Best Free Blogging Platform
Free blogging systems have substantially improved in recent years, making it simpler to launch a professional-looking blog to convey a hobby with like-minded individuals, express your ideas, and build an online profile.
The amateur bloggers who use these free blogging platforms may develop and maintain their blogs online on the servers of the blogging platform. The downloadable version of WordPress is the best option for creating a self-hosted blog since it offers total independence, support for third-party plugins, and as much storage space as your hosting plan permits.
However, you may avoid free blogging platforms as much as possible because most people don’t always find them a good option. We’ve collected a list of the best blogging platforms if you decide to go.
Top 10 Free Blogging Platforms
The best free blogging platforms are listed below for you to use right now to start your blog:
- Wix
A free website builder that can be fully managed from the front end is called Wix. The main advantage of this forum is that you can drag and drop options without having to deal with the backend. Both novice and experienced users may use the design because it is straightforward and contemporary.
Wix is great since it comes with free hosting; all you need to do is arrange the layouts and select a template to finish. It offers various premium and free themes and templates for different purposes, including blogging.
Sign up for a Wix account to get started, then select either having the Wix ADI create your website based on a questionnaire or making your blog by choosing a template and customizing the layouts using the WYSIWYG editor. If you select the second alternative, you must pick a stunning template and start customizing everything in live preview mode.
Your websites can include many features, like video boxes, forms, menus, typefaces, multimedia widgets, and backgrounds. Once you’re sure the website is finished, click Publish to start posting your tales. You may always go back and edit the content blocks after you’ve published.
- WordPress
The clear leader among free blogging platforms is WordPress.org. It is a free platform; however, you must broadly develop the website by yourself. The software must be hosted on your server as well. While there are options for free WordPress hosting, investing in a solid WordPress server for a fair price is a better long-term strategy.
Bluehost can help in this situation. The Basic plan starts at just $2.75 per month when you sign up for three years, and it is cheap and comes with a free domain name, 50GB of storage space, unrestricted bandwidth, a free SSL, and 100MB of email storage per account. The most practical and economical WordPress hosting provider right now is Bluehost.
You host the WordPress software, giving you total control over how your site functions and looks and how you make money from it. On the other hand, the setup procedure is slightly more manual.
Since it is free and easy to set up (provided you don’t mind not having a custom domain name), WordPress is mainly used for personal blogs. However, you have extremely little control over how the site is changed.
Additionally, the free WordPress.com version will prevent you from monetizing your blog.
Most likely, you weren’t expecting this. LinkedIn isn’t often people’s first choice when it comes to free blogging sites. However, it does require some attention.
This is primarily due to easy-to-use tools and an already-existing audience.
Regarding the second issue, the audience, professionals and business owners make up most of LinkedIn’s user base. More than 30 million businesses use LinkedIn, according to studies. Additionally, they are not only there for the sake of being present. According to other figures, Ninety-four per cent of B2B marketers use platforms as one of their primary lead sources.
In conclusion, LinkedIn is one of the best free blogging platforms since it only acts as a platform for exposure.
Technology-wise, publishing on LinkedIn is straightforward. Access your LinkedIn feed by going there and clicking the “Start a post” button at the top of the screen. Open the full-screen editing window by selecting “Write an article on LinkedIn” to transform your status into a full post.
All your editing tools are here, including text formatting, photo insertion, and more.
- Weebly
Weebly is another website builder that may be used for writing and selling goods or displaying your portfolio. It provides a WYSIWYG editor with drag-and-drop capabilities comparable to Wix. Drag a button onto the page to add it and customize it. The same applies to slideshows, photo galleries, and other multimedia elements.
Weebly’s capabilities include sidebars, media boxes, forms, ad spaces, social media icons, newsletter subscriptions, and other features. Additionally, the platform allows you to use your unique domain and includes built-in analytics (for which you need to pay).
The free plan offers 500MB of storage, a Weebly subdomain, five customized pages, and advertising space.
- Penzu
Penzu (opens in a new tab) is the polar opposite of the other free blogging sites we’ve looked at here and is comparable to a locked diary kept in a safe. They aim to get as many people to read your work as possible.
Penzu is a journal platform that encrypts your postings with at least one password by default and requires a second one to read or edit them, even if you are logged in. This is because it is meant to be used for reflective contemplation and private pondering. Although you can update your Penzu diary from anywhere using free iOS and Android apps, only you can see what’s written there.
Penzu isn’t a self-promotional tool, so while it’s not ugly, it naturally puts functionality above aesthetics. Custom backgrounds and colors are not free; they are now $20 per year.
Unfortunately, 128-bit AES encryption is only available in the premium version, and Penzu puts a lot of pressure on users to upgrade. Although more features are regularly teased before being dropped, Penzu may be the best option if all you want is a spot to jot down ideas and practise writing.
- Ghost
Another blogging platform like WordPress is this one. Although the Ghost application may be downloaded for free, premium hosting is necessary for running. A great provider supporting Ghost is DigitalOcean; it’s affordable and has many helpful features to get you going.
The drawback is that Ghost installation is more challenging than WordPress installation, and depending on the host you choose for your website; you might need to get your hands dirty with server maintenance.
Writing a post in Ghost is straightforward after your website is set up. The editor is simple and uncomplicated, with a live display of your text on the right side of the screen. It feels like Medium up front, which is fantastic. Next to the editing page is a sidebar with choices where you may choose your preferences.
- Blogger
One of the first free blogging platforms, Blogger has seen a fall in usage in recent years.
It’s an excellent alternative for personal blogs but not the best for business usage. Similar to other hosted platforms, it works by requiring you to create an account before using it. After you’ve easily made it, pick one of the provided themes and start writing down your thoughts. The editor on this platform looks like a Word document, but the user interface looks like a Google+ profile.
Blogger has many themes, each with its skin, complete color filtering, and several minimalist tools (aka widgets). But nothing too clever or complex in terms of design change. Bloggers generally offer simple aesthetic alternatives, focusing the post’s attention. This website provides a valuable feature in that you may post advertisements anywhere in your material.
- Tumblr
One of the leading free blogging platforms on the internet is called Umbrella. Compared to the others on the list, it is a touch “milder.” This platform is more concerned with multimedia content or content that would be appropriate for social media than the others, primarily created for publication. The user interface (UI) on Tumblr is more whimsical, and signing up is all required before you can begin posting.
It provides a variety of post formats for different types of content, much like a standard blogging platform. On the other hand, Tumblr is just for personal use and is not a wise choice if your goals are commercial. It is easy to use, has some basic customization options, and, as was already said, has a more social networking feel.
Despite not being intended for commercial usage, it does permit you to integrate your blog with Google Analytics, utilize affiliate links, and place adverts on your website.
- Joomla
Joomla is similar to WordPress.org. However, it is less well-known when compared to the free blog platforms available. Like WordPress, the application is free but calls for hosting and a domain. Like WordPress, we like Bluehost since it is affordable and trustworthy (and includes a free environment).
Generally speaking, Joomla has a flexible user interface that can be used for both blogs and more complex websites (you can choose from various templates and extensions to add custom functionality).
The platform offers a dated editor that looks similar to Microsoft Word in terms of usability. The font, color, size, emoticons, tables, and backdrop are all customizable. The menu items give the impression that you are working on a Word document.
There are tabs on the Joomla editor. You must switch tabs to select the post categories, tags, date, meta description, keywords, and other options because the first tab is the primary messaging window.
- Jimdo
Jimdo offers more than just an accessible blogging interface. But given Jimbo’s core characteristics, blogs come highly recommended in the free version. In other words, by following a few basic steps, you can quickly create a website using Jimdo (you fill out a simple questionnaire about the purpose of your site). Your site is automatically built when you tick these boxes based on your choices. The drawback of Jimdo is that you cannot have a custom domain (at least not for free) and must upgrade to get rid of the adverts.
Jimdo is a page builder, so you can create blog entries straight from the front end rather than using an editor (like the other blogs do). This suggests that to make changes without being sent to another website, you must navigate to each content box on a live page. The same editing options are available for the logo and footer. You have a variety of alternatives when it comes to content components: simple text, text with an image, a photo gallery, columns, buttons, etc.
Other adjustments might include putting the post’s date, title, category, status (published or draught), summary, and image preview on the left sidebar. In other words, your post will only be made up of distinct parts that you will each alter separately. You decide how the text, picture, and button are displayed.
Wrapping Up
Your needs will dictate which free blogging platform is best for you. Since it makes creating a website relatively simple and offers over 500 customisable themes, we suggest Wi if you need to get up and running quickly and lack web design skills. But if having precise control over the look and feel of your website is essential to you and you’re willing to put in the time to learn how it operates, we advise WordPress.org. Finally, if you’re an experienced developer, Joomla or WordPress will provide the technical resources you need to build a complex site customized to your unique needs.
