The 7 Best Blogging Platforms for Beginners

Are you rounding up the internet to choose the best blogging platform? Do you aspire to reach your target audience through your writing but are unsure about the platform to use?

Don’t worry! You are at the right place to decide which blogging platform will enable you to fulfill your writing ambitions. Either free or paid, we will give you the best utmost.

In this article, we have compiled a list of the seven best blogging platforms for beginners that will make your journey smooth and enjoyable. Whether you’re looking for a straightforward platform to start your blogging career or want to make some extra income, our list has got you covered.

So, let’s dive in and explore the best blogging platforms for you in 2023!

What is Blogging?

Who doesn’t know about blogging?

In this modern era, everyone is pursuing writing, and guess what? Blogging has become a familiar face for them.

A blogging platform is a content management system (CMS) that makes it easy to create and manage a website specifically for blogging. It’s a software or service that can handle all the technical aspects of running a blog online.

With the help of a blogging platform, users can easily publish blog posts on the internet, manage posts or comments, track analytics, and receive payments for their blogs.

Blog Niche Vs. Types of Blog

We often mix up the things between types of blogs and blog niches. Both two are different. Let’s make it clear.

A niche is the blog’s specific topic — fashion, travel, politics, cooking, pets, etc. 

And the type of blog means that the writings could fall into broad categories, such as  Personal, Professional, Business, Affiliate, and more. 

The type of blog you choose will depend on your target audience and what you’re trying to accomplish. After choosing a topic, it falls into the blog niche category.

Advantages of Using Blogging Platforms

Blogging platforms have revolutionized the way people write and share content online. 

Check some key advantages of blogging platforms:

Easy to Use

Blogging platforms are designed to be user-friendly and intuitive, making it easy for anyone to create and manage a blog without technical expertise. Everything can be done through this characteristic. From writing and publishing blog posts to managing comments and tracking analytics, blogging covers all.

Customizable

Blog platforms offer a variety of styles and themes that can be changed to fit your personal brand or business persona. This lets you make a blog that stands out and looks unique and professional.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

With built-in SEO functionality, this can improve your search engine ranks, attract visitors to your blog, and make you more visible online.

Monetization

Blogging platforms provide multiple opportunities for monetization, including advertising, affiliate marketing, and sponsored content. This makes it easy for bloggers to turn their passion into a source of income.

Analytics and Insights

Many blogging platforms include built-in analytics tools or offer integrations with popular analytics services. These tools provide valuable data on your blog’s performance, such as visitor statistics, traffic sources, popular content, and user behavior. 

Analyzing this data can help you understand your audience better and optimize your blog strategy.

Support and Updates

Most blogging platforms have ways for users to get help, like knowledge bases, boards, and email support, to solve problems and find answers to their questions. 

These platforms often release regular updates and security patches to ensure your blog’s stability, security, and performance.

Best Blogging Platforms at a Glance!

Short in time? Hover over our quick comparison table to make your choice in a minute.

1. WordPress.com

WordPress, powering over one-third of websites worldwide and has become a legendary platform not only for blogging but also for various types of web management works. It offers users a customizable experience through the addition of plugins and extra facilities. 

But here to clarify that, WordPress is separated into two variants:

• WordPress.org
• WordPress.com

When starting a blogging career, beginners can sometimes be confused about which option to choose: WordPress.org or WordPress.com. To clarify, let’s check the comparison –

As WordPress.org choose millions of customer with maximum facilities. That’s why we go for WordPress.org.

WordPress.org is a free platform, but users must pay for their web hosting and domain name. While using WordPress, you have endless possibilities and the amount of work you put into building your website will directly affect the quality of the results.

However, WordPress is an open-source CMS platform; anyone can create their themes or plugins and make them available for others to install on their site. As a result, nearly 60,000 free plugins are available in the WordPress plugin library, and countless more paid ones to choose from. Lots of free and premium blog WordPress theme also available in the marketplace.

This wide amount of choices enables users to modify their site to reflect their unique requirements and interests, making WordPress a very adaptable platform.

Pros of WordPress

• Easy for new users to install and set up.
• Quick and cheap to get started.
• A huge collection of free themes and plugins
• Offers lots of options for customization.
• Managed WordPress cloud hosting providers 
• Full control over your blog.

Cons of WordPress

• Beginners have to face a bit of a learning curve.
• Blogging requires a budget for a domain name and web host
• No customer support included
• Managing security and backups is your responsibility

2. Blogger

Blogger is a free blogging platform from Google that enables users to create and publish blogs quickly and effortlessly. Its intuitive and user-friendly interface enables even beginners to create and customize their blogs without requiring any technical expertise.

Users can choose from various templates, personalize their blogs with unique designs, and monetize their content through ads. Although it is primarily designed for personal blogging, Blogger is also suitable for business blogging and content marketing.

Pros of Blogger

• Google account-integrated
• A huge collection of professional designs and layouts
• Simple analytics and monetization
• Focuses on your writing and personal story
• Simple setup and usage for non-technical people

Cons of Blogger

• Limited backend control
• Cannot run anything but AdSense ads
• You can’t add enhanced functionalities
• Changing the theme can make lose your content also.
• No blog control after publication.

3. Tumblr

Tumblr is a microblogging platform that combines elements of a blogger and a social media platform. This unique blend sets Tumblr apart from other platforms. Users can post multimedia content with Tumblr, including short blogs, images, videos, and more. Additionally, you can customize your blogs with themes and features also.

Aside from publishing content, you can explore the platform’s social networking features, such as social sharing and reblogging tools, to connect with your audience and grow your readership.

In summary, Tumblr is an interesting hybrid blogging platform and a social network that allows users to express themselves in a magical way that they cannot find on other sites. 

Pros of Tumblr

• The easiest free blogging platform in existence.
• Many content monetization alternatives.
• Stable and secure hosting.
• Reblogging lets you curate instead of create.
• Tumblr makes microblogging videos, GIFs, pictures, and music simple.

Cons of Tumblr

• No ownership rights
• Restrictions in features and flexibility
• Tumblr backups and imports are tricky. 
• No option for ad monetization, eCommerce, or full website creation

4. Medium

Medium is a well-known platform where individuals can freely share their stories, ideas, and knowledge. The platform’s attractively formatted posts attract and engage readers, exposing your content to a wider audience.

Writing on Medium means spreading your writing thoughts to their 60 million users. However, Medium has some caveats. Firstly, you do not have complete control of your content after publishing, as it goes to fully belongs to Medium. Secondly, there is much competition for reaching your content to your targeted audiences.

Overall, Medium does better than any other free platform. Your Medium articles can also add value to your writing portfolio, enhance your writing skills, and even increase your chances of having a good job.

Pros of Medium

• Quick and easy setup, no technical or design skills required
• Test content before building your blog
• Reach a wider audience and build a following
• Paid subscription option for revenue
• Reporting tool to understand reader engagement

Cons of Medium

• Limited control over your content.
• Limited design/building options for branding
• No own monetization/ad campaigns

5. Wix

Wix was founded in 2006; since then, it has served over 200 million users worldwide. Generally, Wix is a free website builder tool that comes with blogging capabilities. It’s the best, quickest solution for those wanting to get any kind of website and blog up simultaneously. Wix introduced their AI-based service Wix ADI in 2016. So you can get AI website building experience with it.

However, Wix is a free blogging platform that provides access to basic functionality, allowing you to design a website and publish content. You can either choose from pre-made themes or templates from their resources or customize an existing one to suit your preferences.

In short, Wix is a great option for creating and managing your blog. Its customizable design and AI tools make it even easier to get started, even for beginners. If you want to start a website with a blog, Wix can be an excellent choice.

Pros of Wix

• Pro-quality designs and templates library included.
• Comes with built-in social media, SEO, analytics, and marketing tools.
• Allows digital product sales, payments, and affiliate marketing programs.
• 300+ third-party apps & 900+ templates with premade content blocks for a quick blog launch.

Cons of Wix

• Your website will display Wix-branded ads unless you upgrade to a paid version.
• Lower-tier storage limitations.
• Free third-party apps are limited.
• Once you choose a template you cannot change it.
• Limited ecommerce features on paid plans

6. Squarespace

Squarespace, founded in 2003, powers millions of websites currently online. With its impressive features and stylish templates, people are started to love it much. And rapidly, it’s become an excellent choice for small businesses, enabling them to create a professional-looking website without much hassle.

Furthermore, Squarespace boasts a fully comprehensive blog post editing tool with over 45 modules, including custom code, picture galleries, accordion, scheduling, newsletter opt-ins, charts, and social media connections. Bloggers can connect with social accounts and personalize their content with these.

Overall, Squarespace offers much flexibility to create a professional website, blog, online store, or portfolio that stands out in the crowd.

Pros of Squarespace

• Innovative website designs
• Offers access to marketing and SEO tools
• Dozens of free templates 
• Unlimited storage and bandwidth
• Native video creator tool
• Offers domain name with SSL/HTTPs and eCommerce stores
• No transaction fee for eCommerce

Cons of Squarespace

• Restricted templates compared to WordPress.org
• Only official Squarespace themes available
• Limited marketing tools
• No third-party apps or extensions allowed
• Relatively expensive

7. Weebly

Last on our list, Weebly is primarily a website builder offering blogging capabilities. A wide selection of professional themes and templates enables users to easily create excellent websites without requiring coding skills. 

In addition, Weebly offers a user-friendly interface and reliable hosting services, making it a top choice for personal and business websites. Alongside improving website building, Weebly now focuses on a built-in integration with Square to take payments and work as an eCommerce platform to rival Shopify. –

Overall, Weebly is similar to WordPress and can be easily accessible with blogging features that help users to create impressive content.

Pros of Weebly

• User-friendly setup and use
• Free-forever plan with robust physical product e-commerce support
• Secure payment portal and solid eCommerce platform
• Paid subscriptions include unlimited pages, bandwidth, and storage.
• Built-in Square payment processing for free online selling

Cons of Weebly

• The free plan is fairly limited
• Constrained SEO capabilities
• Exporting Weebly to another platform is challenging
• Limited third-party platform integration
• Support restricted in low-tier plans

Choosing the Best Blogging Platform – What to Look For?

Now that you have all the options, choosing the best one requires meeting certain minimum criteria. To help you in your decision-making process, we’ve included a few key points to consider when choosing the best option for your needs.

While this guide is designed for beginners, we’ve considered two primary users when putting together these points. Here they are:

For Normal User 

This bunch decorated for individuals who are eagerly waiting to start for journey with no hassle.

Ease of use

As a beginner, it’s pretty sure that you don’t have much technical expertise. That’s why it’s important to focus on platforms that are easy to learn and use. Look for a platform that allows you to create and manage your blog without getting bogged down in technical details.

Facilities

Having more facilities means having more opportunities to explore. As your blog grows and expands, you’ll need to change your website’s appearance and incorporate advanced features to cater to your expanding audience. Selecting a blogging platform that provides a diverse range of features is crucial in helping you achieve your objectives. 

Affordability

It’s important to find a product that is budget-friendly to you as a beginner. Our list includes a few free options as well, so you can choose a product that fits your financial needs. Whatever you are, make sure that your expense makes a money. 

For Business User 

And this bunch is for business profiles who are different from individuals. They exist in the market to sell their products and make money. For business users, the following considerations are important:

Monetization

While monetizing a blog may be challenging due to the lack of dedicated monetization-friendly products but there are lots of potential ways to earn money from your blog, such as:

• Offering a subscription to access your content
• Promoting products via affiliate marketing
• Selling online courses
• Selling ad space

However, not all of these methods may be compatible with every blogging platform. If you have a clear monetization strategy in mind, it’s important to choose a platform that aligns with your goals.

Customization

Who doesn’t love to play with more opportunities and functionalities?

But there is word that Free things come with a limited options. Consider your business a high possibility with a premium purchase.

Cost

It’s obvious that some free blogging platforms may not be suitable for business needs, but there are plenty of premium options available in the market.

When choosing a blogging platform, look for one that bundles all the necessary services and functions into a single fee, or offers affordable extras. This will help you select an affordable platform from day one, with the option to scale up or add more features down the line.

Best Blogging Platform? (The Verdict)

Here we are at the bottom. To finalize the result, our best three picks will make you out of decision complexity. 

First on the list is WordPress, which provides unparalleled control over your blog and website.

In second place is Wix, with its impressive design options, versatile tools, and customization features – which remains just a few step behind WordPress.

Lastly, Medium compiles the best for beginner level with vast sector of niche. You can choose and reach your targeted audience with your best writing skills.

We hope this article has helped you to choose a piece of cake. If so, please ensure you are in touch with our blogs. And let us know which you have been picked. Like, Share, and comment your thoughts. We will love to see you!