10 Best Free Blogging Platform (Ultimate Comparison Guide)

Are you hoping to begin your blog and share your ideas and experience with your visitors? Then, you’ve come to the right place!

In recent years, a lot of passionate bloggers have started turning their passion into a full-time career. Although blogging is often considered a source of passive income, it can become a lucrative industry if you invest enough time, use proper tools, and choose the right platform for it.

With so many options for blogging platforms in the market, it can sometimes be tough to pick the most suitable platform for you.

But, worry not!

In this comprehensive article, we will guide you through the 10 best blogging platforms along with their advantages and disadvantages. With this, you can effortlessly figure out which platform suits you the best.

Let’s get into it!

Table of Contents

What to Look for While Choosing a Free Blogging Platform?

Many of you might find it confusing to pick a blogging platform as there are tons of free platforms available on the market.

So, how do you choose the best?

Every blogging platform is different, bringing a unique set of features and functionality. However, you have to choose a platform that will help you highlight your content in the best way possible. 

Hence, here are a handful of things to consider before choosing a blogging platform:

Ease of Use

If you are new to this industry, picking a blogging platform with a complex interface and requires coding skills makes no sense. Hence, you should go for a blogging platform that is easy to use and doesn’t require any coding skills.

Customization Friendly

It does not really matter what people say; you should always stay relevant to the latest trends and designs as a blogger. Hence, you should choose a blogging platform that allows you to customize the looks and feel of your blog according to your niche. Moreover, a highly customizable platform helps you to keep your visitors engaged and build better relationships with them.

Flexible

As your blog grows bigger and better, attracting tons of visitors, you might want to make a few necessary changes to make your blog more attractive and elegant. So it’s essential to choose a blogging platform that offers flexibility to help you grow.

Readability

A good blogging platform should offer readability. Your blog should always be easy to read and highly navigable to keep your visitors engaged. It also helps to boost your website ranking and outperform your competitors on several search engine platforms.

Responsive and Mobile-Friendly

As per a study, more than 56% of Google searches are conducted through smartphones. So if you don’t want to increase your bounce rate and lose potential customers, make sure your site is highly responsive, retina-ready, and mobile-friendly.

List of 10 Best Free Blogging Platform

Based on the above blogging features, we have compiled a list of free blogging platforms that are designed to ensure high-end performance.

Let’s take a look at the best blogging platforms for beginners.

1. Wix – Blogging Platform for Beginners

Wix Blogging platform

If you are a beginner who wants to start a professional blog without coding, then Wix is our #1 recommendation. It is a feature-rich blogging platform that gives you the ability to create, design and manage a full-fledged web presence. 

It includes an easy-to-use drag-and-drop website builder to help you build top-notch websites. It also features more than 500 customizable website templates to build and personalize your website easily.

With Wix, you can also create an online store and accept bookings directly from your website. Besides, this blogging platform is also optimized for search engines. Therefore, it is more likely to boost your website higher across multiple search engine platforms.

Further, Wix was founded in 2006 as a platform for creating your own stunning websites. Currently, it has over 170 million users across the globe.

Advantages

  • This blogging platform is easy to use, even for beginners.
  • It offers a drag-and-drop site builder to create your blog easily.
  • It features over 500 customizable website templates. 
  • It is fully optimized for search engines.

Disadvantages

  • Wix Ads are displayed on every page on the free site.
  • The custom domain name is available only after you pay for it.
  • Blog editor doesn’t stand up to its expectations.

Pricing

The basic Wix website is free, but you can add your custom domain if you pay $4.50/month. You can even buy their premium plans which start from $8.50/month and can go up to $24.50/month.

How to Get Started

To get started with Wix, you just have to register for an account and choose a template for starting your own site.

Who Should Use This Platform?

The visually appealing layout and mobile-first design of Wix are specifically suitable for small businesses, online stores, restaurants, and even freelancers.

2. WordPress.org – Most Popular Blogging Platform

WordPress.org

WordPress.org is another popular platform for building your own personal website to start blogging. Established in 2003, WordPress powers almost half of the websites on the internet today.

WordPress offers powerful features and stunning designs to create a beautiful blog, website, or app. In comparison to other blogging platforms, WordPress.org offers limitless possibilities with powerful media management.

It allows you to build a responsive mobile website. Additionally, it ensures high performance and SEO-friendly features to make sure that your blog ranks higher on search engines.

With WordPress.org, you have the much-needed flexibility to add over 55,000 plugins to your website to get the best out of it. You can even build mailing lists, online stores, galleries, and so on.

Advantages

  • WordPress.org is easy to use and gives you control over all the aspects of your website.
  • You can also grow your blog with additional features and plugins.
  • You can easily customize your website.
  • It ensures high performance and responsive designs.
  • It comes with a powerful media management feature. 

Disadvantages

  • You have to manage your own backups and security.

Pricing 

WordPress.org is completely free, but you will have to pay for a domain name and web hosting services — about $14.99/year and $7.99/month.

How to Get Started 

To get started, you will have to purchase web hosting and a domain name. Further, you will have to install the WordPress software to get your blog up and running.

Who Should Use This Platform?

Nearly half of the sites on the internet today are powered by WordPress.org. As one of the most versatile blogging platforms, WordPress.org is suitable for just about anyone — from beginners to professionals.

3. WordPress.com – Highly Customizable Blogging Platform

WordPress.com

WordPress.com is one explicit execution of the WordPress.org programming suggested previously. While WordPress.org is an open-source software strictly designed for non-benefit adventure, WordPress.com is a revenue-driven endeavor created by Automattic. 

WordPress.com was started in 2005 with an objective to bring WordPress experience to a bigger crowd. Therefore, this blogging platform makes an excellent choice if you do not require any advanced features similar to self-facilitated WordPress.

WordPress.com offers an essential blog facilitating administration free of charge.

Advantages

  • It is easy to manage and use.
  • Installing this platform is hassle-free.
  • It’s completely free but comes with a WordPress domain name. 

Disadvantages

  • You don’t have full rights over your blog. WordPress.com can suspend your account anytime if you violate the rules.
  • On free versions, WordPress will show its own advertisements.
  • Unless you invest in a premium plan, you can not use a custom domain name with this platform.

Pricing

WordPress.com is completely free, but it will have loads of WordPress Ads. Further, upgrading to your premium plan will remove the WordPress.com logo and advertisement from your website, which will cost $4/month. Also, if you pay $8/month, you will get extra storage and design tools.

How to Get Started

You just have to register your free account, choose a theme for your blog, and start writing your blog post to get started with WordPress.com.

Who Should Use This Platform?

WordPress.com is a free and easy-to-customize blogging platform. Hence, it makes a great match for beginners who do not have any coding experience.

4. Medium – Top-Class Publishing Platform

Medium Blogging Platform

Starting in 2012, Medium has become an excellent publishing platform for scholars, columnists, bloggers, and specialists. 

Publishing your blog post and becoming a contributor with Medium is a breeze. This open platform is designed to help undiscovered voices share their writings on just about any topic.

Medium is similar to any social networking site where you can simply create a free account and start publishing your articles. With this, you can get your content featured online to help improve your online presence.

One of the biggest disadvantages, however, of using Medium for blogging is that you get very limited options when it comes to monetization. You’ll be strictly limited to options such as minimal affiliate commissions or the Partner Program.

Advantages

  • Easy to use with no basic knowledge of coding.
  • It is an excellent platform to engage the audience.
  • This platform comes with a user-friendly design and navigation.
  • It offers a writer-centric content creation process for easy publishing.

Disadvantages

  • It offers limited features when it comes to customization and design.
  • Risk of losing your followers if you lose your blog posts.
  • You can not display your own advertisement.
  • It offers limited monetization options.

Pricing

Medium is completely free. However, you have to pay $5/month to use your own custom domain.

How To Get Started

You can simply register for a free Medium account, and you’re good to go!

Who Should Use This Platform?

Unlike others, Medium is more of an online publishing platform. Therefore, it is ideal for journalists, scholars, and experts to share their ideas and thoughts.

5. Blogger – Most Commercial Blogging Platform 

Blogger Blogging Platform

As the name suggests, Blogger is yet another top-class platform for bloggers and writers. It is a free online content management system owned by Google. It offers multi-user blogs to help people share their experiences, knowledge, and latest news.

In the last few decades, Blogger has become one of the most commercial blogging platforms in the market. It was first started in 1999 by Pyra Labs. Later, in 2003, Google acquired Blogger and updated it to create the platform we know today.

At times, this blogging platform might feel a bit outdated compared to most modern-day platforms. However, it is an excellent platform for beginners who just want to publish their writings online. The only drawback of this blogging platform is that it does not offer custom domains for free.

Advantages

  • You can easily create and publish your blogs without coding.
  • Blogger is completely free.
  • You get the added advantage of reliability with Google’s robust system. 

Disadvantages

  • You don’t get your own custom domain on the free version.
  • You get stuck with old features and cannot upgrade to new features as your blog starts getting popular.
  • You get low-quality templates, and design options are limited.

Pricing

Blogger is completely free. However, you have to pay for your own domain name.

How to Get Started

If you have an existing Google account, you can start using Blogger.

Who Should Use This Platform?

Blogger is a straightforward blogging platform. Its simple interface and intuitive dashboard are perfect for new bloggers willing to publish their work online.

6. Tumblr – Best Microblogging Platform

Tumblr

With over 529 million blogs, Tumblr is one of the most popular microblogging platforms currently owned by Automattic.

Unlike other blogging platforms, Tumblr serves more like a social networking website where you can post multimedia and other content. You can even follow other blogs, reblog, like posts, and leave comments on other blogs.

Similar to social networking sites, Tumblr allows users to add tags to help their audience find posts of relevant topics. It even allows their users to schedule their posts for several hours or even days.

Recently, Tumblr launched Post+ exclusively for its beta users. This exclusive feature allows bloggers to monetize their content and make a decent income out of it.

Advantages

  • With Tumblr, you can freely use a custom domain name.
  • This blogging platform is completely free and easy to use.
  • It also has integrated social media components such as follow, like, comment, and more.
  • It also allows you to post multimedia and add tags to your post.
  • It has recently launched a Post+ feature to help you monetize your content.

Disadvantages

  • It comes with a limited set of features that you cannot upgrade in the future.
  • The design seems a bit outdated compared to other blogging platforms
  • It is not a good option for long-term blogging.

Pricing

Tumblr is basically free to use with an option to purchase a custom theme for your blog.

How to Get Started

Just register a Tumblr account, write your blog posts, and start sharing them online.

Who Should Use This Platform?

Tumblr is a microblogging platform excellent for those who want to express themselves via text and multimedia.

7. Weebly – Visually Appealing Blogging Platform

Weebly Blogging Platform

Weebly is another popular blogging platform, similar to Wix. Using this platform, you can effortlessly build a website, a blog, or a full-fledged online shop.

This platform comes with an easy-to-use builder which helps you to build and launch an eye-catching website — fast. Besides that, this platform helps you to grow your business with powerful marketing features, inventory management, integrated shipping, and so forth.

Likewise, Weebly allows you to add photograph exhibitions, slideshows, and other interactive multimedia elements to your website. It also provides social media icons, a sidebar, newsletter subscriptions, and other handy features to help you craft the blog of your choice. 

Furthermore, Weebly comes with cutting-edge mobile apps which come in handy to track your site performance, interact with your users, and manage store orders from just about anywhere.

Advantages

  • You can design your blog easily with the drag-and-drop builder.
  • Weebly includes powerful inbuilt features like inventory management, integrated shipping, and more.
  • It offers plenty of customization options to build your dream website.
  • On the free plan, you get ad spaces, sub-domain names, and 500 Mb spaces.

Disadvantages

  • You will see a lot of Weebly branding in the free Weebly plan.
  • You can’t use your own custom domain name on a free plan.

Pricing

It is completely free, but you can’t use your own domain name on the free version. To use your own domain name, you will need to spend $5/month. Likewise, you will need to invest in a $12/month plan to remove ads.

How to Get Started

To make a blog with Weebly, you can simply register for a free account and choose a layout for your website.

Who Should Use This Platform?

Weebly is a visually appealing blogging platform excellent for creative folks, including photographers, authors, designers, web developers, and so forth.

8. Ghost – Open-Source Web Building Platform

Ghost Blogging Platform

Started in 2013, Ghost is open-source software that you can install on your web hosting to start blogging. This platform comes with loads of powerful features to help you build a professional website, publish blog posts, send exclusive newsletters, and grow your audience.

In addition to that, this platform allows you to sell premium subscriptions to establish a sustainable business around your creative work. Ghost includes an exclusive control panel that lets you have a glance at detailed stats on audience engagement and growth.

With Ghose, you can have complete control over your website design so you can stand out from the crowd.

Advantages

  • It is completely free and specifically focuses on blogging and writing only.
  • It’s super fast and ensures high-speed performance.
  • It includes inbuilt monetization and membership features.
  • The dashboard offers detailed engagement and growth stats.

Disadvantages

  • It’s a little more complicated to use because of the self-hosting feature.
  • You get very limited options to choose from.
  • You don’t get enough themes to make changes to your site.
  • The installation process of Ghost can be a bit complicated for beginners.

Pricing

Pricing for the hosted version of Ghost is $29/month. Likewise, to get a custom domain for self-hosting, you have to pay $14.99/year, and web hosting starts from $7.99/month.

How to Get Started

To enjoy Ghost for free, you can simply install the Ghost software to your web hosting.

Who Should Use This Platform?

Ghost is strictly a blogging platform focused on professional publishing. If publishing your content and interacting with your audience online is your main priority, you should consider using this platform.

9. Constant Contact Website Builder – World-Class Website Builder Tool

Constant Contact Website Builder

Although Constant Contact is more of an email marketing software, it also serves as an excellent blogging platform. With a top-notch A.I.-controlled website builder, this platform helps you to build awesome business websites, blog sites, and online stores in just a few minutes.

Constant Contact Builder comes with a user-friendly interface. However, the design flexibility is relatively limited compared to other top platforms. As this blogging platform uses a section-based editor, you only have the option to add pre-designed elements.

With Constant Contact’s Unsplash integration, you get an excellent selection of stock images for your blog. It offers basic formatting options with multiple headers, bold, italics, underline, and quote indents.

Constant Contact Website Builder includes a few SEO settings which allow you to add blog title, description, and slug. Additionally, you get other handy tools like a custom logo maker, a photo library, an online store, and many more.

Advantages

  • It comes with a simple drag-and-drop feature.
  • This free blogging platform is simple and straightforward to set up.
  • You will also get a free 60 days trial.

Disadvantages

  • It doesn’t support many third-party plugins.
  • Exporting your site to another platform is difficult.

Pricing

It offers you a free 60 days trial, whereas, for a custom domain name and website builder plan, you have to pay $10/month.

How to Get Started

You just have to install this blogging platform on your device, start writing your blog posts, and you’re good to go.

Who Should Use This Platform?

Unlike other blogging platforms, Constant Contact is more of a website-building platform that helps you to build full-fledged blog sites, business websites, and online stores.

10. Substack – Home for Great Writing

Substack Blogging Platform

Launched in 2017, Substack is one of the leading media platforms of the new era. It is designed to help writers monetize their work by sending their digital newsletters directly to their readers.

Although this free blogging platform is relatively new, it already has over 250,000 paying subscribers. It offers an intuitive email creator to help writers create interactive emails with content, images, links, and so forth.

An interesting aspect of Substack is that it allows you to decide whether to make your newsletter subscription completely free, make it 100% paid, or combine both free and premium subscriptions for your audience.

Advantages

  • It is super simple and easy to set up.
  • Monetizing your content with Substack is also relatively easy.
  • You get your own built-in subscribers.

Disadvantages

  • You cannot add an extra set of features.
  • It is only limited to publishing content.
  • You don’t get your own custom domain name.

Pricing

Substack is completely free; however, you have to pay a one-time $50 fee to use your own custom domain.

How to Get Started

To kickstart your blog with Substack, all you have to do is register for a free account and start writing.

Who Should Use This Platform?

Substack is a simple newsletter platform suitable for bloggers, writers, and creators for sharing their work online.

Which Blogging Platform is Best for You?

Among all the blogging platforms that we mentioned here, Wix is our best pick. It has tons of options and powerful features that serve well for both beginners and professional bloggers. Wix gives you full freedom to create, design, and manage a functional website from a single dashboard.

However, if you’re in search of a more simple and flexible blogging platform, we highly recommend you go with WordPress.org. It comes with a powerful media management feature to ensure your blog is fun and interactive. With more than 55,000 plugin support, you can build online stores, add galleries, create mailing lists, and add other handy features to your website.

How to Start Blogging in 2022?

Blogging, in general, has become one of the most lucrative industries in the last few years. People have started transforming their passion for writing into a full-time career to make a living out of it.

But how do you start your blog and make money as a blogger?

Here’s are seven steps you should follow to start blogging in 2022:

  1. Select Your Blogging Platform
  2. Pick a Descriptive Name for Your Blog
  3. Register Your Blog and Get Hosting
  4. Customize Your Blog and Tweak its Appearance
  5. Write Your First Blog Post
  6. Promote Your Blog to Attract More Visitors 
  7. Look Out for Several Options to Monetize Your Blog

Also, it is advisable that you go for a blogging niche that you’re passionate about, rather than looking for the most lucrative niches in the market. Writing about something you love brings the best out of you and maintains consistency.

If you’re an avid traveler looking to share your travel experience, ideas, tips and tricks, or review travel gears, here’s how you can start a travel blog and make money.  

Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ)

Which is the best blogging platform for beginners?

There is no such thing as the best blogging platform, to be honest. However, if you’re looking for a popular, powerful, flexible, and customizable blogging platform, then Wix and WordPress are the best options for beginners.

What are the most common features of blogging platforms?

The most common features of blogging platforms are as given below :

● Easy to use
● Highly customizable
● Low-cost web presence
● SEO optimized and high-speed performance
● Interactive dashboard

Conclusion

We hope this comprehensive article was helpful for you to find the best blogging platforms for upcoming projects. If you picked one of the blogging platforms mentioned above for your upcoming project, then great! Let us know which was your favorite.

Also, do you want to recommend some more blogging platforms for us? If yes, please write your recommendations in the comment section so we can update our content ASAP.

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