In 2021, the number of internet users has risen to 4.66 billion, which shows the digital scope of the upcoming era.
People spend most of their time online, from teaching to studying and learning the basics of C++ to ethical hacking. And from reading and scrolling social media to further interaction and brand awareness, we use the internet everywhere.
Moreover, people are making the buying decision through reading reviews online and frequently purchasing from online shops.
This explains how urgent it’s to start upgrading your skills for transferring your business into the digital medium.
Furthermore, about 77% of web users read blogs every day. It clarifies the scope of blogging in this century.
And if you’ve decided to start a blog, you may have goals like;
- writing improvement
- building authority
- reaching a huge audience
- making more money
- marketing your products or services.
Everything starts from the decision to choose the right platform for scribing and sharing.
And if you’re stuck at choosing the best blogging platform, don’t bother.
Here in this post, we are compiling a list of the best six blogging platforms for starting your hustle as soon as possible.
So, without further ado, let’s jump right in!
Best Blogging Platforms and Blog Sites
After reviewing a few free and premium blogging platforms, we’ve created a list where you can find the best choice for yourself.
Today we’ll be sharing the upsides and downsides of each of our top picks, along with a choice guide that will help you to consider the most suitable option for your goals.
So, let’s dive right in!
1. WordPress.org – Most Popular blogging platform
To date, WordPress runs about 41% of total sites on the internet. That gives it the honor as the most popular website builder or CMS of the web.
The most common reason is that it’s the most flexible option as compared to the available ones.
You can design or modify your website as you want without the knowledge of coding. And there are a lot of other benefits, too.
Advantages:
- It has a massive library of free themes that allows you to mix some personality into the prebuilt templates, and you’re done. Besides, you can purchase premium themes with more customization options from the Envato market (Themeforest). There are more than 11,000 paid themes with their custom builders on ThemeForest. So, you don’t even need to pay for a designer to create a sparkling website.
- Suppose you want some additional features like backup, security, SEO, image optimization, or any addition to the website customization. In that case, you can choose the most suitable plugin from the mine of 58,715 free plugins. These areas are similar to your mobile applications allowing you to perform any function.
- You can easily rank your site on search engines. That means it’s SEO-friendly, and you can perform any additional SEO using the best WordPress SEO plugins out there.
- If you want to create a portfolio website, it’s way easier to add a schedule, quote, contract, or check-out options.
- Likewise, you can easily add a product page or cart option for the digital or physical products you want to sell.
- Further, you can create a forum or membership option too.
- Overall, it’s best for monetization, and that’s the reason for its familiarity.
Disadvantages:
- You need a bit of investment for a professional website.
- It might be daunting for non-techy persons in some places.
- You have to handle the security and backup.
Pricing:
After all, when it comes to pricing, it’s free. However, you can’t access this software without purchasing a domain and hosting.
Overall, you need to purchase any domain name and web hosting service of your choice to start working on it.
Besides, you might need some additional expend such as themes and premium plugins. But that’s optional.
2. Wix
According to a report, Wix has more than 165 million users in 2021, from which about 4.5 million are paid, subscribers.
It’s best for those who are just starting with websites. That means it’s completely beginner-friendly.
Advantages:
- Easy drag and drop website builder works wonders for non-techy and beginners.
- Affordable
- 14-days money-back guarantee
- Free SSL encryption
Disadvantages:
- The free plan has limited customization options.
- If you choose the free plan or the cheapest option, you have to adjust to their ads.
- Limited apps installation options.
- Limited features for e-commerce sites.
- Template can’t be changed once chosen.
Pricing:
Wix website builder is free, where you’ll get 100s of templates, pages, and hosting for free. Along with that, you’ll get a domain with their brand.
However, there are several premium plans you can choose from. The basic plan starts from $14/month to $39/month, known as the website plan.
The business and enterprise plan starts from $23/month to $49/month. You can get unlimited options after upgrading your plan.
3. Blogger
Blogger is the most basic and most popular blogging site for beginners. Most people use this to experiment with the blogging field and, after gaining knowledge, transfer their sites to WordPress.
The main reason why “Blogger” is a good option for newbies is it’s completely free. You can customize this as you want. And even connect a domain of your choice later on.
Advantages:
- It’s free.
- It has basic templates and themes for designing a decent blog.
- Simple to handle for non-techy persons.
- Secure.
Disadvantages:
- You’ll get a domain name with the “.blogspot.com” extension. That’s unprofessional.
- They have limited customization options with very few templates, themes, and tools.
- You can’t add additional features through any third-party apps.
Pricing:
Blogger is completely free with their subdomain. However, you can purchase and connect your domain to their platform.
4. Medium
Medium has a monthly active user of 85 million to 100 million. It’s a high authority site that features the work of famous writers.
Anyone who wants to start blogging for writing improvement can begin writing on medium. It has a minimal interface which looks incredible.
Advantages:
- Very simple to use and manage.
- No tech skills are required.
- You can reach a community quickly.
- Get featured as a writer quickly.
Disadvantages:
- Limited monetization options.
- Limited branding and design options.
- You can’t add your domain name.
- You can lose your followers at any time.
Pricing:
It’s entirely free for writing or blogging regularly. However, if you want to be involved with the community actively and read their content, you have to purchase their subscription plan.
5. Squarespace
Squarespace covers 18% of the websites among the other website builders. It’s best for service providers who want to showcase their skills through a portfolio site.
It becomes more prevalent in these recent years and takes the #3 rank after WordPress and Shopify.
Advantages:
- Easy to use and manage.
- Easy to design through drag and drop features.
- It comes with beautiful templates that are great for small businesses.
- You can add your domain name separately with SSL encryption.
- You can add an e-commerce feature, too.
- 24/7 customer support
Disadvantages:
- Limited tools and features.
Pricing:
It has four plans, namely personal, business, basic commerce, and advanced commerce. The pricing plan is starting from $12/month to $40/month.
6. Weebly
According to the latest report by W3tech, Weebly takes 0.5% among the content management systems.
It’s a freemium service that you can use as a beginner and upgrade when needed.
Advantages:
- Can start without investment.
- You’ll get a domain with their branding, 500 MB storage, and a free SSL certificate with the free plan.
- You can connect your custom domain whenever you want.
- Fully hosted and no setup required.
Disadvantages:
- Limited customization, storage, and features in the free plan.
- Expensive premium plans than others.
Pricing:
Weebly starts with the $0, along which you will get a domain name with their branding (yourdomain.weebly.com).
You can connect a domain name of your choice only at $5.00/month. You have to spend $12.00/month and $25.00/month for pro and business plans, respectively.
How to Choose the Best Blogging Platform?
Well, as you know what the options available are, now it’s time to grasp the best way to know which is the most suitable one for your business.
Here is a list of things I would consider before choosing the right option.
- Safety and security
Safety and security are the no. 1 priority of any business. There’s evidence showing the cyberattacks every single day. And if you don’t want to sell your soul through the attackers, you must need to take care of it.
According to data, about 70% of WordPress sites are prone to cyber-attacks. And it’s the no.1 target for hackers.
So, you need to take care of the safety and security of your business.
- Themes and Templates
Not everyone is tech-savvy, or everyone doesn’t have coding skills. Thus, you need to choose a platform that allows you to drag and drop customization options quickly.
Most of the above said content management systems are easy to design, customize, and maintain. However, it becomes easier to create a unique design if your CMS allows more features and themes, and templates.
In this case, WordPress is the no.1 recommendation.
- SEO Features and Tools
You can monetize your blog only if it gets a good amount of traffic. And the organic way of generating traffic is SEO.
There are SEO features and tools in each of the above-said platforms. However, the best option, according to the experts, is WordPress. This is because of its sizeable free plugin library.
Some plugins such as YOAST and Rank math are great for improving your On-page SEO and readability of your content.
- Budget
After everything, now it reached the main point. If you can’t afford to pay now, that doesn’t mean you can’t acquire the knowledge and improve your skills.
Therefore, we chose both premium and accessible options for your best experience. Blogger, medium, Wix, and Weebly are a few options you can opt for if you want to step into the field without losing a dime.
Taking price into consideration, if you are on a cheap budget, either you can create a professional website by the number one beginner’s choice – Wix (both affordable and easy to customize) or WordPress, which might be a bit expensive, but comes with the better tools and features. In short, more flexibility.
- Monetization options
Let’s admit it. Most people, including you and me, start blogging to earn some passive income. And without the monetization flexibility, who’s going to spend their expensive time and efforts (and money)?
So, if you’re considering the best way to earn money through blogging, then it’s the most crucial factor to keep in mind.
Decide whether or not you can run your ads, sell your digital or physical products or services, or even enable affiliate marketing incomes.
Suppose your platform is allowing you to do so. Then it’s alright.
If not, and you’re just wanted to try blogging as a hobby, then go for it. Otherwise, look out if it allows you to transfer to the more flexible option later on.
Conclusion
On this topic, I’m a bit biased. And that might be because of the extensive features and tools provided by the platform of my choice.
That platform is easy to customize, design, manage, and super flexible for SEO and monetization.
It enables you to own the site entirely without the anxiety of a third-party authority. You can promote or market it as you want. And further, you are allowed to use any third-party plugins without any hassle.
Well, it’s WordPress.Org. The tool I’m talking about.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go for others. It depends on the personal preference basing on the above-said factors – mainly how much you can spend on building your side business.
Don’t be sad! There are options for everyone, and you can choose and switch between platforms whenever you want.
All the best. You can do it!
