6 Best Free Blogging Sites

Intro to best free blogging sites

Among the most famous and long-lived online platforms are those for blogging. From the very beginning, people from all paths of life have found a special space to communicate with others in them. One of the best things is that in this current era, the options at your disposal are huge.

For example, you are not restricted to post only about something popular/commercial, nor to use only words.

The variety is huge, and if it is not clear to you by now, blogging as a business model is very important as well. And again, even to get paid you have so much flexibility nowadays.

Given the salience of blogging, in this article, we will talk about 6 of the most popular free blogging sites. We will mention its options to choose from, major appeals, and more.

WordPress

WordPress is the biggest website builder ever created, around 40% of the web is built on it!

The magic of it is the flexibility you get; you can make your website about anything. And knowing how to code is not necessary!

It has great themes and customization tools to make your website stand out. Plus, you and your visitors will see a nice mobile version.

The free version misses the 50k plugins, advanced SEO, integrations, and others. But you can still register a new domain, connect your email, use the customization tool, etc.

Let me guide you through its theme to illustrate its variety for you. For the free version, there are 4 categories for layouts and 5 distinct features. Also, 5 subjects (e.g., art, blog, business) and 5 main styles.

You can choose from every one of these categories and in total, you got +70 templates. Every template also has several formats to choose from. Plus, there is an open live demo for anyone on the web.

There are reasons why WordPress is where it is right now and above rest a few.

Wix

Wix is one of the first ideas you get thinking of creating a website/blog. It keeps up with its competition and offers great customization, features, and accessibility. You can make a professional-looking page without knowing how to code with ease as well.

Its major appeal is that it has a bigger range of templates and it has a drag-and-drop system for customization. Plus, for those with limited time, there is an AI that makes your website fast after answering a few quick questions.

The free version has 100 templates, unlimited pages, and top-grade hosting. Plus, you can also customize your domain, add categories, hashtags, and schedule posting. Also, its presentation is great for mobiles.

The templates count with many categories. For blogging alone, there are 25 templates. With 8 subcategories: personal, food and travel, news and business, arts, fashion and beauty, sports and wellness, and podcasts.

Its editor is from a next-level kind: advance, precise, and complete. It counts with 5 tools, 9 main sections for elements addition. Plus, there is the option to check the mobile version with one click.

Blogger

As its name suggests, it is only for blogs. It is completely integrated with Google services as it was bought by them in 2003. You get a free domain, flexible templates, stats, and counts with Google AdSense by default.

The interface as you can imagine is very different from those 2 above. It is more simple and not so colorful, those familiar with the open-source world will find many similarities. That is not to say it is bad or not that good, it is simply different.

As for the themes, there are 12 main categories with 49 themes in total, and customization is limited. You can change the background image, fonts, and color for each section. Plus, there is a preview that lets you check the mobile version in one click as well. As for the Layouts, there are 7 sections in which you can select and customize some gadgets.

The post creator is also simple, it counts with basic writing options. Plus, you can add links, multimedia, and special characters. The post that you’re working on is in the cloud and updates constantly. Remarkable is that you can customize the permalink of your posts.

And there is a separate section dedicated only to comments, stats, earnings, and others.

Weebly

It is an advanced website creator, bought by Squarespace in 2018, that competes with Wix in the customization front.

Its free plan counts with 500Mb storage, domain customization, lead capture, and contact forms. Plus, the usual basic SEO optimization, community forums, security, and support standards.

On themes, for blogging alone there are 6 themes. Its editor is very complete with 18 individual elements. 3 of them are premium (audio player, search box, and HD video). There are tons of forms, flashes, also fonts, and theme colors.

Something remarkable is its app center with 56 free apps with different functions to choose from. They count with a rating system, so you’ll know where to focus on. Also, it is remarkable that you can add and create groups, members, and editors in the free plan.

Medium

Medium with its focus on content and +170M readers takes a different approach. It is a type of marketplace for written posts of all kinds of topics and in all styles. The number of topics and subtopics on the platform is overwhelming, so there is space for anyone.

As for customization, it is restricted. There is no theme to choose from. And what you can do is customize the logo, accent, background, layouts, fonts, and color. Its editor is simple but complete, like Blogger’s, there isn’t much one could miss from it.

Remarkably, you count with newsletters, a space for discussion engagement with your followers, as well as stats and mobile app.

Lastly, to make money you have to get in its partner program which is free and pays based on reading time.

Tumblr

Last but not least is Tumblr, one of the biggest names online as its +520M posts can testify. Though the site says to be all about blogging, it is mostly about all types of content about all topics and styles/formats.

Customization is also limited, there is no theme you can choose, nor can you change colors or fonts. What you can do is to post text, photos, audio, videos, links, quotes, etc. Think of Twitter.

After a very brief analysis of the page, there are a few pieces of advice I could give you. First, texts and art are not trending, though the latter gets selected often in the staff pics. Second, most of the written content is based on takes and thoughts, with a tone similar to Twitter’s). Third, unfortunately, the site is not very organized and what gets the attention is not blogging.

But, that is not to say that you could not be a traditional blogger and find your space in there. Certainly, in such a huge platform there will always be niches. Only bear in mind that Tumblr is not aimed at that type of content and that other sites do.

Conclusion of best free blogging sites

To conclude, allow me to mention a few words on each platform we talked about here.

WordPress is huge and has a good number of themes but lacks some customization. Wix stands out for its customization and number of themes.

Blogger is a simpler site appropriate for bloggers that value minimalism and content.

Weebly, in turn, lacks in the number of themes but makes up with higher customization and features. Which makes it compete with Wix.

Medium, is a one-of-a-kind platform, a marketplace for ideas, attractive for all writers. Tumblr offers a different space for content creators, one that looks like a social media site.

Thanks for reading this article, we hope it has been insightful and useful.

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