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Even with the advent of social media and YouTube, blogging is still alive and well in 2021. More than 409 million people go through personal and professional blogs hosted on WordPress.com alone each month. There are over 31.7 million bloggers in the US, and 67% of bloggers who post daily claims to be immensely successful.
So, you would like to take blogging for a test drive? See if you like it or not before ponying up the bucks for a self-hosted WordPress setup? Whether you are intrigued by blogging and building a broader audience for your business, or you simply desire to voice out your opinion, building an exemplary blog begins with choosing the right platform.
Blogging helps you greatly in establishing your authority in an industry. It also helps in driving traffic to your website and helps you to convert the traffic into leads remarkably.
Thus, before you begin cranking outposts and welcome your virtual visitors from around the world, it becomes imperative to choose an exemplary blogging platform to suit your fundamental needs. Go through the links of both free and paid software to make an informed decision.
Let’s kick off with the list!
11 Best Blogging Software And Platforms You Must Consider Use
1. Wix
Founded in 2006, Wix is a remarkable platform where even novices could create their own stunning websites with no essential coding skills required. Presently, it has over 110 million users across the globe. The unique drag-and-drop website builder also offers a comprehensive solution for small businesses to develop a website with ease.
Features –
- Includes third party templates apps
- Easy drag and drop tools
- Set up is quick and easy.
Pricing – The basic Wix website builder comes free of cost. However, you can also add a custom domain for $4.50 per month.
2. WordPress
WordPress dominates over 35% of the web, which makes it a juggernaut. Founded by Automattic, it is an outstanding blogging platform for beginners.
What sets the software apart is its ease of use, customization options, and extendibility. You can also easily find themes and plug-ins that can help you implement almost any feature that you can imagine. Besides its massive library of add-ons, WordPress has a thriving community.
Features –
- Super-easy to use and manage for beginners
- Service is free to use but comes with a WordPress.com domain
- Set up is not required
Pricing – The basic WordPress.com account is free. It can be upgraded to their Personal Plan for $4/month (billed yearly).
3. Blogger
Blogger is perhaps one of the earliest blogging platforms in existence. First launched in 1999 by Pyra Labs, it is a remarkable yet free blogging service by Google. It offers an incredibly quick and easy way to create a blog for non-tech-savvy users.
Features –
- Offers a choice to opt-in or opt-out for ads on webpages
- Straightforward user interface
- Covers all the maintenance work of a website
Pricing – Free of cost.
4. Web.com
Web.com is a popular and affordable website builder that comes adorned with a built-in blogging platform. It is not crucial to have the technical knowledge to get started, thanks to the excessively easy drag and drop builder.
Features –
- Pre-designed content blocks like photo galleries, promotional banners, etc.
- Access to millions of free stock images
- Easy setup
Pricing – Web.com begins at only $1.95 per month.
5. Tumblr
Tumblr is an impeccable micro-blogging platform that comes adorned with unique social networking choices. This makes the software a tad bit distinct from other solutions on this comprehensive list. What’s more, it also enables its users to follow other Tumblr blogs, reblog the content, share content on social media, and more.
Features –
- Free to use
- Easy to set up and use
- Integrates easily with social networks
Pricing – Tumblr is free.
6. Medium
Originating in 2012, Medium has grown into a unique community of writers, bloggers, journalists, and experts in multiple niches. It is an incredibly easy-to-use blogging platform that comes with limited social networking features.
Features-
- Incredibly easy to use
- No setup is required and no essential coding skills are required
- Enables you to reach out to the community of people of similar interests
Pricing – Medium is free to use.
7. Squarespace
Founded in 2003, Squarespace presently powers millions of websites online. It is an exemplary website-building platform with an excessively easy drag and drops interface. It enables its users to create eye-appealing websites and personal blogs with no coding necessary.
Features –
- Easy to use for beginners
- Enables adding of premium email marketing services
- Offers a domain name with HTTPS/SSL
Pricing – Personal website plans start at $16 per month. Business plans begin at $26 per month or $18/month billed annually.
8. Ghost
Established in 2013, Ghost is available as a fantastic hosted platform and software that you can install or host by yourself. It is a minimalist, yet unique blogging platform with incredible features completely focused on crafting brilliant blog posts.
Features-
- Focused on writing and blogging
- Clean, simple, clutter-free, and intuitive user interface
- Hosted versions require no setup
Pricing- For self-hosted versions of Ghost, the domains begin at around $14.99 per year, while hosting can be about $7.99/month.
9. Weebly
Owned by Square’s payment platform, Weebly is a well-renowned website builder platform. They offer excessively easy-to-use website developing tools for business websites and eCommerce stores.
Features-
- Completely hosted website and blogging platform
- Seamless integration with Square payment platforms
Pricing- Weebly comes in a limited free version. Paid plans start from $8 per month billed annually.
10. Jekyll
Unlike any other free blogging platform, Jekyll is an amazing static site generator that enables you to write text in your preferred markup language.
It is one of the outstanding free blogger platforms that enable you to use layouts to create a brilliant static website. What more could you possibly want?
Features-
- Provides the quickest way to set up a blog
- Incorporates Sass and CoffeeScript support and collections
- Offers free hosting with Github pages
Pricing – Free
11. Joomla
Joomla is another fantastic open-source CMS that was launched in 2005 and has managed to stay relevant ever since. It is a flexible platform that allows plenty of customization and doesn’t require the knowledge of too much code. It also enables the expansion of functionality with ‘extensions’ and allows the use of templates to transform your site.
Features-
- Multiuser environment
- Tiered permissions and user management
- Full customization of template files
- Advanced SEO options
Pricing – Free, except for hosting and DNS costs like with other open-source platforms.
Final Thoughts
Without a shade of doubt, blog software is a boon for independent bloggers. It allows them to get started almost in a day which previously used to take more than a month a decade ago.
However, with many software present in the market, it becomes essential to choose the best one through detailed analysis to get back the best return on your investment.
Author – Karen Hamada is a tech geek and an eminent accounting consultant in the USA. Professionally, she has been working with myassignmenthelp.com for 10+ years now and brought smiles to the face of millions of students with her quality accounting assignment help solutions.
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