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What is Free Blog Platforms?

Blog software is a type of service or platform that enables you to create your blog and publish your content on the internet. Typically, a blogging platform is a CMS (Content Management System) that helps you to easily manage your published content and update it regularly. Popular blogging platforms include WordPress, Blogger, and TypePad.Show more You can try out free blog software programs that offer basic features while advanced solutions ask for a fee. Some software providers will host your blog for free, while others need you to host your blog via a third-party hosting service for which you need to shell out payment. Check out this category to learn about top accounting software solutions that offer the most useful features, starting with HubSpot which is rated the best in the category.Show less

How was this ranking made?

In order to prepare this list of best Free Blog Platforms we have analyzed different apps currently available on the market, studying their features, how easy are they are to learn, client support, available integrations and mobile support with our exclusive SmartScoreTM rating system. This ranking has been developed by Louie Andre, our SaaS expert responsible for the Free Blog Platforms category.

List of Top 12 Free Blog Platforms

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1. HubSpot

Our score: 9.0 User satisfaction: 99%

HubSpot is an award-winning software platform that offers marketing, sales, and CRM tools to help you grow your company by forging more authentic relationships with your customers. As an all-in-one marketing platform, it also serves as an efficient content management software.

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2. Strikingly

Our score: 9.0 User satisfaction: 96%

Strikingly is an online platform that enables people with zero coding skills to create beautiful websites and launch it on the go.

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3. Wix

Our score: 9.8 User satisfaction: 100%

Wix is one of world's leading online website builders that offers robust modules for marketing, ecommerce, and customer support and many more. Starting out as a basic, easy-to-use website builder, Wix expanded to become a total business solution for digital touchpoints.

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4. Blogger

Our score: 9.7 User satisfaction: 95%

Blogger is an intuitive blog-publishing service equipped with extensive features for website creation and maintenance. It provides users with a blog editor, template library, reading permissions, geotagging, and image handling options in a simple drag-and-drop interface.

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5. Medium

Our score: 9.6 User satisfaction: 99%

Medium is a popular blogging and sharing platform where people can publish their stories and insights. It comes with a user-friendly editor, intuitive change tracker, basic SEO tools, as well as article monetization options to help users set up their blog for success.

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6. WordPress

Our score: 9.2 User satisfaction: 96%

WordPress is a leading open-source content management and blogging system with an interface that doesn't require HTML or FTP knowledge. It is a content management app that started as a simple blogging tool but moved fast towards providing fully functional CMS options through plugins, widgets, and themes.

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7. Weebly

Our score: 9.5 User satisfaction: 94%

Weebly is an online website builder tool that lets users create websites, ecommerce stores, and launch marketing campaigns from the same platform. It has a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface that allows users to develop unique websites and online stores. Weebly is also available for mobile devices, enabling users to create and publish web pages on the go.

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8. Zoho Sites

Our score: 9.2 User satisfaction: 94%

A free and simplified drag-and-drop website creator with robust features that doesn't require coding knowledge and complex installations. Zoho Sites is part of Zoho’s well-known productivity suite. It is a simplified and free website builder that allows businesses and individuals to make professional and detailed websites in literally a few minutes.

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9. GoDaddy Website Builder

Our score: 9.2 User satisfaction: 93%

An intuitive website builder with eCommerce and digital marketing capabilities for boosting your online presence. GoDaddy Website Builder also offers a freemium plan that you can scale to more advanced and paid features.

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10. Drupal

Our score: 9.1 User satisfaction: 97%

Drupal is an open-source CMS and web development platform. With the many features and functionalities of Drupal, amazing things can be created. Furthermore, it is an application development framework that compels the developers to use a common, structured approach that leads to a modular, interoperable code with a common interface.

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11. SimpleSite

Our score: 9.0 User satisfaction: 100%

SimpleSite is a user-friendly and customizable blog hosting platform.

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12. SITE123

Our score: 9.0 User satisfaction: 100%

SITE123 is a free website builder that offers useful tools for private as well as corporate internet users. The tool specializes in helping users with no coding or design experience to set up their own online presence in the easiest and fastest way. Thus, creating a website using SITE123 is as easy as 1-2-3.

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Similar Categories:

In the event you didn't find just the solution you were looking for here's a list of various categories similar to Free Blog Platforms that you might want to browse through:

Free Blog Platforms Guide

Table of contents

Blog platforms allow users to build and maintain online content. Today, there are many free blog platforms out there that can fit the needs of small businesses, freelancers, subject matter experts, influencers, artists, and amateur writers. Each platform, however, offers different features, hence impacting the kinds of benefits, advantages, and disadvantages that you will get vis-a-vis other solutions. And it could be pretty hard to choose the free blog platform for you if you are new to this kind of software. To help you with this, our experts have prepared this guide on what blog platforms free of charge include such as their features, and also important considerations when choosing the best free blog platform for you.          

Get to know each product with free trial

The best way to make well-informed comparisons is to actually try the software solutions themselves. In this way, you will have a first-hand experience with their features and interface and see which of them fits your needs. And since you are looking for a free blog tool, you can easily sign up for free and have a go. But, if you don’t know where to start, we recommend five of the best free blog platforms for you to try first: monday.com, HubSpot, Go Daddy Website Builder, Strikingly, and Wix. These are just some of the best blog platform free offerings available today. But, they have ranked the highest in terms of usability and comprehensiveness of features.

 

Targeted Businesses

  • Amateur and hobby bloggers can use a basic free blog software tool to share their work with a wider audience. 
  • Authors and academic professionals can use a blog platform free tool to help promote their scientific and creative works to other researchers or the wider reading community.
  • Small businesses and  individual professionals can take advantage of free blog tools to promote products, marketing efforts, events, talks, and the like. With these, they can engage their audience better, especially with rich content. 

Examples of Free Blog Platforms

  • monday.com. This is one of the best software tools out there today and it is a popular blog platform solution for content planning and management. It has a content planning template that allows you to plan your posts and streamline your publishing pipeline.
  • HubSpot. The popular marketing and CRM software provider also has an easy-to-use blog software free platform on offer. It provides free hosting and has a visual editing feature to allow for rich content, along with simple text. It provides an interactive experience and it is even used by popular brands such as WWF and Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast.
  • GoDaddy Website Builder. GoDaddy, a leading online presence solution, provides a free website-building platform with free blog tools. And it also provides free hosting.  It has a branded content creator, offers professionally designed templates, and even some limited social and email marketing features.
  • Strikingly. This popular website builder offers a free plan that allows people with zero coding skills to create stunning websites and blogs. It hosts the free blog on its domain, offers 5 GB monthly bandwidth, and supports unlimited free websites.
  • WixThis is one of the most popular digital presence solutions available in the world today. In fact, many consider it one of the top products in their best free blog platform 2020 list. And along with its premium offerings, it arguably provides the easiest blog platform free tool to use. Its free offering supports unlimited pages, secure hosting, and 500MB storage.

Types of Blog Platforms

Free blog platforms come in different kinds. They are not only limited to content publishing platforms but also include content planning solutions. We can categorize them into five types:

  • Content Management Systems. These are a group of solutions and tools that helps users specifically create, publish, and manage online content such as blogs.
  • Website Builders. These tools allow users to create websites. Typically, however, they don’t specialize in content management for blogging. They are used to create main websites and landing pages.
  • Cloud-Based Blog Platforms. These are specialized tools designed specifically for blog creation and maintenance. However, they can be quite limited for such purposes on their own.
  • Content Planning Solutions. These tools help bloggers plan their content and publishing pipelines. But, they don’t specifically provide a content or blog management platform. However, they can be indispensable for creating workflows.
  • Packaged Content/Blogging Module. These tools come with other solutions such as marketing software solutions. They are usually offered free or free with paid or unpaid subscription plans.

Key Features of Blog Software

  • View and manage posts. This allows users to view and manage posts in terms of their order and relevance. This also allows them to review content for updates. 
  • WYSIWYG editor. A what-you-see-is-what-you-get editor allows you to create and edit blog posts using drag-and-drop tools that allow the incorporation of rich content. With this feature, you can trust that what you see on the page that you are editing will be what you get once you publish it.
  • Admin controls. These tools allow admins to view their blogs and even manage other users and guest posts. It provides them with role-based controls so that they can give the right degree of access to the right person.
  • Commenting system. This is a reader-facing solution that can help increase engagement. This allows readers to post comments offering suggestions, constructive criticisms, and even enriching your points. Also, like on social media sites, this allows you to post replies and engage them as well. In this way, you can better make rapport.
  • Sharing and distribution. This set of tools allows you to syndicate your blog posts via other platforms such as cross-posting on your social media or website. With this, you will have a chance to expand your reach and attract new readers and engagement opportunities.
  • Performance tracking. Usually, free blog solutions offer limited features for analytics and SEO. These allow you to track your blog’s performance, the topics of interest of your readers, and the rank of your blog site. With these, you can better optimize your content, schedule, and engagement efforts.

Benefits of Blog Software

  • Enhanced web traffic and SEO. For small businesses, freelancers, and academics, regular blogging can increase web traffic and promote content. Usually, blog platforms have performance-tracking tools to help users find better ways to optimize their content and back-end setup to improve search engine results.
  • Cost-effective web presence. Having a free blog site is a cost-effective way to get your brand, creative work, opinions, and research across. Maintaining a website can be costly, from hosting and other fees. When done right, blogs do really work well, especially when you provide interesting content regularly for your niche.
  • Attract potential customers. Providing value allows your customers to associate your brand with being useful. And blogging is a way to provide useful content. As such, it has been a staple tool for influencers, small businesses, academics, and creative people to generate readers and, hopefully, loyal readers or paying customers.
  • Make connections. Blogging communities can be very active and supportive. If you continue to engage members, you’ll be able to find tips on how to better your content or your search results. You can even exchange guest posts and share your audiences.
  • Develop new solutions and ideas. Once you have reached a good level of engagement, your readers will likely provide comments. suggestions, and constructive criticisms that you can use to improve your content or even the look of your blog site. They may even offer you tips or software that can help you improve your photos or layout.
  • Establish a brand identity. When first starting out on a small business or sharing your creative/research work, blogging can help you create and maintain a brand identity. You can use it to curate content specific to some offering or research that can resonate with your target audience. When done well, blogging can help you improve your reach and authority organically.
  • Video blogging. Written blogs are well-suited to long-form content and, of course, serious academic posts or business opinions and reports. But, as soon as video streaming platforms have become popular, video blogging became trending as well. Hence, you should consider adding videos to your content, even just talking head ones or simple presentations. These will help users visualize your content better and get to know the people behind the blog/company. This can help you build better rapport as well. 
  • Use of creative features. Short-form content is gaining ground and visualizations help users drive their points across. So, top bloggers are using rich content such as illustrations, graphics, and images to make their content more appealing. And you can also get them for free from royalty-free depositories. Hence, if you don’t have the time or talent yet to create videos, you can use 2D visuals as an alternative.

Potential Issues

  • Design issues. Let’s face it, those who are looking for free blogging solutions won’t have the time to invest in learning and creating advanced designs. Design is actually an art and the best designers know how to direct the gaze of their audiences; and, of course, make everything easily navigable. So, if you don’t have the time to take a course, you can get some ideas from top blogs on their layouts and functionalities. Also, most WYSIWYG editors also have templates created by professionals that you can use. With these, you can improve your rankings and increase the dwell time on your posts.   
  • Technical issues. Yes, there are many technical things to consider when starting a blog, especially when it comes to SEO, security, functionality, and cosmetics. These include dealing with web hosting, plug-ins, CSS, HTML, and others. Of course, you may not need this at the start. However, if you want to improve the reader experience on your blog, you can do well with these tools. It is fortunate, however, that there are many helpful resources available online. So, it is up to you to read up on the latest trends and slowly build some technical skills and know-how.

Payment Schemes

There are different types of free blog platforms available when it comes to deployment. They are:

Free. These are totally free solutions that allow users to manage an online blog touch point. However, they are usually hosted on a premium server. As such, they have watermarks and default branding. This may not be the best option for businesses but if you are trying to engage a niche community, then this type of platform will help you reach them.

Bundled. Many marketing-related cloud-based software solutions offer free bundled website builders or blog management tools. Some of these come with a payment plan but others are offered totally for free together with a free version of marketing tools as well. With these extra tools, they come highly recommended for small businesses that are looking to get some ROI from their blogging.

Moreover, it is typical for free blogging software providers to have upgrade options as well.  They usually come in monthly or annual payment schemes. These premium solutions contain more advanced features and even hosting. With them, you can have a fully-branded blog site and custom hosting.

The Bottom Line

Blogging success is not really easy to achieve. You have to have the right content, publish at the right time, have good layouts, incorporate rich content, and have some technical skills for back-end development. Also, there are different key performance metrics that you should be aware of. These include SEO, readability, engagement, and even ROI if you are doing this for business. Hence, it is really not an easy task. Success today is more achievable when you supplement your gut feeling with a data-driven approach. Moreover, motivation to keep going can be an issue as well, especially when you wear different hats at once.

Fortunately, there are many resources available today, even motivational resources from other bloggers. So, it falls on you to be active and find such resources to improve not only your presentation but also your writing and content creation. Of course, it would really help if you have the right free blog platforms at your disposal. And we recommend at least two—one for content planning and management and another for the blog site proper.

These tools will allow you to systematize your workflow, create a schedule, and manage how your blog is presented. Of course, you have to keep in mind that blogging is also a social activity. Hence, you should really spend some time engaging your readers and getting tips and help from other bloggers. In this way, you can grow your blog organically and with the support of several communities. There are communities for design, others for writing, some for specific subject matters, and others for promotion. So, get yourself out there and start your blogging journey by trying out various free blog platforms to help you with your venture.

List of Free Blog Platforms Companies

Order by:

Newest
  • Newest
  • Score
  • User Score
Product name:
Category:
Smart Score:
Price:
User Satisf.
User reviews:
Heyo reviews

Heyo

Free Blog Platforms
8.0
By quote
93%
Wix reviews

Wix

Free Blog Platforms
9.8
free
100%
Mozello reviews

Mozello

Free Blog Platforms
8.7
$7
100%
BuddyPress reviews

BuddyPress

Free Blog Platforms
8.9
free
100%
WebStarts reviews

WebStarts

Free Blog Platforms
9.1
$4.89
100%
SimpleSite reviews

SimpleSite

Free Blog Platforms
9.0
$13.95
100%
Medium reviews

Medium

Free Blog Platforms
9.6
$5
99%
Blogger reviews

Blogger

Free Blog Platforms
9.7
by quote
95%
LiveJournal reviews

LiveJournal

Free Blog Platforms
9.2
$5
93%
Tumblr reviews

Tumblr

Free Blog Platforms
9.3
free
96%
Yola reviews

Yola

Free Blog Platforms
9.2
$4.16
94%
SITE123 reviews

SITE123

Free Blog Platforms
9.0
$9.80
100%
Weebly reviews

Weebly

Free Blog Platforms
9.5
$8
94%
GoDaddy Website Builder reviews

GoDaddy Website Builder

Free Blog Platforms
9.2
$9.99
93%
Strikingly reviews

Strikingly

Free Blog Platforms
9.0
$20
96%

Things to consider when you invest in a SaaS

Pricing details are an important consideration when you evaluate SaaS providers. Ask the provider if they offer price safeguards and contractual flexibility. “Shelfware” has become a major issue in SaaS licensing as customers end up shelling out for more than they require. Plus, to get pricing predictability, buyers are forced to subscribe to long-term contracts. Make sure you don’t get saddled with perpetual licensing and get locked in for a long time with a single provider. Ask about easy exit policies that enable you to migrate to another provider if you are not satisfied with the services offered by the current one. Select a vendor that offers a convenient standard annual termination facility as well as long-term cost protection.

Another crucial factor to consider is whether the cloud provider meets compliance and security requirements. Your company is answerable to employees, clients, business partners, and regulators. Therefore, you should pick a provider that has adopted a technically sound and comprehensive security system. Map your security control needs such as availability, integrity, confidentiality, privacy, and accountability to the vendor’s capabilities. Ask the potential provider about the practices and systems they use to protect your private data. Do they meet general as well as industry-specific compliance and security standards? Do they provide special measures to meet the unique security requirements of your specific industry? Get satisfactory answers to these queries before you make the investment.

Frequently asked questions about Free Blog Platforms

What is the best free blog platform?

The best free blog software solution is monday.com. It offers users robust content planning and pipeline management tools. With these, users will be able to visualize these processes and efficiently streamline their workflows. The software is also very easy to use and it provides a workflow template for content management that can handle simple to complex operations. Furthermore, users will be able to make this their very own blog management platform as it is very customizable. They can add columns with different functionalities. Also, the free plan includes one collaborator slot that they can make available for guest posters.

What are the benefits of free blog platforms?

These free software solutions help users manage their blog touchpoints in terms of content, layout, and visuals. As such, they help them provide useful content to their target audiences. Done properly, users may earn these general benefits.  

  • Improve your SEO. It can help users optimize their backend and content to help search engines find them quickly. 
  • Manage your content. Typically, these software solutions allow users to create, manage, and update blog content with ease via editing tools. With these, they can write, create layouts, and publish content.  
  • Promote your site. Many of the best free blog platform solutions software platforms allow users to promote their blogs on other channels such as social sites. 
  • Engage your community. These platforms usually offer engagement tools with commenting being the bare minimum. With these users can engage their readers and even other bloggers. Also, you can put other contact details on your blogs so you can connect with them using other channels such as social media or email.  
  • Monetize your site. You can monetize your blog site using different means such as ad placements and affiliate programs.   
  • Manage contributors. As you make connections, you are likely to find other people willing to provide you with good content. This doesn’t only allow you to fill some content gaps but also reach other audiences.  
What are the features of free blog platforms?

There are different kinds of free blog platforms. There are those that are blog specific while others are robust content planning tools. Others are also website builders that are better used for webpage layout than for blogging. Hence, the feature varies from one solution to another. And it isn’t really a problem because you can use multiple ones such as a content planning tool and a blog site proper. However, there are common features that you should be looking for.

  • Visual and Text Editors. These allow you to lay out content on your blog page. These can range from words and media to code. With these, you can customize your posts.  
  • SEO Tools. These help you improve your search engine ranking. With these, you can leverage meta descriptions, tags, and other techniques to improve discoverability. 
  • Social Media Integrations. These allow your readers to share and promote your work on other channels such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.  
  • Community Controls. These tools allow you to engage your readers and have lively discussions with them right on the platform itself. 
  • Content Planning. These are usually workflow-based tools used to streamline your content calendar and pipeline.
What is the easiest free blog software to use?

The easiest free blog platform to use is monday.com. It is basically a content planning tool that allows you to manage and streamline your workflows — from ideation and writing to publishing and engagement. It might not be a blogging site per se but it provides a great way to systematize the rollout of content. And it is really easy to use and very customizable. You have columns for statuses, file uploads, commenting, and prioritization. You can also add more to fit your personal workflow. With its help, you will have a visual understanding of the status of your production and keep up with your set requirements. Lastly, you can also use it for other blog management needs like creating a learning plan for the technical side of blog maintenance, advanced design, and SEO.

Louie Andre

By Louie Andre

B2B & SaaS market analyst and senior writer for FinancesOnline. He is most interested in project management solutions, believing all businesses are a work in progress. From pitch deck to exit strategy, he is no stranger to project business hiccups and essentials. He has been involved in a few internet startups including a digital route planner for a triple A affiliate. His advice to vendors and users alike? "Think of benefits, not features."

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FinancesOnline is available for free for all business professionals interested in an efficient way to find top-notch SaaS solutions. We are able to keep our service free of charge thanks to cooperation with some of the vendors, who are willing to pay us for traffic and sales opportunities provided by our website. Please note, that FinancesOnline lists all vendors, we’re not limited only to the ones that pay us, and all software providers have an equal opportunity to get featured in our rankings and comparisons, win awards, gather user reviews, all in our effort to give you reliable advice that will enable you to make well-informed purchase decisions.

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