Best Blogging Platform 2021
So you’re starting a blog! Congratulations on taking the next step in your content creation and thought leadership journey. Some things to consider when choosing a platform is ease of use for you, and discoverability for your audience. Is the platform you choose simple to integrate into your work routine? Is it easily accessible and usable by your audience? Can you create posts that have the aesthetic you desire?
There are so many platforms on the market. Lucky for you, we’ve done the heavy lifting, so you can continue to focus on the content!
Blogging platforms take the grunt work out of your storytelling. They take care of formatting, allow you to easily add images, and provide a means to embed social media into your posts. They offer different designs to suit your brand and allow you to easily add tags and metadata so your audience can find your content.
Looking to make money off of your blog? Several platforms make it easy for you to monetize your content.
Before deciding what blogging platform is right for you, ask yourself a few questions:
- Do I need customization?
- Do I have an audience already or will I be building one?
- Do I want to monetize my blog?
- Who is my audience?
- Is this a B2B blog?
Once you’ve decided what motivates your content, choose from this list of the best blogging platforms.
What’s on This Page
Top Blogging Platforms
WordPress
WordPress is a trusted name in blogging, and according to their website, 40% of the web is built on this platform. You can launch a blog for free with WordPress, but expect to pay for extra features. The free plan displays ads on your blog and the WordPress logo. To remove the logo and ads, you’ll have to upgrade. Paid plans start at $4 and go to $45 per month.
This platform isn’t for beginners, it’s for the more tech savvy, advanced blogger. The platform offers hundreds of themes, fonts and customization options – making your blog feel unique. WordPress is scalable and has plugins and widgets for almost every blogging need, giving you full control of your content. The only downside is that you’ll have to dedicate time to learning how to use all the features, and if it’s your first time building a site, this might not be the easiest platform to start with.
Features:
- Advanced analytics – Learn about your audience and what they like
- Mobile optimization – ensures your blog adapts for the best viewing experience on any device
- Domain registration and hosting – Register your own domain and manage from one place
- Expert support team
Price:
- Free – $0 – contains ads on blogs
- Personal – $4/month – removes ads, monetize your blog
- Premium – $8/month – customization tools, analytics, social
- Business – $25/month – Remove wordpress.com branding, access to business tools
- eCommerce – $45/month – create an online store
Overall Ratings:
StackCompare.com
4.4 (Aggregate Score)
Capterra.com
4.6 (10000 user reviews)
G2.com
4.3 (7925 user reviews)
Medium
Medium is one of the best blogging platforms for building an audience. It was created by co-founder of Twitter, Evan Williams and has more than 60 million monthly active users.
Williams has said, “Facebook is great for connecting with people […] Twitter is the real-time newswire. YouTube is the place for video […] Medium will be the first and best network for reading and writing words of substance.”
The platform is a community for writers, readers, creatives and life learners – and good stories can gain exposure quickly on Medium. If you’re a thought leader, journalist, or someone with an opinion, this is the platform for you. As a writer you can take advantage of the audience already on Medium and carve out a group of dedicated fans for your content.
It’s easy to use and free! As you type your post into the platform, you can see what it will look like when it’s published. If you already have your own website where you publish content, you can also easily import your work onto Medium.
Medium’s Partner Program lets you get paid for your posts! If you’re part of this program, you earn money depending on your total article read time. The more readers read of your posts, the more you earn. The platform distributes a part of each member’s subscription fee to the writers they read the most.
Features:
- Easy to use
- Import content
- Build audience
- Monetize
- No web design required
Price:
- Free
Overall Ratings:
StackCompare.com
4.6 (Aggregate Score)
Capterra.com
Not Available
G2.com
Not Available
If your blog is a B2B blog, then LinkedIn is for you! LinkedIn is the social network for professionals and has over half a billion users. What some haven’t realized yet, is that it’s not just a place for your online resume, it’s also a bustling community of industry professionals who are attentive and engaged, making it one of the best places for your business blog. Once you have a LinkedIn profile, it’s easy to publish your first blog. In the exact same way you would post an update to your timeline, you can post a blog, by clicking “write article.” A simple interface will pop up, prompting you to fill in your headline, article and image.
With this platform, you can quickly build your audience by regularly posting, using the right hashtags and engaging with your audience. The more you post, the more connection requests and followers will flock to your page, setting you up as an industry thought leader.
Features:
- Easy to build audience
- Easy to use
Price:
- Free
Overall Ratings:
StackCompare.com
4.0 (Aggregate Score)
Capterra.com
4.5 (863 user reviews)
G2.com
3.9 (174 user reviews)
Blogger
Blogger is one of the original blogging platforms, and it’s also free to use! This is a good place for beginners to start, and the good news is if you have a Google account already, you have a Blogger account. The process is quick and easy for non tech savvy content creators. The platform will provide a blogspot.com domain name and gives the option for a custom domain.
When it comes to design, Blogger offers templates to choose from that you can modify to suit your aesthetic. Since it’s owned by Google, it easily integrates with Google’s other products. Adding Google Analytics will give you valuable information about your audience and help you build your content strategy. Google AdSense will let you display ads that are relevant to your content, so that you can monetize your blog.
While this platform is great for beginners, you are limited to basic tools that you might outgrow as your blog gets more popular. Users have also reported that it’s difficult to transition your content from Blogger to another platform.
Features:
- Easy to use and manage
- No technical skills required
- Backed by Google
- Free blogspot.com domain
Price:
- Free
Overall Ratings:
StackCompare.com
3.0 (Aggregate Score)
Capterra.com
4.0 (1 user reviews)
G2.com
4.1 (63 user reviews)
Product Features
WordPress
Free – $45
/ month
- Built-in tools
- Customizable
- Advanced users
Blogger
Free
- Easy for beginners
- Free domain
- GA Integration
Medium
Free
- Massive audience
- Good Monetization
- No web design
Free
- Easy to use
- Easy to build
- B2B
Alternative Options
Other Services
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best blogging platforms?
The quick answer is that it depends on what you want to do with your blog! If you’re more advanced you might choose WordPress, if you’re just starting out you might go with Blogger, and if you’re a business blog you’d be best to start on LinkedIn. Other popular platforms include Wix, Squarespace and Medium.
A blogging platform is a software or web tool that allows you to manage and publish blog posts or your website.
How many blogging platforms are there?
There are many different blogging platforms on the market. The most popular include WordPress, Squarespace, Weebly, Wix and Medium.