10 Best Blogging Platforms Of 2023

Are you planning to earn a passive income online? Planning to start a blog? Are you confused about which blogging platform to choose when you have so many options around?

Well, I will try to clear all your confusion in this article and will discuss about the Best Blogging Platforms for making money.

In this article, we will list out the major positives and negatives of a couple of blogging platforms ( Both paid and free) so that it becomes easy for you to decide which is the Best Blogging Platform for you.

Unfortunately, no blogging platform can satisfy all your requirements and you may need to make a compromise.

What is a Blog?

A blog is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries. Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order, so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page.

The popularity of blogging started over a decade ago. People are now more focused on building options to earn some passive income apart from their regular jobs.

To create and run a blog, you need to have a blogging platform. Well, if you want, you can develop our own blogging platform but that costs a huge amount of money and takes a lot of time. No one would like to go that way except for big publication houses.

For a traditional blogger, out of the box blogging platform suits best as the framework is readily available. Those blogging platforms also take care of SEO and monetization.

What is your Goal in Blogging?

Many people jump into blogging just because others are jumping into it. That does not make any sense and soon or later they realize their mistakes. You should blog only if you love to blog.

best blogging platforms

Choosing a good blogging platform vastly depends on what is your goal and expectation from blogging.

For example, if you want to earn money from blogging through ads, then choose a blogging platform that supports third-party ad support.

If you want to earn from affiliate marketing, then you should choose a blogging platform that offers affiliate features.

You need to decide on your monetization strategy and the goals that you want to achieve before choosing a blogging platform.

Hers is a list of common goals that most bloggers usually have.

  • Wants to earn a passive income
  • Wants to become famous
  • Wants to connect with people
  • Wants to promote a brand

Know your capabilities

Well, it’s very important to know your capabilities before choosing a blogging platform. There are some blogging platforms that are great but you need to have a fair amount of technical knowledge to get it moving.

On the other hand, there are some platforms that offer everything out of the box. Choosing a blogging platform based on your capabilities saves you from future issues.

Below are a few questions that you should ask yourself before choosing the best blogging platform for yourself.

  • Do I have a basic knowledge of coding?
  • Do I know how to host a website?
  • Am I having enough funds for premium platforms?
  • Do I have enough digital marketing skills?
  • Can I give enough time to grow my blog?

How To Choose The Best Blogging Platforms?

If you want to choose the best blogging platform, you need to make a checklist of criteria’s based on which you will make a decision.

Interface

That makes a lot of sense for newbies as they may not have enough knowledge to navigate around.

An intuitive interface with easy-to-use navigation comes in handy while choosing the best blogging platform.

Customization

Usually, all free blogging platforms come with a very basic outlook. No one likes the basic look and you may feel to change the look right away.

But does the platform offer a high level of customization? Look for this before choosing your best blogging platform.

Themes

The theme is a great way of changing how your blog looks. You need to look at how versatile the theme options are for the said platform.

Also, need to look for how costly those themes are or do we have enough free themes in case you are out of budget.

Plugin

A blogging platform without enough plugins is just not right. The blogging business is getting competitive day by day and you need to have a few outstanding plugins to grow your blog to the next level.

Optimization

An under-optimized blog is of no use. You will have to optimize your blog for speed and SEO. Without these, you cant rank on Google. So look for a platform that offers you the optimization option.

Flexibility

When you start a blog, you start from zero. But do your best blogging platform offers flexibility when your blog grows? Flexibility in terms of growth, and geographical presence are very important.

Modularity

No one likes a rigid blogging platform. You may start with a traditional blog but later you may like to integrate affiliate products or you may like to integrate e-commerce.

Do your platform has this modularity? If you think about a long-term goal, modularity is a must in blogging platforms.

Monetization

Here comes the main part. Most bloggers do blogging either for a passive income or for a full-time income. Your monetization strategy is very important before choosing a blogging platform.

Monetization can be done through advertisements, paid articles, and selling affiliate products or services. Your best blogging platform should offer all sources of monetization options.

Types of Blogging Platforms

A blogging platform can be categorized broadly into two types.

Free Vs Paid

Almost all blogging platforms are free to use. However, you may need premium themes and plugins.

It’s better to choose a blogging platform that is free so that you don’t have the burden of investing too much money in the initial period of your blogging journey.

Self Hosted vs Platform hosted

Some platform offers blogging software so that you can self-host your blog while others offer to use their hosting to host your blog. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages.

You will have full control of the self-hosted blog and can use your own domain name. But you need to pay for the domain name and hosting.

In the case of a platform-hosted blog, you can’t use your own domain name ( Exception available), and usually offers limited features.

One good thing about a platform-hosted blog is that you don’t need to pay for hosting unless you want to choose their premium plans.

Now that we know what is blogging, what is our goal from blogging, and how to choose a blogging platform, let’s compile the list of Best Blogging Platforms.

1

WordPress.Org

Best Blogging Platform
WordPress.Org
WordPress.Org

First of all, please don’t get confused between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.

WordPress.org is a blogging software for self-hosted blogs whereas WordPress.com allows you to create a blog in the subdomain of WordPress.com.

You can use the WordPress blogging software for free and host your blog anywhere you want. You need to buy a domain name and a hosting plan.

Whereas, in the case of WordPress.com, you host your blog on a subdirectory of wordpress.com. You will no longer need to buy a domain name or a hosting plan.

As you can see, WordPress powers over 60% of blogs and it is one of the most popular and widely used blogging platform software. WordPress is undoubtedly the best free blogging platform available in the market.

You need to buy a domain name and have to rent a hosting space to host a blog if you want to use WordPress.

Once you are done with a domain name and hosting, you need to install WordPress which is a very straightforward task.

There is a fair amount of learning curve in WordPress to grow your blog, but it is not something that casual bloggers will find hard.

WordPress is the best solution if you want to have full control of your blog. You can design the blog the way you want using many free and paid themes.

You can also enhance the functionality of your blog by using plugins.

In terms of support, WordPress has community-based support, and it is very unlikely that you won’t get an answer to your query.

For all plugins and themes, there is a support section where you can ask your queries and the authors are prompt enough to answer those questions.

Key Aspects Of WordPress.org

Pricing
WordPress software is free to use and modify. To host a blog with WordPress, you need to buy a domain name that costs about $10 per year.

You also need to buy a hosting package which usually varies based on your requirement.
Typically lowest plan starts from a dollar to hundreds of dollars for a premium plan.

On average, if you spend about $20- $30 per month, you can have a well-performing blog.
Customization
You can customize every aspect of WordPress to suit your need. You can install themes to change the looks and you can install plugins to enhance the capabilities of WordPress.

WordPress source codes are freely available to modify, so you can do anything you want with WordPress.
Monetization
Monetization can be activated using Google AdSense or you can use any other Ad network based on your requirement.

You can also implement paid promotions, integrate affiliate marketing and even you can build an eCommerce website to earn money.
Branding
Since you are hosting a self-hosted blog, you can have your own branding the way you want. You can have your brand logo, brand templates, color scheme, etc.

Also, as you use a custom domain, it will increase the brand popularity of your blog.
Suitable for
WordPress is suitable for beginners as well as experienced bloggers. But there is a fair amount of learning curve in WordPress.

WordPress.Org Positives And Negatives

Positives
  • Free to use and modify
  • More than 50K free plugins and themes are available
  • Good community based
  • Can be used for any type of websites
  • Multiple monetization options
  • Frequent updates
Negatives
  • You need to learn to get the best out of WordPress
  • You need to buy premium themes and plugins to create a performing blog.
  • You need to pay for the domain and hosting.
  • You will have to manage your own backup and security
2

WordPress.Com

Best Blogging Platform
WordPress.Com

WordPress.com is a blog hosting service that offers authors to host their blogs either for free or pay a yearly rent to get premium service. It was started in 2005.

You can start your blog on wordpress.com for free. But you have to use their subdomain.

For example, if you host a blog on WordPress.com, your domain name will be like https://yoursite.wordpress.com.

In the free plan, you cannot monetize your blog and WordPress will show its own ads. The worst part is that you won’t earn anything out of the ads that WordPress.com shows on your blog.

So if you plan to earn money from your blog, better to stay away from WordPress.com free plan.

In the free plan, you can’t even install a theme or a plugin to change the look and functionality of the blog. There is no support available for the free plan users.

If you decide to try their paid plans, then only the business plan makes sense which costs about $25 per month.

You can use your own domain, and 200 GB of disk space and you can use custom themes and plugins.

In fact, you will have access to all premium themes which is really good. SEO tools and google analytics can also be integrated.

You can run your own ads or integrate Google AdSense to earn money. You can run your affiliate marketing campaign and sell custom services.

If your plan is to run an eCommerce store, then you will have to go for their eCommerce plan which costs $45 per month.

Key Aspects Of WordPress.com

Pricing
If we leave apart the free plan, the paid plan starts from $5 a month for a personal plan to $45 a month for an eCommerce plan.

Beginners can start with the $5 plan and can settle for a $25 business plan which has almost all the features of a self-hosted blog.
Customization
Customization is only available in the premium and the business plan. You will have access to all free and paid themes if you choose the business plan.
Monetization
You can run your own ads or Google AdSense ads only from the premium plan onwards. You can also run your affiliate marketing campaigns in the business plan.
Branding
You can have your own brand logo only from the premium plan. You can also choose a custom theme and modify that as per your branding.
Suitable for
If you don’t have any knowledge about how to host a website or do not want to spend time on hosting and designing a blog, then wordpress.com is the best to start your blog.

WordPress.Com Positives And Negatives

Positives
  • The free plan is enough to start with
  • No need to buy a domain name and hosting
  • You can use Google AdSense
  • You can do affiliate marketing
  • Speed optimized
Negatives
  • The only best plan ( Business) is very costly
  • Very limited customization option
  • WordPress can terminate your account anytime if they feel so.
3

Blogger

Best Blogging Platform
Blogger.com
Blogger.Com

You will hardly find any blogger who never used blogger.com. In fact, in early 2000, blogger.com was the only platform where you could have tried your blogging desire.

Started in 1999 by Pyra Labs, which was later acquired by Google in 2003, Blooger.com is one of the oldest free blogging platforms which is still popular.

The feature that makes blogger.com stand tall in the crowd is that it is completely free to use. If you have a google account you are good to go to start your blogging journey within a minute with Blogger.com.

You have plenty of templates to customize your blogger.com blog and there are a fair amount of other tools available to give your blog a professional look.

You can start using the blogger subdomain to host your blog or you can buy a domain name of your choice from any domain registrar and link the same to your blogger.com account.

You can’t remove the blogger.com branding from your blog. But if you use a custom domain name, it’s very difficult to figure out if it was hosted on blogger.com or not.

Regarding monetization, you can always add Google AdSense to your blog, and integrate google analytics to get a snippet of how traffics are flowing.

You can even sell services or products using the blog hosted on blogger.com.

At any point in time if you feel that blogger.com does not meet your need anymore, then there are a number of plugins that can help you to migrate your blog to WordPress or any other platform.

This flexibility helps people to start their blog on blogger.com and then move to another platform when the blog grows.

Key Aspects Of Blogger.com

Pricing
Blogger is free to use and there are no premium plans offered. In fact, the free plan has everything that a beginner needs to start their blog.
Monetization
You can use Google AdSense to monetize your blog. You can run affiliate marketing tools also.

At present Google does not offer any other ad networks to show their ads on blogger.com blogs.
Customization
There are a number of free templates and plugins available to customize the look and functionality of your blogger.com blog.
Branding
If you buy a custom domain and link it to a blogger.com blog then you can use your own branding stuff.

At first glance, no one will even notice whether your blog is self-hosted or blogger.com hosted.
Suitable for
Suitable strictly for beginners as blogger.com underperform when your blog grows. There are numerous tools and plugins that can not be used on blogger.com which are required to grow your blog.

Blogger.Com Positives And Negatives

Positives
  • Free to use
  • You can use Google Adsense
  • No need to buy a domain name and hosting
  • Powered by Google server
Negatives
  • Very limited features
  • You can not use any third-party ad network
  • Updates are not very frequent.
4

Medium

Best Blogging Platform

Medium is the most underrated blogging platform. Medium is not available for everyone. You need to buy their monthly plan to read articles. That is one of the main reasons that medium is not that popular among the bigger audience.

The medium was started in 2012 and it is mainly focused on premium audiences who love to read premium articles at a price. You need to pay around $5 -$50 per month based on the number of articles you want to read.

As a premium member, you will get ads-free articles, daily emails containing article links of your choice, a monthly newsletter, etc.

You will also get an audio version of articles if you are having an issue with reading. This is something really a stand-alone feature that helps visually impaired audience enjoy their favorite articles.

As far as monetization is concerned, there is no option of adding AdSense or any other ad network. You can not run any affiliate marketing promotion, neither you can sell any service.

The only way to earn money is by writing good content and getting claps from audiences. You will get paid based on the clap you received and how many times your article was viewed.

Medium pays a portion of readers’ subscription amount to authors so they are motivated to write.

Signing up in medium is very straightforward. You can use your google login to sign up. You won’t get any customized blog page for your medium account. But instead, it will be a profile page.

You can sign up for their publication agency tool which allows you to have a webpage like “https://medium.com/your user name”

It gives a professional look to your medium account. For authors, there is no limit on how many articles they can publish in a month.

At present medium only allows USA writers to earn from Medium as you need to have a social security number to earn from Medium.

You also need to have a stripe account or PayPal account for receiving money. Medium uses its own analytics tools which show monthly visits, claps, and earnings for a paid post.

You can connect your WordPress blog to Medium and publish the same article on WordPress and medium.

Hey, don’t worry.

You don’t get punished for duplicate content. All article published from WordPress to medium has a canonical URL that shows that your WordPress blog is the owner of the article.

If you want to know how to auto-publish your WordPress blogs to medium then you can try the blog2social plugin.

Medium has a great readers database. So you can expect a good amount of traffic to your blog.

Also, I have observed that the article shared on Medium gets ranked quickly. There are instances when my WordPress articles are not ranked, but the same shared in Medium got ranked.

Key Aspects Of Medium.com

Pricing
Absolutely free to use as a writer. If you want to read you need to pay a minimum of $5 to a maximum of $50
Customization
No customization apart from having a publication page that does not look bad at all.
Monetization
You can join the medium partner program to earn money when someone visits your post and give you a clap. No third-party ads or Google Adsense allowed
Branding
No branding option apart from using your logo.
Suitable for
Only if you can write premium articles, sign up for medium. Else stay away from it. Readers do not like poor articles after paying a hefty amount for a subscription.

Medium Positives And Negatives

Positives
  • Very intuitive interface
  • No ad network needed
  • Subscription-based earning
  • Pays more than other networks
Negatives
  • No AdSense
  • No customization or branding option
  • You only need to be in the US or a US citizen to earn from it
5

Tumblr

Best Blogging Platform
Tumblr.com

Tumblr is one of the most popular microblogging platforms primarily targeted toward a younger audience.

Rather than a text-based blog, Tumblr focused on graphics and a media-based blog. Social networking is integrated into Tumblr. So you won’t be having any issues getting more traffic to your blog.

When you register on Tumblr, you will be given a subdomain like “https://yoursite.tumblr.com”. If required you can buy a domain name and connect to a Tumblr blog to give it a professional look.

There are also a lot of customization tools to change the look of your Tumblr blog.

Tumblr allows you to integrate AdSense into your blog. You can also use another ad network if required.

You can share your affiliate links on the Tumblr blog. But please make a note that too much sharing of affiliate links is considered spamming and your account may get banned for that.

Key Aspects Of Tumblr

Pricing
Tumblr is free to use. However, you can buy a custom domain and connect to Tumblr to give it a more professional look.
Customization
Tumblr has a number of free templates which can be used to customize the blog.
Monetization
You can use Google Adsense or any third-party ads for your blog. You can also earn from affiliate marketing.
Branding
Not much option to show off your branding apart from connecting your Tumblr blog to a custom domain.
Suitable for
Beginners to advanced users can use this platform to generate traffic. The best option is to share WordPress posts on Tumblr and get referral traffic.

Tumblr Positives And Negatives

Positives
  • Suitable for microblogging
  • No need to buy a domain or hosting
  • Huge customer base
Negatives
  • Bare basic interface
  • Limited monetization options
6

Ghost

Best Blogging Platform

Ghost is a free and open-source blogging software. You can use ghost software to host your blog using a domain name and hosting.

You can also host your blog on a ghost server saving the cost of your domain name and hosting. The concept is similar to WordPress.org and WordPress.com

Unlike WordPress, Ghost is purely a blogging platform and you can’t create a static website in Ghost. Although Ghost blogs have a thin audience base, it has been growing in recent years.

Ghost offers many important features like AMP ( Accelerated mobile pages), and SEO features out of the box. WordPress still lacks this feature and you have to depend on plugins to enable those features.

You can upload themes and plugins in Ghost much similar to how we do in WordPress. However, the repository has limited plugins.

Ghost encourages having a minimalistic design and that’s the reason ghost blogs load much faster than a traditional WordPress blog.

Key Aspects Of Ghost

Pricing
If you plan to host your blog on the Ghost server, you can do that by paying $10 for the lowest plan and $100 for the highest plan.
Customization
You can customize your blog using a custom theme and plugin just like any other WordPress blog
Monetization
You can use Google Adsense or any other third-party ads on ghost blogs. You can also run affiliate marketing campaigns.
Branding
Just like WordPress, you can change every aspect of your blog and add your branding stuff.
Suitable for
For newbies and casual bloggers as this platform is not that popular yet.

Ghost Positives And Negatives

Positives
  • Very clean and fresh interface
  • AMP support out of the box
  • Theme and plugin support
Negatives
  • Limited options for monetization
  • Bare basic design
7

LinkedIn

Best Blogging Platform
LinkedIn
LinkedIn

Well, many of us might be using LinkedIn for a long time for our professional channel build-up. But we may not be aware of the fact that LinkedIn also serves as a blogging platform.

Due to the huge user database, you can be sure that your blog will rank quickly if posted on LinkedIn.

You can post a blog either on your profile or can also create a business page and post your articles over there.

You can’t do much customization rather than adding your logo and banner. You don’t have any option to connect your LinkedIn profile to a custom domain.

You can share your WordPress post on LinkedIn to get referral traffic. WordPress offers the facility using the Jetpack plugin to share WordPress posts directly to LinkedIn.

If you have more connections, your post with rank very quickly rather than the original post.

Key Aspects Of LinkedIn

Pricing
LinkedIn is free to use. Paid plans are available but from a blogger’s point of view, that is of no use.
Customization
No customization rather than your profile image and banner
Monetization
You cannot earn directly from LinkedIn. You can share affiliate links, sell services, take coaching, or seminars to earn money
Branding
Not many options are available to do branding on LinkedIn.
Suitable For
Not suitable purely for blogging but if your share WordPress posts to LinkedIn, you have a chance to get referral traffic.

LinkedIn Positives And Negatives

Positives
  • Best suited for job-based blog
  • Huge user base
  • Free to use
Negatives
  • No direct option for monetization
  • No branding option
8

Weebly

Best Blogging Platform
Weebly

Weebly is basically an onsite website builder but it has a list of features to create a blog, unlike WordPress, where you have to download the software and use other page builder tools to make a blog.

Weebly offers everything with a drag-and-drop option. The interface is also very intuitive and any casual blogger also can make a blog on Weebly.

Powerful blog SEO tools and analytics are preinstalled in Weebly and you can customize your Weebly blog with a huge number of themes and plugins.

I have hosted a static website with Weebly for the last 10 years and I must say it’s super easy to create a website on Weebly.

However, if you want to take your blog or website to the next level, then options are very limited.

By default when you sign up on Weebly, you will be allotted a free plan. Fortunately, in the free plan, there are no annoying ads except for the Weebly branding in the footer.

Weebly has plans starting from $5 per month for a basic plan and up to $38 per month for an eCommerce plan. In all paid plans they offer a free domain name.

In the paid plan, you can use your own branding, and use Google Adsense to earn money. Even you can use third-party ads and affiliate marketing tools in the paid plan.

Key Aspects Of Weebly

Pricing
Weebly is free to use but to enable monetization you need to buy the premium plan starting from $5 to $38 per month.
Customization
The free plan has enough options, themes, and plugins for customization. However, if you are serious about your Weebly blog, you need to go for a paid plan.
Monetization
In the paid plan you can enable google Adsense and other third-party ad networks
Branding
Except for the free plan, all other plans offer enough options to include your branding in the blog.
Suitable for
It is suitable for both experienced and newbie users if they don’t want the hassle of self-hosted blogs.

Weebly Positives And Negatives

Positives
  • Free to use
  • Can be used for creating online stores
  • Payment gateway available
  • Easy to use
  • Drag and drop website builder
Negatives
  • Almost every other feature is only available in the paid plan
  • Limited option for earning money
9

Wix

Best Blogging Platform

Wix is similar to Weebly in the sense that it is a website builder first and then a blogging platform.

Like Weebly, you can use the drag-and-drop feature to design your blog. You can customize your blog using free themes. There are also numerous free plugins available to enhance functionality.

One of the good things about Wix is that once your blog is live, you can write articles from the front end itself rather than login into the admin dashboard. You don’t need to think about SEO and promotion as Wix takes care of that.

The free plan in Wix comes with a subdomain with Wix ads. The bandwidth and storage are also limited. But if you pay $2 per month for their basic plan, you can connect your own domain.

Key Aspects Of Wix

Pricing
Free to use but to use AdSense, paid plans are required.
Customization
Free themes and plugins are available to customize your blog
Monetization
Only paid plan offers monetization through Google Adsense
Branding
The paid plan offers the option to have your own branding
Suitable for
It is suitable for both experienced and newbie users if they don’t want the hassle of self-hosted blogs.

Wix Positives And Negatives

Positives
  • One of the best website builder
  • One can run google adsense
  • Drag and drop builder
Negatives
  • Plans are costly
  • The free version has limited features
10

SquareSpace

best blogging platform
Squarespace

Squarespace is one of the most popular platforms for hosting a blog. Like Wix and Weebly, it also offers a drag-and-drop function and you can take your blog live within a minute.

Unlike Weebly and Wix, they don’t have a free plan. You need to pay a minimum of $ 12 a month to use their service.

In the basic plan, you will get a free custom domain with unlimited bandwidth and storage. SEO features are also built-in basic plans.

If you move to a higher plan you can even host a full-fledged eCommerce website.

Unfortunately, Squarespace does not have the option to integrate Google Adsense. You will have to insert ad codes in the code snippet section to get Google Adsense to work.

This makes it less popular for a blogger to try the Squarespace platform.

Key Aspects Of Squarespace

Pricing
Squarespace does not have any free plan. You need a minimum of $12 per month to use their platform
Customization
Limited customization option as you can not use any third-party themes or plugins
Monetization
You can not use Google Adsense directly. But you can use code snippets to insert Google AdSense codes
Branding
Squarespace has limited branding options even in the paid plan
Suitable For
Square is suitable for seasonal bloggers and commercial agencies.

Squarespace Positives And Negatives

Positives
  • Very intuitive interface
  • Option to use Google Adsense
  • Unlimited bandwidth in all plans
Negatives
  • Limited customization
  • No free plan

Conclusion: Best Blogging Sites

Well, without a second thought, I would recommend using WordPress software from wordpress.org and self-host the blog.

If you are low on budget and you are a newbie, starting with Blogger can be an option. If you have excellent writing skills and live in the USA, You can try Medium to earn extra bucks.

WordPress, Blogger, and medium need a bit of technical knowledge from your side. If you don’t like to spend that effort you can try Weebly or Wix.

But again I would say a self-hosted blog using WordPress software is the best bet for the long term. So WordPress is my Best Blogging Platform.

FAQ | Best Blogging Platform

Which Is The Best Blogging Platform?

WordPress is the best blogging platform with about 60% market share followed by Blogger.com

How To Choose The Best Blogging Platform?

You should choose the best blogging platform based on different criteria as shown below.

Interface
Customization
Flexibility
Modularity
Availability of themes
Availability of plugins
Monetization options

Rajib
Rajib

Rajib Is The Founder Of RiansTech. A Seasonal Blogger And A Full-Time Product Designer For Over Two Decades. A Technology Freak And Loves To Write About It. RiansTech Is A Online Home For Him Where He Documents His Experiences And Learnings So That Others Can Get Benefited From It.

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