of essential site management features built-in, and apart from that, you can also extend your site through the Wix App Market.

Who's Wix perfect for?

  • Quite similarly to Squarespace, business owners who need a great-looking and optimized website, and a blog to go alongside.
  • Users with no design skills who want to be able to build a blog from scratch on their own.
  • Artists, musicians, photographers, creatives in general who want to blog and also showcase their work in an effective manner.

Wix Website Builder is an interesting alternative blogging platform to Squarespace, especially for users who don’t have a budget to invest and would like to keep things cheap. That being said, the blog module isn’t that configurable. So if what you want most of all is a blog, you’re better off with another platform.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • More than 500 designs to choose from.
  • Free plan available.
  • Drag-and-drop content building.
  • Great support, plus an online knowledge base.

Cons

  • Limited blog customization possibilities, especially compared to other solutions on the list.
  • Not a dedicated blogging platform.

5. Tumblr

Tumblr logoIn a sentence: A hip microblogging hosted blog platform with a social network aspect.

Tumblr is a great free blog site optimized specifically for bloggers who want to publish short-form content, such as micro-blogs, quotes, images, videos, and animated GIFs. Tumblr is also a community of users, ready to promote and comment on each other’s work.

  • Price: Free.
  • Hosting included? Yes, Tumblr hosts your blog for no additional cost.
  • Do you get your own domain? By default, you get a subdomain like example.tumblr.com. Hooking up your own custom domain is possible too (you need to get the domain elsewhere)
  • Any prior skills required? Absolutely no skills at all required to start and run a Tumblr blog. The interface is the most user-friendly one of the 8 blogging platforms we’re reviewing here. Tumblr blogs are easy to set up and easy to run afterward.
  • Designs available? There’s a lot of designs you can choose from, although many of them paid.
  • Plugins and extensions: None.

Who's Tumblr perfect for?

  • Hobby bloggers.
  • One-topic blogs.
  • Probably the best blogging platform for microblogs.
  • Blogs publishing different types of content (quotes, posts, images, videos, etc.)

Tumblr is the blogging platform for you if you’re not planning to turn your blog into a business project, or if you don’t care about advanced features and extensions. A great solution for small blogs with not a lot of content and an irregular posting schedule.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Community aspect: Tumblr is a social network as much as it is a blogging platform.
  • Free.
  • Hosting and subdomain included.
  • A user interface that’s ultra easy to use.
  • Built-in styles for various types of content.

Cons

  • No extensions or plugins.
  • Limited features compared to the other platforms on this list.

6. Medium

Medium logoIn a sentence: A publishing blog platform for your stories and articles.

Medium has grown in popularity a lot during the last couple of years (more than a million people have joined Medium). In short, it’s a community of writers and bloggers, all using the same looking site design to share their opinions and stories on various topics.

  • Price: Free.
  • Hosting included? Yes, Medium handles it completely.
  • Do you get your own domain? Not included. Everybody gets to publish under their profile (e.g. medium.com/@name/). However, quite recently Medium enabled its users to hook up their own custom domains to individual stories on Medium. Again, this means that individual stories can now use custom domains, not individual user profiles.
  • Any prior skills required? Not at all. Medium is extremely easy to use. All you need to do is sign up, and you can start publishing your stories/posts right away. No learning curve at all.
  • Designs available? None. Everybody gets the same design.
  • Plugins and extensions: None. Although Medium has some great publishing and typography features built-in.

Who's Medium perfect for?

  • Writers looking to build their brand. Medium is great to get instant readership for your stories.
  • Hobby bloggers.
  • Company blogs hosted outside of the company’s website.

In the end, Medium is great if you want to publish individual stories that aren’t necessarily related. Medium helps spread your content by using custom algorithms as well as editorial curation. If you just want to “experiment with this blogging thing,” Medium is the way to do it.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Very easy-to-use interface.
  • Other users can help you work on your content.
  • Free.
  • Great typography settings.


Cons

  • No custom designs. Everyone’s profile looks the same.
  • Medium has control over your publications.

7. Ghost

Ghost hostingIn a sentence: Downloadable blogging software, and a hosted blogging platform.

The main idea behind Ghost was to make it a simpler version of WordPress … something that would be just a blogging platform, without all the advanced content management features that have been introduced in WordPress recently.

  • Price: The downloadable version is free. The hosted – pro – version stands at $8-$200 depending on the number of blogs you want to run and the traffic volume you’re expecting.
  • Hosting included? If you get the downloadable version, it’s up to you to find a web host and install the software there. For Ghost Pro, hosting is included.
  • Do you get your own domain? No, you don’t get a domain with your plan, but you can hook up an external domain easily.
    Any prior skills required? The answer’s two-fold here. If you’re getting the downloadable version then setting up your site will take some time and skill around web servers and such. For Ghost Pro, the setup is quite simple. Using the platform on a daily basis is very easy to grasp too, although the interface is a bit “geeky” – with the Markdown split-screen support and all.
  • Designs available? Nice library of themes to choose from, many of them paid though. There are also premium themes available on the web.
    Plugins and extensions: Things like SEO, social media, comments, etc. are already built-in. Apart from that, no external plugins for Ghost.

For running a blog on Ghost (downloadable version) you will require web hosting, again, I recommend HostGator for this.

Who's Ghost perfect for?

  • Bloggers who want to use the newest and freshest technical solutions available.
  • Hobby bloggers who are passionate about web development.
  • Bloggers who like to experiment with new platforms.

With all of Ghost’s awesomeness, it’s still not the best choices of blogging platforms if you want to build a pro-blog or a business blog. It lacks some important features and is more of a beta project overall.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Designed as a blogging site above all else.
  • Very clear writing and publishing interface.
  • Fast, and optimized for SEO.

Cons

  • Not as customizable as WordPress.
  • No plugins or extensibility is available.

8. Blogger

Blogger logoIn a sentence: An old-school free blogging site that used to be the best blogging platform if free was what you were after.

Blogger is one of the oldest blogging platforms out there. Currently, it’s run by Google, so all you need to sign up is your standard Google account. Similarly to WordPress.com, Blogger takes care of all the technical heavy lifting, allowing you to just focus on creating content.

  • Blogger pricing: Free.
  • Hosting included? Yes, Blogger takes care of hosting your blog for no additional payment.
  • Do you get your own domain? By default, you get a subdomain like example.blogspot.com. You can hook up your custom domain too, but you have to acquire it separately.
  • Any prior skills required? Blogger is easy to use, albeit a little outdated compared to some more modern solutions like WordPress.com or Medium. Setting up your blog is still very easy and quick. No skills required to start blogging under Blogger.
  • Designs available? Just a standard layout editor (content/sidebar). Apart from that, there’s not much you can do in terms of the design of your blog.
  • Plugins and extensions: No external plugins available.

Who's Blogger great for?

  • Hobby bloggers and personal blogs.

Maybe 12 years ago Blogger could have been considered a huge hit, but right now it’s not really the best blogging platform for anyone. I don’t advise using it for anything other than personal blogs.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • You can get a blog started in under a minute.
  • Simple interface for content creation.
  • Hosting and subdomain included.

Cons

  • Everything else.

Our #1 Choice For Hosting Blogs

62% Off Exclusive Offer Applied at Checkout

Regularly

$6.95/mo

Starting From

$2.64/mo*

  • Free 1 Year Domain Registration on Select Plans
  • FREE SSL Certificate
  • Drag-and-drop Website Builder
  • E-commerce Ready
  • 1-Click WordPress Installation

Top pick from the best blog platforms

If you want a paid, self hosted blogging option that you own yourself, can make money on, or want to choose from the blog platforms for business, use then I (and an overwhelming amount of others) believe WordPress.org outperforms all other platforms.

If you haven’t decided on a what the best blogging platform for you is yet I would say you should consider HostGator to get your web hosting (along with a free domain name) now.

For free blog platforms WordPress wins out again with WordPress.com.

It is powerful, has an easy to use dashboard, it’s affordable, and the most flexible of all available blogging platforms. If you search around the site you’ll find my review listing all the reasons you should use WordPress.com.

This concludes our review, but what do you think? Did you make a decision on any of the blogging platforms described here? Feel free to share in the guest comments below.

What is the best blogging platform? Final thoughts

In my opinion, most blogging platforms on this list have their place on the market. Please pick the persona that describes you best to see the perfect solution for you:

Related articles:

FAQs

WordPress if you intend to make money. It is the most popular platform, powering over 30% of the web! If you just need a free blogging option for personal blogging, have a look at the list above to see which is right for you.
195Shares
Share or comment

74 thoughts on “Best Blogging Platform 2020: Top 8 Free & Paid Blog Options”

  1. A very useful chart, thanks for sharing.

    I’m curious though: why the 3GB storage limit listed for WordPress.org? Shouldn’t it be “Unlimited”?

    1. Hey Jay,

      There was a typo which I’m going to change soon. What I meant is that WordPress.com has 3GB storage (when you let WP.com host your blog for free). Thanks for feedback, I really appreciate it!

  2. Hi Amy,

    Thanks for the kind words and sharing the chart. We’re working hard every day to bring value to the bloggers community.

  3. Konstantin Kovshenin

    Nice chart!

    WordPress.com has paid upgrades. Own domain for WordPress.com is a paid upgrade. There are no plugins on WordPress.com, but most of the extra functionality is built right in (like contact forms, video support and slideshows). Storage is 3GB for free, but you can add with upgrades. Updates are automatic and transparent to the user. Updates on self-hosted WordPress can also be automatic with a plugin. The hosted solution is also called WordPress.com, not WordPress. WordPress refers to the open source software available from WordPress.org. I know it’s confusing…

    Cheers!

    1. Hey Konstantin,
      Thanks for making it more clear, with providing additional details.
      Cheers!

      P.S: Love your minimalistic theme : )

  4. This is a nice and helpful comparison. The one thing that I don’t quite like, though, is the line “Level of CSS & HTML required”. For me, “required” means that you can’t use the platform without it. WordPress is the only one listed I’m really familiar with, so when you say “CSS for advanced editing”, then that’s inaccurate—CSS is NOT required at all to use WordPress. WordPress gives the option to edit CSS, but most certainly doesn’t require it.

    So, I suggest that you completely rethink that line. I assume that none of these platforms actually requires HTML or CSS—I assume that they all permit WYSIWYG. If so, the line is rather redundant. What could be interesting is a line about “Customizable HTML/CSS”. Then, WordPress.com would rate as “HTML: yes; CSS: paid” and WordPress.org would rate as “Full customizability”. I don’t know about any of the others.

  5. As I said, this is a really helpful comparison. Could you compile something like this to compare WordPress with CMSs (e.g. Joomla, Drupal, etc.)? Of course, I don’t know if you have much experience with other CMSs beyond blogging platforms.

    1. Thanks for suggestions!

      Yep, I’m planning to create a new comparison chart in the near future that compares Joomla & Drupal as well. You were right, I haven’t had any possibilities to use them so I have to ask some help from someone who knows them more than me.

      Have you managed to use Drupal or Joomla?

  6. I actually find WP harder than Tumblr to use but I’m actually more concerned about a lack of comment function on Tumblr. I’m quite surprised it wasn’t mentioned.

    1. Tumblr is actually not meant for blogs. Most people use tumblr to share photos etc… If you are serious about blogging then WordPress is a way to go. Alternatively you can use Blogger as well.

      WordPress is VERY easy. However, I might be a little biased since I have used WordPress over 3 years. Nicole, do you already have a blog?

  7. Thanks for letting me know. This is something that wasn’t available few years ago. I must update my post.

    Karen

  8. Can you recommend any good web hosting? There are so many options out there. As a newbie I don’t want to make a mistake.

  9. As a creative I want to share my knowledge to people viewing my blog and was hoping in return for my time/sharing I could supplement my income via ads on my blog. After reading this great comparison chart I went directly to wordpress.com to get started, however it looks like I can’t get ads on my blog on wordpress.com? What is the best platform for this? Or am I mistaken?

    1. Yes, unfortunately you can’t put ads on wordpress.COM. What you’re looking for is wordpress.ORG which allows ads. Both a free, but you need your own hosting account for .ORG. It’s actually easy to setup. If you go to the homepage I have a step-by-step walkthrough!

  10. You didn’t mention Weebly. Also, I think Squarespace raised their prices.
    I’m going to check out Wix now. Thanks

  11. Good day! Do you know if they make any plugins to safeguard against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any recommendations? eabfkceabdefadde

  12. This is an excellent article.
    I have been posting on the internet for a decade and posting extensively. I am right here at the place, Personally i like WordPress because easy to any customization. WordPress is the best blogging platform than others. It is seo and user friendly.

    Thank You 🙂 Happy Blogging

  13. Great post! I choose wordpress, because of the large community behind it. Every problem, you can go to the wordpress forum, men the mass of helpful reaction you receive is insane!

  14. I’m a huge Fan of WordPress! And love editing & tweaking WordPress (ORG).
    Thank you for this informative post.

  15. Luthfar Rahman

    Awesome list for the blogging platform. By reading your post I selected my WordPress blogging platform for passive income. I follow your blog last 6 month for learning blogging and how to earn money.

  16. I’ve tried wp but its a bit complicated for me. I’ve tried tumblr but I find it more to a teenager post. Currently I use blogger/blogspot but I find it hard to get a better rank. Maybe I am not so good in seo or my niche is too common.

    But after read this post. I will give wp a try again and maybe wix too.
    Great Post. Thanks for sharing!

  17. Hello : ) Nice overview, thank you! I currently look for a blog where I can just publish pictures and sounds. Have you got any idea which one of the above would be best? So far, all of the designs I tried were more suitable for text and pictures. Thank you again for sharing your expertise on this!

    1. Hello Soundblogger
      There are many themes available out there. Just do a search for what you need. Most times a little customization to the theme will produce what you need.

      Happy Blogging
      Cheers Karen

  18. Hi karen,
    Thanks for helping me. Actually, I was little confused that what should I choose for my blog.
    This article really helps me. Keep updating and helping others.

  19. wordpress hosting vs web hosting

    Hi! Quick question that’s entirely off topic. Do you know how to make your
    site mobile friendly? My weblog looks weird when viewing from my
    iphone 4. I’m trying to find a theme or plugin that might be able to correct this problem.
    If you have any recommendations, please share. Many thanks!

    1. Hello Darrin
      You will need to install a responsive theme on your site. There are a lot of them available now.

      Cheers Karen

  20. Hello Elizabeth
    I suggest you visit the How to start a blog link, where you will gather information on putting your idea to work.

    Cheers

  21. Hi Karen, thanks for a great guide! I used to have blogs on downloadable WordPress but I’m real real bad with all things tech so I had troubles, also don’t have the goal to earn money now. Just to share experiences. Which of the free blog platforms would you recommend for attracting more people from search engines? I am experienced with optimization but none of my Blogger blogs could actually get enough search engine visitors, the numbers were very very low while self-hosted WordPress had 10-50 times (!!!!) more people than a free Blogger with a domain that I bought… Right now don’t wanna (and don’t have time to) fumble with self-hosted options but also want to be heard and seen due to good text content. Is there something you could recommend? Thanks!

    Oh! Another question, who has the best mobile apps for posting? (Blogger was so bad at some point)

  22. Hi admin, i must say you have very interesting articles here.
    Your page can go viral. You need initial traffic boost only.
    How to get it? Search for: make your content go viral Wrastain’s tools

  23. Thanks for this very useful post. However, I’m puzzled by your comment that blogger has “Just a standard layout editor (content/sidebar). Apart from that, there’s not much you can do in terms of the design of your blog.”
    In fact, blogger is easily and extensively modifiable. When editing the Layout, you can choose from over 800 plugins (‘Gadgets’) as well as changing other aspects of the appearance of the blog. In addition, under the ‘Themes’ setting you can change characteristics like fonts, column widths, and colours, and you can even edit the html to get almost any look (provided you have the expertise, time, and energy).
    Blogger also offers a choice of mobile themes, so I don’t understand why your chart indicates it’s not mobile-friendly.
    For anyone wanting to get started on a blog with minimal effort yet retaining the ability to modify it extensively later, blogger is a good choice, and I’d have thought your guide at the end of the post would have included it for at least options B, D, and H (and most of the others, too).
    Maybe I’ve misunderstood something?

  24. I have been looking everywhere for the answer to this question:

    is there a way to use Blogger on your own website? If not, and you don’t want any ads on your blog (I’m not trying to make money) is Blogger an option? If you don’t have to pay not to have ads, like you do with WordPress, what’s in it for Blogger to let you have all that space for free? What’s the catch?

    WordPress, for me, has a terrible text editor. You have no control over font style or color, no strikeout, no undo/redo, no bulleting. While I understand the need to pay them not to display ads, if I download the software onto my website, why isn’t that a one-time fee? Why do I have to pay monthly forever?

    Is there a blogging platform with a robust text editor that is totally ad-free? I’m willing to pay for that, but WordPress isn’t the answer, unless you can recommend a plugin…

  25. Thanks for sharing the comparison of blogging website. so tell me which one is the best for creating a mini-blog where I can make complete layout.

  26. An interesting overview of these platforms. A pity about Tumblr, though. I had a photoblog there for quite a while but had to give it up because I started to get inundated with p**n blog followers. It appeared to me that Tumblr management was not interested in curbing this.

  27. Molly Suffolk

    Thanks for sharing all the information. You have listed all the best platforms and your chart is perfect.

  28. Prakash Rhayakar

    That way, you can play around with all of these different blogging platforms and get started with actual hosting and unlimited blogging freedom!

  29. Thanks for the nice article. Actually, this post is really helpful for the newcomer in the world of blogging. Keep Rocking!

  30. Superb writing ! the list you have shared with us help me to improve my writing skills to a level that i compete with some famous author of this era. I really like reading through a post that can make people think.

  31. Thank you for the informative article. I am much more clear on exactly how the free platforms work.

    P.S. There is a typo on the Squarespace description. The heading that asks “Who is it good for” refers to Ghost.

  32. Hello, i think blogger for beginners with no investment is better, because wordpress requires money for indexing and upgrading to important features.

    1. Yes, it’s definitely the right choice for some Jai. If you want to earn from your blog however, free blog sites don’t really cut it.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

195Shares

FREE: 3 month course on Blogging & Internet Marketing

was $1997.. get 50 video lessons 100% free

Learn how to...

  • Start a blog from scratch & scale to 6-figures
  • How to write content that Google LOVES
  • How to use Paid Traffic and Affiliate Marketing
  • SEO mastery so that your articles actually rank