Finally decided to go online and mark your presence!!! But are you in a fix on deciding which platform to use for blogging? Here this article is all about clearing your doubts and guiding you accordingly.
The first question.. What is a blog and what is it for? A blog is just a conversational and informal type of webpage, regularly updated by an individual and the posts are displayed in reverse chronological order.
Blog can be about anything, cooking, sports activities, love stories, daily experiences etc. The page you are reading is in fact a blog!!! Blogging indeed a great way to interact with the world at a personal level.
The blogging is not adding flashy images or posting some viral videos or content. It is all about writing and experience (knowledge) sharing. If you are a novice, than you have to find a perfect blogging platform first.
You want to go for free ones or paid ones? How you want to extend your blog in future? There are some questions still popping in your mind. Let’s go deeper
Parameters to decide a blogging platform
- Investments: As a beginner you will try to take up a free platform. But if you can afford, I will suggest you to go for self hosted ones. These will cost few bucks but you will get ample space to extend your blog and even customize it according to your needs.
- Ease of use: Not all are born coders or an IT expert. For a normal person, lesser is the technical interaction of the platform more they prefer. As an individual, even I will prefer a platform which requires less technical knowledge but a drag and drop type.
- Extensions: It may happen; somewhere in future you want to extend your blog? Going for a complex platform will prohibit you from expanding. Choose a platform which is flexible and has room for expansion.
- Monetary gains: Definitely you want some earning from your blog. Some free platforms do not allow promoting ads. But the paid ones have options to have full control over the blog. You can do whatever you want to do.
- Support: This is the main part. You don’t want to keep spending your hard earned money to developers for any single change your want. The more customer support, in-app support, or web discussion forums available for the platform, the easier it becomes to use that platform.
Top Blogging Platforms in 2023
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WordPress.org
It is the most popular, robust, easy and vibrant blogging platform internet has ever found. More than 27% of the total websites on internet are powered by WordPress.org.
It’s a free open source software. The software downloaded does not have any hosting plan with it. You need to buy the web space for hosting your website as well as you need to buy domain name also.
Some features:
- The themes available are highly responsive.
- Thousands of themes and plugins are available either free or Paid.
- In the beginning you may find it a little difficult but later on it is very easy to manage.
- It supports all types of blogs. It is indeed best for professional bloggers.
- Many discussion forums are available to help you out.
- Great, if you want to make money from your blog.
Due to availability of plugins, you can customize your blog to almost anything. A one stop solution for your blog.
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WordPress.com
It is indeed a sister of WordPress.org. It is completely hosted. You don’t need to download any software and buy any additional web space. WordPress.com does everything for you. Just signup for an account at WordPress.com, choose a theme from a list of available theme and start your blog immediately.
Some features:
- It is free for basic blogging. Best for novices, who want to have a look n feel of blogging.
- Sharing, commenting, polling all are included.
- Third party plugin install is not allowed
- Only WordPress ads can feature. You need to pay few annual fees so as to include your own ads and remove their logo and their ads.
- Best for people with zero investment plans.
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Blogger
It is a blogging platform by Google. It is indeed very easy to use and manage. Just an account creation and that it!! It has a very simple and clean layout. No plugins and no extensions.
Features:
- It is best suited for hobby bloggers.
- The main advantage is that it is powered by Google.
- Nearly no design options available.
- Very less features available for customization of blogs.
- Best suited for beginners.
- No hosting space required. It is free.
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Joomla
Another very powerful and robust Content Management System. Due to its flexibility, you can build any kind of website or blog. Just like wordPress.org, it is open source software which needs to be self hosted. You have to buy your own domain name and space to host your website.
Features:
- Powered by thousands of templates and extensions but less than WordPress.
- Easily customizable according to needs.
- It is quite expensive to use.
- Customer support options are very limited due to fewer forums.
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Squarespace
It is one of the easiest software used not only for blog creation but also for business and ecommerce site also. Its interface is very simple and has many beautiful and trendy templates. It is just drag and drop type. It has plugin and extension support too.
Features:
- It is best for art, nature lovers and creative people.
- Good for beginners as it is super easy.
- Good for business people who want a blog alongside.
- It is really very expensive so people often switch to WordPress.
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Tumblr
It is indeed a very easy best blogging platform supporting microblogging such as images, quotes, animated Gifs, audios etc or any short content best suited for social networking platform.
Features:
- Best for hobby bloggers
- Hosts your site for free and offers a subdomain
- Has an inbuilt support for social networking sites.
- Third party themes and plugins are available.
- No additional features available for customization.
- Creating a backup is a difficult task.
Winding up
Although there are number of platforms available online, the one which fits into all categories is WordPress. Not because of a robust and powerful platform which WordPress offers but because of it’s built in SEO support and awesome customer support.
You have the full control over the site. WordPress is unbeatable in terms of affordability, ease of use and future expansion of your website.
But still, choose one which fits in your pocket as well as your requirements. Good Luck and happy Blogging.