Looking for the best blog sites or blogging platforms to start a new blog?
Whether you want to create a professional blog or a simple personal blog, choosing the right blog site or platform will set you up for success.
However, it can be confusing and overwhelming to select one from the many options available on the market.
So, we created a detailed list of the best blogging sites and platforms to help you make your decision.
In this article, we’ll share our findings by comparing blogging platforms with pros and cons.
Our Favorite Blog Sites for 2024
Here’s our list of blog sites and platforms. Read on to figure out how to choose the best one for you, or jump right to our reviews.
- WordPress.org
- Web.com
- HubSpot CMS Hub
- Gator Website Builder
- Blogger
- WordPress.com
- Medium
- Squarespace
- Weebly
- Ghost
- Tumblr
How to Choose the Best Blogging Platform
The first and most important aspect of choosing a blog site is to decide the purpose of your blog.
Do you want to earn money and make a living online? Or do you just want to share your stories about your passion?
For a professional money-making blog, you need an advanced blog platform with plenty of marketing options, whereas a personal blog can be built with quite a simpler platform.
Apart from this, here are some more key factors to consider.
1. Ease of Use: You need a blogging site or platform that you can understand how to use. Setting it up can be a challenge at first, but choosing the right platform and seeking the right help will make it easier.
2. Price: You need to compare the cost of creating and managing your blog on the different platforms. Some blog sites let you start free or with less money, but the cost rises abruptly as your site grows.
3. Scalability: Scalability is important, especially if you want to earn money from your blog. Check if the platform is flexible enough to add those types of powerful features or not.
With that said, let’s take a look at our selection of the best blogging sites.
Blogging Site & Platform Reviews
1. WordPress.org
WordPress.org is the best blog site on the market. Used by more than 43% of all websites online, it’s the most popular website platform available.
It’s free, open-source software that you can download for free and use on as many sites as you want. WordPress.org is also highly flexible, which allows you to create a blog, a business site, or an eCommerce store to fit your needs.
WordPress.org is a self-hosted platform, which means that you’ll choose a hosting provider for your blog. Also, you’ll be able to use a custom domain name (like yoursite.com).
Pros:
- WordPress.org gives you full control over your blog. You can customize your blog in an unlimited number of ways and add any features you want.
- There are thousands of free and premium WordPress themes that can provide a unique design for your blog.
- You can get thousands of free and premium WordPress plugins and easily add advanced options. Easily add popups, contact forms, live chat, and powerful integrations like Google Analytics.
- It’s an SEO-friendly platform. Also, you can add SEO plugins to improve your search rankings.
Cons:
- As WordPress.org is a self-hosted platform, you’re responsible for managing your backups, security, and overall performance of your blog.
- It has some learning curve for absolute beginners since you’ll need to set up your own hosting first and get WordPress installed. It’s very possible with the right tutorials!
Pricing:
WordPress software is free, but you need to buy a hosting plan (around $7.99 per month) and a domain name ($14.99 per year) to set up a blog.
However, you can get these at a discounted price to start from Bluehost. They’re offering our users a hosting plan for $2.75 per month, a free domain name, and a free SSL certificate.
Get started with WordPress.org via Bluehost!
2. Web.com
Web.com is an easy, do-it-yourself website builder that’s been around since 1999. With its drag and drop builder and professionally designed website templates, you can create a beautiful blog in no time.
Plus, Web.com offers the lowest starting prices of all the blog sites on this list. So, it’s perfect for aspiring bloggers on a budget.
Pros:
- It’s a user-friendly blog site. Anyone can create a blog with the drag and drop builder, no technical knowledge needed.
- You can easily add features like contact forms, photo galleries, videos, social media buttons, and more.
- It comes with a free domain name, SSL certificate, hosting, website analytics, and other important site tools.
- The eCommerce plan lets you add unlimited products, securely accept credit cards online, manage your orders, and more.
Cons:
- Blogging functionality is limited compared to other platforms like WordPress.org.
- Since Web.com is a proprietary website builder, moving your blog to a different platform would be difficult.
Pricing:
Web.com’s Website Essentials website plan starts at $4.95 per month.
3. HubSpot’s Free CMS
HubSpot’s Free CMS is a powerful content management system that makes it easy to create a blog.
HubSpot’s Free CMS is built on top of the free HubSpot customer relationship manager (CRM), which means you can easily build connections with your readers and even personalize your blog for different visitors.
Pros:
- HubSpot’s Free CMS is easy to use and requires little to no technical skills.
- It includes a drag and drop website builder and built-in SEO tools to help you grow your blog easily.
- You can personalize your blog using data from the integrated HubSpot CRM.
- HubSpot includes built-in tools to help you start a newsletter for your blog.
- Free CMS comes with built-in security and performance features, including a web application firewall (WAF) and a global content delivery network (CDN).
Cons:
- HubSpot CMS Hub doesn’t support eCommerce, which might be a problem if you ever want to sell products via your blog.
- Compared to the other options on our list, customizations are limited
- While it’s free to use the most basic version, adding features gets expensive very quickly. The Starter plan is $23 per month, then jumps up to $360 per month for the Professional plan.
Pricing:
The HubSpot Free CMS is free for the most basic version. If you want more features, the Starter plan is $23 per month.
Get started with HubSpot’s Free CMS!
4. Gator Website Builder
Gator Website Builder is among the most popular blog sites and was created by HostGator, one of the most popular domain and hosting companies in the world.
It offers a drag and drop builder, which lets you create a blog easily and quickly. You don’t need any technical coding skills to set up a blog and manage it.
Pros:
- It’s a beginner-friendly blogging site. Anyone, including absolute beginners, can quickly make a blog with this platform.
- The Gator Website Builder handles backups, performance, security, and all aspects of your blog.
- Free SSL certificate
- Hosting is included, and you get a free domain name.
Cons:
- There’s no free plan available.
- It includes a limited number of apps and extensions, so customization options are somewhat limited.
Pricing:
Our users get 55% off on all Gator Website Builder plans. So, you can buy the Starter Plan for just $3.46 / month.
Get started with Gator Website Builder!
5. Blogger
Blogger is one of the oldest blogging platforms in the world. Started in 1999 by Pyra Labs, it was acquired by Google in 2003 and redesigned as the blog site we know today.
But what makes Blogger one of the most popular blog sites is that it’s simple to use, and you can create a personal blog and share your stories in no time.
Pros:
- Easy to set up with your Google account and easy to post articles, photos, and manage your blog.
- It comes with a built-in Google AdSense service, allowing you to make money with Google ads.
Cons:
- Blogger has limited customization options. There aren’t advanced features and plugins as in WordPress.org.
- It has only a limited number of themes and templates.
Pricing:
Blogger is a completely free blog platform. It provides you with a subdomain like yourname.blogspot.com. If you want to use a custom domain name, then you need to register it on a domain registrar like HostGator or GoDaddy.
6. WordPress.com
WordPress.com is a fully hosted website platform created by Automattic, a company run by WordPress.org co-founder Matt Mullenweg.
In other words, WordPress.com is the hosted version of WordPress and is among the best blog sites today. It provides a complete blog hosting service, so you can use WordPress without having to set up and pay for your own hosting.
Pros:
- It’s easy to set up a blog on WordPress.com. You just need to enter your email address and provide some details, and the setup wizard will guide you step by step.
- WordPress.com fully takes care of your hosting, performance, and backups.
Cons:
- It has limited options to grow your blog. You cannot use custom themes and plugins.
- You don’t own your blog because WordPress.com is the ultimate owner of your blog. They can suspend your blog anytime if they find a violation of their terms.
Pricing:
You can use WordPress.com for free, but it’ll add their ads and branding. With a free plan, you’ll get a WordPress.com subdomain, like yourname.wordpress.com.
If you want to remove the WordPress.com ads and use a custom domain, then you have to buy their paid plans. The pricing starts from $4 per month.
Get started with WordPress.com!
7. Medium
Medium is the most popular blogging platform for bloggers, journalists, and experts. It allows you to create an account and publish articles easily.
This platform works like a social networking site. When you sign up, you’ll get a profile URL like medium.com/@yourname. All your articles are saved on this page, but you cannot use a custom domain name.
Pros:
- No setup is required. You can register an account and start publishing instantly.
- You can attract an audience from the beginning because it already has a network of readers.
- Readers can subscribe to your posts via email.
- Earn money for your writing by joining the Partner Program.
Cons:
- Medium doesn’t have the features and tools you may need to make a fully powerful blog.
- You cannot use a custom domain name or run ads to make money.
Pricing:
Medium is completely free to use.
8. Squarespace
Squarespace is another one of the best blog sites, and its easy-to-use website builder allows you to create visually stunning websites in minutes.
Squarespace also comes with an artificial intelligence (AI) builder. You just need to answer a few questions, and then it’ll automatically create a site for you. Alternatively, you can choose a template and design your blog.
Pros:
- Squarespace provides a simple drag and drag editor that lets you edit and customize your blog easily and quickly.
- It offers plenty of gorgeous templates that provide a unique style to your blog.
- You can sell on Squarespace.
Cons:
- It has limited marketing tools and integrations.
- Unlike most website builders, it doesn’t offer a free plan.
Pricing:
Squarespace plans start from $16 per month with unlimited bandwidth. It has different pricing plans with more features starting at $23 per month.
9.Weebly
Weebly is a hosted website platform with an easy-to-use drag and drop builder. It comes with many responsive templates and themes to get started quickly.
Weebly also includes integrated marketing, and SEO features to grow your website.
Pros:
- It’s easy to set up a blog in Weebly.
- It’s a hosted platform, which means that it manages every aspect of your blog, including hosting, performance, backups, etc.
Cons:
- Weebly lacks advanced features you may need to grow your blog.
- It has limited integration with third-party apps.
Pricing:
Weebly offers a free plan; however, it has minimal options. If you want to use all the Weebly features, then you can use their paid plans. To connect a domain, you need to pay $10 per month and $12 per month if you want to remove Weebly ads.
10. Ghost
Ghost is a publishing platform that helps creators build a publication, get subscribers, send newsletters, and start earning recurring revenue by publishing premium content.
Ghost is also available as a self-hosted platform where you can create a professional website.
Pros:
- Ghost is faster than most blogging platforms. It has a simple and clutter-free interface.
- Creating a blog with their paid hosted service is easy and quick. No coding skills are required.
Cons:
- It has limited themes and plugins.
- There are limited customizations for your website.
Pricing:
Ghost starter plans start from $9 per month.
11. Tumblr
Tumblr is a microblogging platform and works a bit differently than your regular blogging platforms. You can find and follow blogs from different topics, reblog these topics to make them your own, and choose from a variety of post types.
Pros:
- It’s free to use with a Tumblr subdomain (https://example.tumblr.com).
- User-friendly interface.
- Create multiple types of blog posts (videos, images, audio, GIFs, etc.).
- Easily share content on your social platforms.
Cons:
- When compared with a platform like WordPress, its features are very limited.
- Moving your blogs from Tumblr to any other platform is very difficult.
Pricing:
Tumblr is free to use, but you can purchase a custom domain.
Frequently Asked Questions about Best Blog Sites
1. What websites do bloggers use?
WordPress.org is the most popular platform used by bloggers as it powers more than 43% of all the websites on the internet. And since it’s open-source and free, it’s the first choice for anyone looking to blog.
2. What are the best blogging sites to make money?
If you want to make money, then WordPress.org provides the freedom and flexibility to add different plugins you can use for monetization. For instance, by adding WooCommerce, you can add products to your site. Another benefit of WordPress is that you can start for free.
3. Are there free blog sites?
WordPress.com is a free blog site, but you will have limited functionality. In order to access advanced features, you’ll have to upgrade to their premium plan.
Verdict: Which is the Best Blogging Platform?
After going through an extensive list, we recommend WordPress.org as the best blogging platform. It is free, open-source, easy-to-use, and offers a wide range of flexibility that you won’t find on other blogging sites.
We hope this article helped you to choose the best blog sites for your new blog. You may also want to see How to Grow Your Email List: 16 Highly Effective and Easy Ways.
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Great collection. I read frequently wp beginner and shout me loud. Both two blogs are really awesome.
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Awesome post. Gonna get started on my blogging fever !
I am using many platforms but out of these Tumblr is my favorite. its easy to use and give a social touch. Tumblr gives many options to share the post.