Want to know about the 6 best free and paid blog platforms? Well, keep on reading to find out more.
Blogging is becoming more and more common these days and there is a steep rise in the area of blog platforms. In today’s article we will have a look at different blog platforms where you can create a blog for yourselves.
But let us have a look at what a blog platform is!
Table of Contents
What Is A Blog Platform?
Blog Platform is simply a platform for bloggers to create and run a blog. These platforms are also known as Content Management System (CMS) & there are various such CMS which are developed by individuals, groups, or companies for the purpose of blogging.
Anyone with just a bit of knowledge or with no knowledge of programming can create a blog on these platforms. Having said that, if you have some knowledge in programming, it will definitely help you, if you have to customize the blog as per your specifications.
As far as the functionality of these blogs is concerned, there are literally thousands of add-ons or plugins available for free that you can use.
6 Best Free And Paid Blog Platforms
We will now have a look at such free blog platforms which you can choose from
WordPress
This is one platform which everyone is aware about. Needless to say, Convey Arena runs on WordPress. This is best platform for bloggers from all over the world. WordPress is so popular that over 35% of the website use it.
WordPress is software designed for everyone, emphasizing accessibility, performance, security, and ease of use and its completely free. This software works with minimum set up, so you can focus on content creation rather than thinking about the logistics.
There are a lot of powerful features & plugins which you can use with WordPress. Moreover, it is an open source software. You can change the source code if you want.
Please note that there are two different websites namely wordpress.com and wordpress.org. The basic difference between the two websites is that wordpress.com provides hosting and wordpress.org does not.
To elaborate, if you don’t have a hosting account or a domain name and you don’t want to spend any money on hosting then you can create an account on wordpress.com and host your blog there.
But there are a few drawbacks to hosting on wordpress.com. You will get limited space and you will have to install only those plugins that are available on this platform. Also, you won’t be able to monetize your blog with Google AdSense or Affiliate Marketing. And, if you want to remove these limitations the you will have to pay for the hosting.
Check out our detailed article on, 4 Basic Differences Between WordPress.com And WordPress.org.
I would suggest that, you download WordPress from wordpress.org, get a good hosting plan & domain name from hosting companies like SiteGround or Bluehost and host your website there. It will give you all the freedom you need.
Wix
This is another platform just like WordPress which is very well known to people from all over the world.
Wix is available for free, but, if you need Pro Features & complete freedom like your own domain name or hosting, you must choose from one of their premium plans ranging from “Combo” to “Business VIP”.
Wix has its own Logo Maker where you can create your own logo. It has various templates to select from. Just pick a template and customize it as you would like, or answer a few questions and get a free website designed just for you.
With Wix you can start your own blog, add an online store and accept bookings online and you can always add more features as you grow.
Wix is also mobile-optimized. You can use the mobile editor to personalize it even more.
After answering a few questions about your website, location and keywords you can get a personalized SEO plan to get found online.
Joomla
This open source content management system is one of the best free blogging platforms around.
Joomla is really powerful and flexible and can be used in building any kind of website or blog. It has a variety of design features. You will have the ability to create your own template and render HTML for objects or arrays of data. This CMS also uses Bootstrap for perfect responsive designs.
Similar to WordPress, you can either host Joomla on launch.joomla.org or you can get a domain name and web hosting from SiteGround or Bluehost. The Joomla community is not as big as the WordPress community, so comparatively there are fewer themes and add-ons than for WordPress.
Having said that, you will get hundreds of templates to choose from and extensions to add more features to fully customize blog.
HubPages
This is an open community of passionate people writers, explorers, knowledge seekers, conversation starters. HubPages is a full on network of sites that enable bloggers or so called hubbers to share their story with a vast community.
It has quite a few sections such as Arts and Design, Books Literature & Writing, Health, Personal Finance, Pet & Animals, Politics & Social Issues, Entertainment & Media, Food & Cooking, Technology and many more.
Jekyll
No more databases, comment moderation, or pesky updates to install, just your content.
Jekyll grabs hold of your raw data in form of text files, which may be in markdown language, if you please, and turns them into a robust static site to host, wherever you want. It’s the engine behind GitHub Pages and you can host your blog on there for free.
You don’t need to have any technical knowledge to make your blog, so there are fewer things to go wrong and you can build something completely error free. Permalinks, categories, pages, posts, and custom layouts are all first-class citizens here.
Medium
This is currently one of the best blogging platforms out there. You can blog on any topic from Technology to Data Science, from Politics To Elections etc.
Medium is not like any other platform on the internet. Their sole purpose is to help you find compelling ideas, knowledge, and perspectives. If you are a curious reader who loves to learn new things this is the right platform for you.
Medium is home to thousands of independent voices and they combine humans and technology to find the best reading for you with unwanted topics being filtered out.
Conclusion
The list of such blog platforms is virtually endless. If you want to do something on your own & build a brand for yourself, then go for a platform like WordPress & if you don’t want to invest, simple learn & write the try out medium.
If you know any other such platforms that you have used, then share it in the comments section below.