The best blogging platform in 2022

How to choose a blogging platform

To make a good choice, you must understand what you are looking for. If you’re a novice at blogging and want to get started, beware of platforms that don’t require special setup or coding skills.

If you are an experienced blogger and if you want to try something new, you may be interested in platforms that offer various additional features to increase your blogging potential.

We have divided the platforms into two different groups, standalone and blog post platforms, depending on whether your blog will be hosted on the same platform. Let’s take a look at the first group.

The best independent blogging platforms

Below you will see some platforms for setting up a standalone site. These can be useful if you are already skilled at blogging or are eager to learn.

WordPress.org

The first service is a famous platform called WordPress.org. Founded in 2003, WordPress is now used by 34% of websites on the internet as software that includes big brands.

WordPress CMS is a self-hosted solution, so you will also need to choose the best hosting service. WordPress is built on PHP and MySQL and licensed under the GPLv2. With this software you will be able to:

• Find a hosting and install plugins
• Get help with security and backup services
• Take full control over your design and code by customizing themes or creating your own with PHP or CSS
• Easily manage your SEO
• Get responsive mobile sites
• Get help from the WordPress community on forums and much more

pricing. WordPress is open source software, however, to be honest you will have to pay for hosting and a domain name which isn’t a huge price. An example is Bluehost, which will only charge you $2.75 per month while also providing a free domain name.

Wix

Created in 2006, Wix is ​​a leading cloud-based development platform with millions of users worldwide. With Wix, you can create a blog without any coding skills. The platform has an intuitive interface with a wide variety of tools and templates. With Wix you will have access to:

• custom domain name
• Free accommodation
• professional mailbox
• Analytical
• Hundreds of designer-made templates
• Industry leading SEO
• Mobile optimization
• Hundreds of fonts and many other advanced features

Check out examples of websites designed with Wix.

Pricing Hundreds of templates, unlimited pages, and premium hosting are free, but there are a few premium plans:

• Link domain – $4.50/month
• Combined plan – $8.50 per month
• Unlimited plan – $12.50 per month
• VIP plan – $24.50 per month

With all premium plans you can connect your own domain, remove ads and more. Wix offers a 14-day trial for premium plans.

Joomla

Joomla is another well-known CMS for publishing content. Joomla is search engine friendly and mobile friendly with unlimited design opportunities, multilingual support and tons of other options. Check examples of websites built with Joomla.

pricing. Joomla is a free blogging platform. Depending on what you choose, you will only need to pay for a domain name between $0.99 and $15.99 per year. Extensions can be free or paid.

Weebly

Weebly is a website and e-commerce service. It offers many themes, drag and drop tools, free hosting, domain management, e-commerce services, mobile solutions, free templates, SEO tools, analytics, and more. Weebly might be the best blogging platform for building an e-commerce website.

pricing. Weebly is completely free for basic use. However, it offers some premium options:

• Connect – $5 a month
• Professional – $12 per month
• Business – $25 per month

The packages guarantee free SSL security, storage, custom domains, and more. There is a different plan for online stores as well. Also, check out examples of sites built with Weebly.

site123

Site123 is a free website builder that is easy to use. It offers beautiful templates, intuitive website editor, free hosting, SEO tools, custom domains, mobile friendly website, online store creation and more.

Pricing Site123 may be one of the best free blogging platforms, but if you want to get a custom domain name, you’ll be charged $7.80 per month, which guarantees:

• Free domain name for one year
• 10GB storage
• 5GB bandwidth
• Remove site123 floating tag
• Connect your domain
• e-commerce

See examples of websites built with Site123.

square space

Squarespace is an all-in-one platform for building a website or online store. It has the following features:

• Best-in-class website templates
• blog tools
• SEO tools
• Analytical
• mobile editing
• Free custom domain name

Pricing There are four types of packages to choose from:

• Personal for $12 per month
• Job for $18 per month
• Basic trading for $26 per month
• Advanced trading for $40 per month

Depending on the package, you get access to a custom domain, repositories, professional emails, SEO features, website analytics, and more.

The best blogging platforms

The platforms we will review in this section do not require any special skills to create a blog. The blog will be located on the platform itself so you don’t have to look for hosting. This option may be suitable for those who are not interested in standalone platforms, do not need a dedicated space, and are quite satisfied with the functionality that blogging platforms offer.

Middle

Medium is one of the best blogging sites that comes to mind when thinking about starting a blog. It is designed for people to share fresh thoughts and clean reading experience.

You can simply create an account and start posting articles. You will not be able to use your own domain name as it is not a standalone platform. This simplified platform can be good for those who don’t want to deal with coding or design and just want to focus on writing.

Pricing Medium is a completely free platform for content creators, but if you want to get a membership as a casual user and access unique content, you can subscribe to a plan for just $5 a month or $50 a year. Here’s what a Medium blog looks like.

Tumblr

Tumblr is a microblogging platform that allows you to post texts, photos, videos, audios, links and more. Unfortunately, you don’t have enough room to return here, but if you’re looking for something concise to share your experience, Tumblr might be the best blogging platform for you. Here is one of the examples of a Tumblr blog.

Pricing It’s free to use, but you can get a custom domain name that will cost you between $10 and $40.

blogger

This is one of the oldest blogging platforms offered by Google. You will need a Google account to set up a blog. Blogger provides:

• Easy-to-use templates
• A free Blogspot domain or a custom domain
• Possibility to earn money with the help of Google AdSense
• Possibility to connect to Google Analytics

Pricing Blogger is a free platform, but if you need a custom domain name, you’ll have to purchase it from a third party. Here is an example of a blog on Blogger.

Ghost

Ghost is a nonprofit that creates open source technology for journalism. It is available as a hosting and software that you can install. With both features you get:

• A set of publishing tools
• An extensible, rich editor
• Flexible content management
• Simple site editing
• search engine optimization
• Accelerated mobile pages and more

Check out these examples to see what a website built on Ghost looks like.

Pricing You are given a 14-day trial period to try the following plans:

• Basic plan for $29 per month
• Standard plan for $79 per month
• Business plan for $199/month

Check the Ghost website for more details. Also, if you’re stuck between Medium and Ghost, have a look at the comparison posts.

WordPress.com

Last but not least! We have already reviewed the WordPress.org service, which is actually a self-hosted CMS solution. WordPress.com is also a democratized publishing platform. There you can start a blog or create a website in seconds without any technical knowledge. It doesn’t require any setup and if you have a WordPress.com subdomain, this option may be for you.

Pricing The basic account is free, but you can upgrade by:

• Blogger for $3 a month
• Personal for $5 per month
• Premium for $8 per month
• job for $25 a month
• E-commerce for $45 per month

With these plans, you’ll get some additional options for site customization, marketing and monetization tools, e-commerce features, and more. Read the blog to stay up to date with the latest news and tips.

Which blogging platform to choose

In this article, we have made a brief review of some of the best blogging platforms. We’ve divided them into two groups: standalone platforms and blog post services, which often require specialized skills.

Whether you want to publish articles or set up an online store, you should choose the platform that suits your needs. A deliberate comparison plan will help you assess the situation.