When you decide to start blogging, one of the initial things you need to do is choosing a blogging platform.
A Blogging Platform is an application or service that allows you to manage your blog from a dashboard. It’s a kind of Content Management System (CMS).
Choosing the right platform is very crucial to get success in blogging. If you’ve read my story, you might be aware that how selecting wrong platforms cost me. Here’s the long story short.
I started my blogging journey with Weebly and WordPress.com platforms. Both of these platforms banned my account due to some TOS issues.
That is why you need to think carefully before choosing your platform. Since I know how overwhelming it can be to select the right platform, because I was in your position, I decided to make a list of 10 best blogging platforms and sites with pros and cons.
Now let’s see more details of these blogging platforms.
WordPress.org is the best and most used blogging platform. Almost all of the professional bloggers use this platform. Even big blogs like TechCrunch use WordPress.
However, there are two types of WordPress – WordPress.org and WordPress.com. I’ll discuss about WordPress.com below. Now let’s talk about WordPress.org.
WordPress.org is an open source platform that you can use to build your blog. It is a self-hosted solution, which means you need to have a web host to put the site on.
There are several affordable WordPress web hosting services out there. I recommend Bluehost to the beginners. WordPress.org officially recommends it.
Read: How To Start A WordPress Blog On Bluehost
Pros:
Cons:
Bottom line: If you are serious about blogging and want to make money out of it, you can consider investing some money to start a WordPress.org blog. Just buy a web hosting plan from Bluehost and get a free domain name.
WordPress.com is a simpler platform than the WordPress.org version. It has nearly half the features of the .org version, but with it, you don’t need to worry about all the hosting issues.
You can have a basic version for free. You could then buy additional services like domain names and so on.
Pros:
Cons:
Bottom line: If you don’t have any plan to make money from your blog, WordPress.com is the right choice for you. You can get started with WordPress.com for free.
3. Blogger.com
Blogger is a free blogging platform acquired by Google in 2013. You can create up to 100 blogs per account.
It offers a free blogspot.com domain. You can also buy a custom domain name. The best thing about this platform is, you can monetize your blog with Google AdSense.
Pros:
Cons:
Bottom line: If you just want to be a hobby blogger, then you can try Blogger.com.
4. Wix
Wix is a cloud-based platform that already has a whopping 90 million users worldwide. You can edit your website with their simple drag and drop tools. You can add a blog using the Wix blog app.
Pros:
Cons:
Bottom line: Wix is the right solution when you want to build a website that has a blog.
5. Medium
Medium was created in 2012 by the co-founder of twitter. It is a simplified blogging platform which makes it very easy to express your thoughts and share your writing as easily as possible.
Pros:
Cons:
Bottom line: If you just want to write and build an audience and don’t care much about building a blog, then you can get started with Medium.
6. Tumblr
Tumblr is one of the old simple sites designed to publish short-form content like quotes, images, videos and animated GIFs. It is great for creating content regularly.
Pros:
Cons:
Bottom line: If you want to start a blog for fun, then Tumblr is the best choice to go with.
7. Weebly
Weebly is another hosted platform. Its great DIY website builder is appealing to most first-time business owners due to its ease-of-use nature. It can be used for e-commerce as well.
Pros:
Cons:
Bottom line: Weebly is mainly a website builder. So if you want to start a website rather than a blog, then Weebly is the right choice.
8. Ghost
Ghost is like WordPress but simpler. Consider it as a minimalist form of WordPress without all the advanced content management features.
It is written in JavaScript, and you could get it for free and install it in your host.
Pros:
Cons:
Bottom line: If you are a minimalist and looking for a simple blogging platform, you can give a try on Ghost.
9. Joomla
Joomla is an open source software like WordPress.org. You also need to have your host to install in to; thus you need a host and a domain name to get started.
Pros:
Cons:
Bottom line: If you are a looking for a WordPress alternative, you can try Joomla.
10. Drupal
Another open source software like Joomla and WordPress. You need to have your host just like WordPress and Joomla to install the blog. They care more about security.
Pros:
Cons:
Bottom line: Drupal is an alternative to WordPress and Joomla.
Conclusion: Which Blogging Platform Should You Use?
By now, you are probably already familiar with most of the top blogging platforms available in the market.
I know it may seem like a hard decision as it’s not easy to switch another platform later. Even if you can, it could take you multiple steps backward.
Here are my recommendations:
I personally use and recommend WordPress.org to most people, except to those who are looking for a free solution. For free, I’d recommend WordPress.com.
Which platform are you currently on? Share it in the comments and tell us why you chose that one
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