A blogging platform presents a chance to promote your content
The way doubtful dramas of the past two years revolving
around X-formerly-Twitter have proven that one can never trust a social media
platform with access to their audience. A platform that would allow proper
expression of one's thoughts and maintain control would triumph when pitted
against other forms, and such is mainly a blog. Well, you can also share the
blog posts through social media, newsletters, and other channels. The very
phenomenon from which a blog derives its essence states that the content is
entirely yours to do whatever you want with.
To share and promote your content with automation
Learn how
If you are into business and want to offer resources and
recommendations to your customers, a blog on your website is often the best
means to do that. Best of all, unlike almost all social media posts, your blog
content is indexed by Google, so you can direct potential customers to your
business through content marketing (without spending anymore on ads). Take a
look at the blog you are on now: Any Blogs blog posts get millions of views per
month and are literally the most valuable source for getting new customers to Any
Blogs.
We have tested all of the most popular blogging sites, and
these are the five best ones. And yes, there are two WordPresses on this list,
but they are not without their fair share of excellent WordPress alternatives.
The 5 best blog sites
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WordPress.org-give you all the control
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WordPress.com-points to the start
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Another option after WordPress is Ghost.
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Wix-build easily; more than just a blog
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Blogger-free use of your own domain
What makes the best blogging platform?
How we evaluate and test apps
The best apps round-up is written by humans who have spent a
good part of their careers using and testing apps. Unless otherwise stated, we
have spent dozens of hours, researching and reviewing several apps for each
round-up, using each one in a manner that its designers intended, and assessing
it against our predetermined criteria. We are never paid by any app for
featuring them in any of our articles, or for any links on any of the sites
that we review-and we prize the trust that our readers place in us to offer
credible evaluations of the categories and apps we choose to review. If you're
interested, read the complete run-down on how we decide on the apps we feature
on the Any Blogs blog for more information.
Blogs have been present since the early days of the
Internet, so most people have a decent idea of what one is, even if they never
really thought to think it out. I think of a blog as a website, perhaps with a
few other pages, but most importantly as a stream of blog postings listed in
reverse chronological order.
A fine line separates the necessary software for creating a
blog from the general sort of content management systems (CMS) that support the
enormous corporate websites. Many tools like WordPress and Drupal are used in
creating a blog or running a full-fledged website, or both simultaneously.
I used two criteria for measuring the respective blog-iness
of the tools I was testing to put this list together: to set up an actual blog
really fast and easy, and to provide a suitable environment for composing blog
posts that is comfortable for writing and feature-rich. For example,
Squarespace is one of the best website builders to create a blog, but it is
rather non-intuitive and cumbersome for setting up and absolutely hated by most
users in its backend. While it can be said that Drupal is an immense CSM, the
learning curve for someone who is not IT savvy will be insurmountable for it to
be called a general blogging platform. I tried! And trust me, it just doesn't
make sense for most people. WordPress, on the other hand, is very
straightforward for an average human being to set up even a blog, whereas
WordPress backend is itself any dumb person's dream.
So you will only see those tools here that have passed the
essential blog-iness test. But that wasn't good enough. I insisted that all
blogging tools should be:
· Customizable: Much of blogging is about
having a personalized site versus another generic Instagram account, thus I
wanted the tools to help you select your own theme and create your branded blog
and the easier to do that the better.
· Well supported: Even though I wanted the
tools on this list to be as easy to use as possible, you always run into some
weird technical stuff when setting up a website. I needed these tools to have
either a community of users writing tutorials or helping people out with issues
or a proper customer care team.
To boost content production with AI and automation
I have been a tech writer for well over a decade-at least it
means I have been a blogger for that long. Somebody had to get on the list of
approximately 25 potential blogging platforms to select the best ones. The
majority of those platforms I have either tried out, reviewed, or used in my
career. A few good CMSes, website builders, and newsletter services were
quickly eliminated for being too hard to set up, or just not concentrated
enough on blogging, and some options were either too small to readily recommend
or appeared to be deceased. I was left with almost 10 candidates for thorough
testing, and these are the five top-rated. I would love to think that there are
some undiscovered gems in there, but quite frankly, such an important thing as
to power a secure, full-featured blog on the open internet really should be one
of the big guns.
The best blogging platform for ultimate control
More than 40% of all the websites are powered by WordPress,
which includes small local sites to major publications. This is the most
dominating part of range in website blogging platforms and CMS, where 'open
source' is also for free running on your own server; except for the hosting
costs.
So, if you want to be in control of everything with your
blog from how it looks to what you post, then WordPress.org is the option for
you. And while you can run your own server out of your basement, it's a lot
easier to use a hosting service (like Bluehost or Kinsta) that can
automatically install WordPress for you.
And then, not only does WordPress simplify the basics-it
really does have infinite customizability. There are literally tens of
thousands of themes and plugins that change the way it looks or what it does.
Think of plugin themes for photographers and designers so they can showcase
their work, or plugins that enable you to sell products directly through your
blog posts. The selections are pretty wild out there-well, but with great
community support to help you navigate.
The downside about having your own WordPress setup is that,
unless you pay for managed hosting or hire a developer, you really do get to go
it alone. Installing a theme is simple enough, but you have to do a little
Googling and get the right customization level for it to look great and fit
into your content. Similarly, blogging with WordPress is so easy, and the
Gutenberg editor is such fun to use-adding only extra functionality with a
plugin and getting it to work with your setup can sometimes turn user-unfriendly.
You might find WordPress a breeze, or a bit of a nightmare, depending on what
you're trying to accomplish and how much experience you have with web tools.
But still, these disadvantages associated with WordPress
pale in comparison with the advantages. Even if you were starting from zero,
peculiarities could be learned quite fast; and then you would have a useful
skill.
WordPress integrates with Any Blogs such that these can
happen: like automatically share your new posts to Facebook, Twitter, or
LinkedIn. How to automate WordPress, or get started with one of these
predefined workflows, is discussed in detail.
·
Full disclosure: I use WordPress.org for
my dog product review website Bing's Best Things and will do so again for any
future side projects.
·
WordPress's price: Free; hosting prices
are from a few dollars to thousands per month; plugins and themes range from
free to thousands per month.
In a few clicks, you're up and running with WordPress. This
is a hosted version of WordPress which is run by its developers. They even have
free accounts, though you would have to pay for anything resembling the full
feature of the self-hosted version.
Starting is simple. Head to the WordPress.com, apply for a
free account, and within a couple of minutes, you have your free blog up and
running with a wordpress.com domain. Very basic, this has limited themes
whereby some have to be paid for, and ads from WordPress.com are shown on your
site. Plus, you cannot access support staff.
It requires a paid subscription, usually, to go beyond this
basic blog with a wordpress.com domain. The $9/month Personal plan lets you
use your own domain name, takes off ads, gives you email support, and puts you
into a community.
If you have ever used the self-hosted version of WordPress,
you'll feel right at home with WordPress.com. It is just, after all, a simpler
backend with most customization options stripped away.
So, here's the option: WordPress.com is the brief, no-fuss
experience with WordPress minus all the effort of self-hosting (or at least,
almost all the effort). It's super quick to start a simple blog for free.
Cost: WordPress.com is free, but the premium plans
start at $9 per month.
Best WordPress alternative for many
Ghost
WordPress is a veteran in the world of content management.
The early 2000s saw the emergence of this powerful CMS, one that witnessed a
lot of evolution; it became known for its own quirks. Many consider it to be
bloated; they think it rests on some technologies that are possibly outdated,
or at the very least, not in vogue. The feuds surrounding its open-source
community aren't really helping much. It was for all these reasons that Ghost
was created almost a decade ago by John O'Nolan, one of the early developers of
WordPress.
Ghost is thus designed as a powerful, simple blogging and
audience management platform, especially for subscription-based publications.
It's a little more blogging and newsletter-focused than WordPress, which, after
years of development, has some serious CMS DNA.
The basic business model is similar to WordPress: the
platform is free and open-source; anyone can download it and run it freely
assuming they have the knowledge and resources to set up a server. Once you get
going, though, it is a lot trickier than WordPress since pre-configured options
are much scarcer; but hey, it's possible if you are determined! For a fee, the
developers also host it through their service called Ghost Pro starting from
$11 a month. (Ghost is actually structured as a non-profit, so any and all
revenues generated by Ghost Pro are reinvested toward the development of the
open-source software.)
While Ghost still began as a hardcoded blogging platform,
recent years have seen an increasing focus on the paid newsletter and community
angles. Consider it somewhere between a blog and a competitor to
Patreon/Substack. Subscription and membership features can be easily turned off
or ignored entirely; however, should you desire to charge users for access to
things like premium posts, weekly newsletters, and other exclusive content,
you're certainly welcome to. This factor weighs heavily in pricing, as the lowest-priced
Ghost Pro plan limits you to 500 members, while unlimited members are free to
visit your site and read your free blog posts.
All said, if you're looking for something more focused,
Ghost is a good alternative to WordPress. Even if you don't want to touch the
membership features, running just a blog with Ghost leaves you with less
ignored options than WordPress. Still, it is an option where Ghost shines once
it is in running order or paid for Ghost Pro. Though there is the loss of
full-fledged freedom to build out features you may want for your site, a lot of
things such as SEO management and memberships that typically come under plugins
in WordPress come standard in Ghost. So unless you're building something really
custom, you won't need to worry about this limitation.
Ghost is also integrated with Any Blogs so you can do things
like share your new blog posts out to Buffer, send Google Docs drafts right
into Ghost, and here's a few examples to get you going.
Ghost price: Free for self-hosted; from $11/month for
Ghost Pro.
Best blogging tool to do more than a blog
Wix
Most site builders give terrible blogging experiences. They
either hide their blogging tools in some weird sub-section, aren't fun to use,
or do a combination of both. Wix is the exception; not only is it easy to
build-a-site with it, but setting up a blog - most importantly posting to your
blog is just as easy.
When you start up a site with Wix, it asks you to describe
what it is that you are trying to build. If you throw in the word
"blog", the AI site builder actually adds the blog. Simple. But alas,
herein lies the quirkiness that AI brought along around Wix: For one, your blog
would be populated with some AI-generated examples. Plus, the blog editor
incorporates some kind of AI tools-they even hint it can write your blog posts
for you. I wouldn't use these, especially if you're serious about creating a
truly authentic blog, but those that suggest headlines or help out with some
SEO metadata are quite handy. When you bury the AI stuff, though, the Wix blog
editor is rock solid in the sense that it can do all the usual bloggy things.
In reality, Wix is a legitimate option for just two kinds of
people: an even simpler alternative to WordPress and a full-blown website with
a blog as only part of it.
WordPress has its quirks and, if you are not tech-savvy, can
very well be a hassle to set up just the way you want it. Configuring Wix's
page builder is much more straightforward than installing WordPress themes and
plugins. You still could set up a WordPress blog with a custom domain for a few
dollars a month gone; for the same features, you're looking at no less than
Wix's $17/month Light Plan. For a business, it may not matter much, but for a
single author starting a personal blog, the cost may hit hard.
Likewise, just as millions build their full-fledged sites
with WordPress, Wix makes it simpler. If you are building an online store, web
bookings, or even just a large site, Wix's easier tools will be a better
experience—especially if you're paying for managed WordPress hosting anyway.
And Wix works with Any Blogs, meaning you can tie it in with
the other apps you use the most. Learn more about Wix automation, or just
kick-start with any of those pre-made workflows.
Wix price: Free plan available; paid plan starts from
$17/month.
Best blog site for using your custom domain for free
Blogger
Beyond that, its features don't make it standhead and
shoulders above other blogging platforms. The 2020 revamp left a lot to be
desired, considering how bare-boned the interface appears, while built-in
themes do not catch the eye. Not being able to customize things like post
format is just an outright porcine slaughter to the art of blogging really. The
post-editing process resembles a glaringly ugly version of Google Docs, which
cannot possibly be the most interesting blogging experience. Still, I am astonished
that Google allows its existence to continue.
Really, it's impossible to rave about, except the one aspect
that keeps it on this list: You can use a domain name you already own, free of
charge. On WordPress.com, unless you cough out $4/month, you'll be stuck with a
blogname.wordpress.com URL.
To create your first blog, log in to Blogger using your
Google account and click New Blog. Name it and pick a theme. After that, select
Settings in the sidebar and go to Publishing > Custom Domain to add your
custom domain name. Unfortunately, buying a domain through Google is no longer
an option, so you have to set this from your domain registrar account.
When you have a domain and want to redirect it to your blog
at no cost or use it to maintain the live status of a reservation, Blogger
should be your pickup. Otherwise, settle for a more advanced and customizable
blog platform being actively worked on.
Cost of Blogger: Free, including use an own custom
domain.
Which blogging platform should I select?
WordPress-whether self-hosted or through WordPress.com-is
popular for a reason: it will do what ever you want your blog to do. Ghost is
highly focused, much more expensive to start, and perhaps the best option if
you are starting a publication or newsletter or just want something other than
WordPress. If I was starting a fresh site today, I would consider giving it a
go just to learn it. It is one of the best website builders, and happens also
to be a pretty good blogging platform, too. If you want something easy, it's
definitely the way to go—except for the AI writing features. Of course, Blogger
very much lacks the time, but it offers free service while allowing you to use
your own domain name.
Of course, there are many other blog platforms that didn't
quite make the cut. Especially if you have developers on staff, a CMS like
Joomla or Drupal, or even a headless CMS like Contentful, might be the best
fit. These are just not options for most people looking to start a blog.
Best Blogging Platforms Comparison
| Platform | Best For | Standout Feature | Pricing | Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress.org | Having total control over your blog | CustomizableExtensible | Free (not including hosting, plugins, and themes) | Visit Site |
| WordPress.com | Getting started quickly | User-friendlyManaged | Free plan available; paid plans from $9/month | Visit Site |
| Ghost | A WordPress alternative | MembershipsNewsletters | Free for self-hosted; paid plans from $11/month | Visit Site |
| Wix | Building an entire website (that also has a blog) | Website BuilderDrag & Drop | Free plan available; paid plans from $17/month | Visit Site |
| Blogger | Using your custom domain for free | Free DomainSimple | Free | Visit Site |
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