Blogging is one of the best ways to share your ideas and thoughts with your audience and to establish your authority in an industry.
Plenty of free blogging sites are available online to help beginners to start their blogging journey. Each one is having some unique features which differentiate it from the others. At the same time having some drawbacks too. So, choosing the right one will be a challenging task.
Here we’re listing some of the best free blogging platforms that help to start your blogging journey. You can choose the one that aligns best with your needs.
Best Platforms for Blogging
Wix
Wix helps you to launch a website quite fast and easily. The main characteristic of Wix is that its interface is very easy to use. It’s the best free blogging platform for beginners to create a nice website from scratch in 4 steps:
- Create a free account on Wix: Sign up with your email address and select either to let Wix ADI create a website for you based on your input on their questionnaires or create a blog/website by yourself using their editor.
- Choose a design for your website: If you have chosen the second option, you can select any design of your choice from their templates.
- Add your content to the selected design: Edit content in any of the blocks or add elements such as text, images, videos etc.
- Publish your site: Publish your site on the internet and start posting your blog articles.
Pros
- Can publish a complete blog site with the free plan
- Easy interface with a drag-and-drop builder
- Loads of predesigned templates
- Customizable design
- Don’t need to know about coding
- SEO optimization and marketing tools
- Mobile friendly
- Free SSL certificate
- Scalability with affordable premium plans
Cons
- The free plan has ads
- Wix branded domain name in the free plan
- Can’t change the template easily once selected
- Limited storage capacity in the free plan
- Limited bandwidth in the free plan
WordPress.org
Most of the platforms listed in this article have a common drawback that you’ll be having only limited control over the look of your blog posts and your website. You can customize up to a certain level only and anything beyond that will be possible only with paid premium plans. These platforms will be enough for you in the beginning. But once you start mastering things and grow slowly, you’ll need more control over your website to enhance it in the way you want. So WordPress.org is the best option to have 100% control over your blog and to fine-tune your website to the expected level. WordPress.org is a free open-source content management system. You’ll need to build a site on your own in WordPress. Also, you need to buy a domain and hosting from other sources and connect to WordPress. Abundantly available themes and plug-ins (free and paid) make your job easier and provide more functionality to customize your blog very deeply. By making the best use of these themes, plug-ins and other blogging tools, you can create some amazing blog posts that fascinate readers.
It’s very best for bloggers who don’t have any coding knowledge to fully customize their blog site.
Hosting providers facilitate WordPress installation through their interface. But it’ll take some time to learn the backend system. So you can’t build a blog in one day and once it’s been set up, WordPress provide you with a lot of amazing features to make your website a fantastic one.
Also, WordPress provides you with the option to optimise your site to be SEO-friendly. Having a good SEO is very important for ranking your site in search engine results.
Pros
- Full control over the blog
- Deep customization
- Expandable to more than a blog
- No ads.
- Can monetize the blog
- SEO friendly
- Plug-ins that serve plenty of functionalities
Cons
- Should purchase the domain and hosting from other sources.
- A little bit difficult for beginners
- Site building is not easy
- Takes time to familiarize the system
WordPress.com
Although the names WordPress.org and WordPress.com sound similar, both of them are two different entities. While the former provides a powerful site-building platform connected to an external domain and hosting, the latter provides an all-in-one service which includes domain and hosting. Unlike WordPress.org, WordPress.com offers limited customization in its free plan.
For creating an account, you can sign up with your email address, choose a free domain and select to start with a free plan. You’ll be directed to a dashboard which is similar to WordPress.org. There you can build your website and post blog articles.
Pros
- Free to use
- Free templates/themes for design
- Domain and hosting included
- Supports multiple websites
- Enough for those who don’t look to overgrow their blog
Cons
- Limited features and customization
- Can’t install plug-ins in the free version
- Third-party ads
- Website builder more complex than the competitors
- Domains are subdomains of wordpress.com (yoursite.wordpress.com)
We all know LinkedIn as a popular social network site for professionals and the business community. They provide an excellent platform to share your knowledge, thoughts and views on your niche.
You can start writing blogs on LinkedIn easily by clicking the ‘Write article’ button below the space where you would normally write a post in your LinkedIn feed. You can then enter your blog content there including a headline and a cover image.
Although you can’t build or design a blog site on your own on LinkedIn, it’s a great free platform to present your blog posts directly in front of your niche audience.
Pros
- Free to use
- Simple and easy platform
- Fully professional
- Pre-existing audience in your niche who’re high professionals and business owners
Cons
- Can’t build/design your own blog site
- Very limited customization options
- Good for businesses and professionals only
Blogger
Blogger is one of the oldest free blog hosting sites which was once very popular. Even though its popularity has declined in recent years, still it is one of the best free blogging platforms for personal/hobby blogs.
You can simply create a free account with your Google ID and you’ll get a URL ‘yoursite.blogpost.com’. Then you can select one of their themes to design your site and start to create blog articles.
Pros
- Free to use
- Good for personal/hobby blogs
- Can run ads on your page
Cons
- Not suitable for professional blogs
- Domains are subdomains of blogspot.com (yoursite.blogspot.com)
- Limited customization
- Outdated interface
Weebly
Weebly is another popular personal blog site which has several similarities with Wix in terms of drag-and-drop builder interface, branded domain name and ad on the free plan. The best thing about Weebly is that they’re providing an option to build an online store to sell your products online.
Pros
- Free to use
- Easy interface (with drag-and-drop builder)
- Customizable design
- E-commerce option
- Lead capture tools
- Mobile friendly
- Can be upgraded with affordable paid plains
Cons
- Not fully customizable
- Ads in the free plan
- Weebly branding in the domain
- Unable to connect your domain in the free plan
- Limited storage in the free plan
Medium
Medium is the best free blogging platform for those who want to express their ideas and insights to the world at the quickest possible without the hassles of web building and designing.
You can just sign up on Medium and start writing your articles without bothering about the design or anything else. What you’re getting is a good chance to exhibit your blog articles to a whopping no. of 85 to 100 million active readers per month. Also, you can add images, videos etc. to make your article look more appealing to the readers.
Pros
- Free to use
- Super simple platform
- Nice and clean editor for distraction-free writing
- Built-in audience of 85 to 100 million active readers
- Suitable for all types of blogs
- No coding and design experience required
Cons
- Can’t customize. Your blog will look like every other blog on Medium
- Can’t brand your domain
Tumblr
Tumblr is a blogging site well suited for microblogging. Unlike the other platforms, Tumblr is more designed for multimedia and social media content which attracts the younger generation. It’s an ideal choice to create personal and entertainment blogs rather than business blogs. Also, you can publish your content in different forms such as texts, photos, videos and audio files.
Pros
- Can share anything freely
- Good for microblogs
- Blogs can be shared on social media
Cons
- Can’t be used as a professional blog
- Limited customization
- Domains are subdomains of tumblr.com (yoursite.tumblr.com)
Ghost
Ghost, launched in 2013, is a popular blogging platform similar to WordPress designed to write and publish content seamlessly.
A wide range of themes and templates are available to build and customise the website easily. One of its remarkable features is that the editor interface offers a real-time preview while creating a post. This helps creators to know how their content will look when published.
Conclusion – Best Free Blogging Platform
In conclusion, blogging has gained popularity and become easily accessible, thanks to the plethora of blog writing platforms available today. Each of these platforms offers distinctive features and benefits.
So which one sounds better to you? We recommend trying out a few of the options mentioned above before making a final decision.
No matter which platforms you select, dedicate yourself to writing unique high-quality content that captivates your readers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which platform is best for blogging?
Choosing the best platform for blogging completely depends upon what you’re expecting.
If you’re focusing completely on the content only and don't much bother about the design and other things then Medium is the best free blogging platform to start writing blogs immediately.
If you want to build your blog with some basic design and a domain name, I recommend using Wix as it’s easy to build a blog with customizable templates and drag-and-drop functions.
And finally, if you’re looking for long term and have enough time for learning and designing a website completely under your control then it’s best to go for Wordpress.org.
