Blogging has been around for quite some time and boasts of an extensive and colorful past. The practice of creating blogs that pique interest, generate revenue, or promote core businesses dates back to 1993.
Thanks to free blogging sites, expressing yourself online has become simpler than ever. These platforms allow you to create blogs that look professional and share your interests with those who share similar interests, voice your viewpoints, and establish a presence on the internet.
If you feel a strong urge to write about your personal interests, blogging may be your calling. Alternatively, you might desire to launch a specialized blog as a side business to generate additional income. Regardless of your motivation – whether to present family photos, for financial gain, or to express your beliefs – high startup costs are likely undesirable.
These blogging platforms are designed for those who pursue blogging as a hobby. Online creation and management of the blog is carried out on the platform’s servers. For those who wish to create a self-hosted blog, WordPress.com’s downloadable version provides the perfect solution, offering utmost flexibility, support for third-party WprdPress plugins, and allowing storage according to the user’s hosting plan.
The best blogging sites of 2023 in full:
1. Wix
Wix provides various subscription plans for users to choose from, including a free option. However, it is important to be aware that the free version has certain restrictions. Your website will display Wix branding and is restricted to 500MB of data transfer each month, making it unsuitable for high traffic sites. Moreover, users are only allotted 500MB of storage.
Despite the limitations, you are at liberty to create a blog with an infinite amount of pages. Wix’s exceptionally strong blog functionality sets it apart. Although the editor is uncomplicated, it provides you with all the essential features, such as photo galleries, videos, and music. Numerous options are available to personalize each post.
The scheduling of posts offers a great deal of adaptability, with the added bonus of automatically sharing published posts to Facebook. Additionally, Wix Bookings enables clients to book appointments and classes directly on your website.
What makes Wix particularly attractive is that in addition to providing blog support, users have access to all of the other features offered by this website builder. One of the most impressive features is the ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) editor which requests basic information about the type of website desired and any desired features. The editor then promptly creates a website based on that information, making it an excellent tool for beginners.
Additionally, Wix impressively offers a wide range of support for various media formats and provides excellent customer support, even for those on the free plan. Furthermore, the Wix Turbo feature significantly improves website speed and performance.
When you take into account the free services offered, the restrictions on bandwidth and data may not appear to be excessive. Additionally, you have the option to upgrade in the future if you wish to remove these limitations permanently.
2. WordPress
Powerful and highly customizable, WordPress is a brilliant platform for blogs of any size, and bloggers of all levels of experience.
Making your initial blog is an easy task as there is a user-friendly wizard that assists you in selecting an appropriate theme and name. Yet, the exciting part is exploring the more intricate editor, which allows you to personalize all aspects of your blog’s outlook. Although, you are able to commence writing posts straight away and not change anything else.
WordPress is not as simple as other blogging platforms where you can easily drag and drop items. Here, you need to get used to its menu system. However, the effort will pay off when you can make your website unique. Moreover, the editor feature lets you make static pages, such as a writer’s biography.
The interface for writing posts resembles a typical word processor found on a desktop. However, options are divided between a toolbar located at the top and a menu on the side, which can be confusing initially. Familiarizing oneself with the interface yields benefits such as advanced features including the option to personalize social media sharing buttons, geotagging, and the ability to select a unique style for each post.
On occasions, you may prefer to produce a visually-oriented display such as a picture album, while in other instances, a writing-centered format would be suitable. Moreover, you have the option to examine and modify the HTML code.
As you expand your blog, WordPress enables you to monitor its statistics such as the number of page views, visitors, likes, and comments over a period of time. Additionally, you can determine how your readers access your website, the specific pages they visit and their geographical location. This information is valuable as it allows you to customize your content to suit your audience.
If you’re using the free service, your website is hosted on WordPress servers and its format will be yoursite.wordpress.com. You won’t have access to email or live chat support, but the WordPress community forums tend to be very busy and requests are frequently resolved in a matter of minutes. Furthermore, WordPress.com provides free domain privacy protection for registered domains.
WordPress showcases advertisements on complimentary blogs; nonetheless, if you can tolerate it, it’s an excellent option for a cost-free blogging platform.
When you take into account the free offerings, the restrictions on bandwidth and data don’t appear as burdensome. Plus, you have the option to upgrade later on if you wish to get rid of them in the future.
3. Blogger
Blogger is an excellent blogging platform, although it is not as potent as WordPress. Nonetheless, it is more user-friendly for beginners, which is not unexpected since Google owns it.
Blogger has a great range of templates that come with mobile versions specifically optimized for smaller screens, which is a smart move considering the high number of people accessing online content through their smartphones. Additionally, Blogger is designed to be web responsive.
The editing tool utilized by bloggers resembles that of WordPress, however, it provides fewer choices. This trade-off between usability and power results in less complicated toolbars.
Blogger’s integration with various Google apps and services is one of its greatest features. It utilizes your Google Drive account to archive images and other blog-related files. Given that Google Drive provides a free 15GB storage, Blogger is an ideal option for sharing high-quality pictures extensively.
Blogger’s automatic spam filter can be a great help in combating the issue of spam comments on blogs. Keeping a tab on the comments is viable through the Blogger’s dashboard that also provides visitor stats. The dashboard displays some interactive visualizations such as a world map to depict the readers’ global distribution. This feature can be quite handy.
Your site on Blogger will be in the format of yoursite.blogger.com and will display advertisements, as is typical of all Google services. You can receive assistance from the active community forum, although some may find the unusual layout to be daunting.
If your main preference is for simplicity and you also value Google’s platform, then Blogger is one of the best free blogging sites, though it may lack flexibility.
4. HubSpot
If you’re unfamiliar with HubSpot as a content management system, chances are you know it as a tool for managing customer relationships.
Famous for its top-notch integrated solution comprising various features available on its Marketing, Sales, Service, and Operations Hub, HubSpot has emerged as a major player in the CMS market. It has further expanded its CMS offerings by releasing a new free CMS platform.
One of the most advantageous aspects of HubSpot’s platform is the integration of its business and website tools, facilitating the unification of your brand and clientele in a single location.
5. Weebly
Weebly is another extremely popular option amongst the best free blogging sites today—largely because it’s easy to use and built especially with eCommerce in mind.
Similar to Wix, this blogging platform offers a drag-and-drop tool and is focused on a WYSIWYG page builder. It’s exceptionally easy to use for novice bloggers who want to experiment with blogging using a complimentary system to become acquainted.
Although Weebly begins as a costless blogging platform, it provides premium packages that enable you to access advanced functionalities, personalize your own blog name and permit greater access to readers.
6. Medium
Medium stands out from the other free blogging sites mentioned as it does not function as a typical website builder.
Despite being a free blogging site, Medium operates more like a combination of a community of writers and a social media platform.
With that said, there is no cost to distribute your blog content on Medium and you can start immediately.
7. Blogger
For those who want to experiment with a free blog, Blogger remains a dependable choice, albeit a tad old-fashioned.
Google acquired this blogging site in 2003, and instead of having complete ownership of your site, it is more like a rental arrangement with Google.
8. Ghost
In 2013, Ghost emerged as a result of a Kickstarter initiative aimed at providing expert writers with a complimentary blogging platform. It shares some characteristics with WordPress and, similarly, has both a hosted and self-hosted option.
Similar to WordPress, the self-hosted version is cost-free, but necessitates a domain name and hosting.
9. Tumblr
Automattic, the company responsible for WordPress, has recently acquired Tumblr, a free blogging platform, that acts as a blend of a social media channel and blog with 476 million blogs hosted on it presently. Similarly to Medium, it falls under an alternative category.
10. Joomla (Self-Hosted)
Joomla, like WordPress, is a CMS that is open-source. To make full use of this free blogging site, you will need to purchase a domain name and hosting plan, just as you would for a self-hosted WordPress site.
Powering approximately 58 million websites, Joomla is the second most widely-used Content Management System worldwide, trailing only WordPress.
11. Yola
Yola is a user-friendly blogging platform that comes with a drag-and-drop feature and is completely free. It’s easy to operate because of its WYSIWYG guidance and doesn’t require much time to understand and utilize.
Which Free Blogging Site is Best For You?
Which free blogging site matches what you’re looking for is ultimately up to you.
If your goal is to begin a blog in a very easy manner and don’t have plans of using it for financial gain, starting with a free blogging platform such as Wix may be ideal for you, particularly as a starting point.
Choosing Tumblr could be a delightful and slightly unconventional option for those seeking an enjoyable platform with an included community.
If you’re looking for the ultimate answer on which blogging sites are the best, I suggest starting your blog with self-hosted WordPress. This is particularly important if you plan on reaching a wide audience or making a business out of your blog.
To put it briefly, if your objective for blogging is to eventually earn income from your website and establish a unified blog strategy that draws in readers, then self-hosted WordPress remains the most optimal option.
With WordPress, you have the best opportunity to expand as a blogging site that is free and does not require migration soon after initiation. Whether it’s a basic hobby blog or a lucrative venture, WordPress.org offers ample chances to begin. Plus, even those who lack technical expertise can effortlessly get started with WordPress.
With the appropriate low-cost hosting plan, bloggers can limit their blogging expenses to approximately $5.00 each month and achieve their goal of creating a genuine business by utilizing a self-hosted WordPress blog.
