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Reviewed
Blogging platforms make it easy for people to share their thoughts and ideas with the world, connect with others who share similar interests, and promote an open dialogue and exchange of ideas. These platforms can also be a useful tool for marketing and branding as strong blogs can reach a large audience and build a loyal following. Here are the best blogging platforms available today. Find the best solution for your needs and budget.
The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to bringing you unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content and guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.
We reviewed 11 systems to help you find the best blogging platform for your blog or small business. Our ratings looked at factors that included the platform’s starting price (including whether it offered a free trial or free version); useful general features, such as drag-and-drop functionality and search engine optimization (SEO) tools; unique features, how well the blogging platform fared on third-party review sites and a final review by our experts. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.
| Company | Forbes Advisor Rating | Free Trial | Pricing | Mobile App | LEARN MORE | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress |  |
4.4 |  |
14 days (for WordPress Pro plan) | Free; $4 per month (paid annually) | Yes | Learn More | Read Forbes' Review | |
| Wix |  |
4.3 | |
No, but offers a free plan | Free; $17 per month (paid annually) | Yes | Learn More | On Wix's Website | |
| Weebly |  |
4.3 | |
It has a free plan | Free; $6 per month (paid annually) | Yes | Learn More | Read Forbes' Review | |
| Drupal |  |
4.3 | |
It’s free | Free | No | View More | ||
| Squarespace |  |
4.0 |  |
14 days | $16 per month (paid annually) | Yes | Learn More | On Squarespace's Website | |
| CMS Hub |  |
3.8 | |
14 days | $15 per month | No | View More | ||
| Medium |  |
3.1 |  |
It’s free | It’s free | Yes | View More |
Forbes Advisor’s team of experts has rated and reviewed the best blogging platforms to help you choose the right one for your needs. To make our recommendations, we looked at 17 data points that include ease of use, costs, customer support, reviews, features and functionality.
We then assign each platform a score out of five in each category, with five being the highest. In addition, we also took into account the needs of different types of users such as bloggers, businesses and marketers. Here are some of the categories we used to rank the providers that made the top of the list.
For pricing, we considered whether a blogging platform offered a free version or free trial. For those that charge fees, we looked at what the starting price was, what the range of prices was between the various tiers available and whether each higher tier offered valuable add-ons that benefit users. Pricing totaled 20% of our weighted scoring.
Features were broken down into two categories: general features and additional features. For general features, we were looking for factors that each platform should have and whether it was available automatically or as a paid add-on. These general features include multimedia support, drag-and-drop functionality, SEO tools, analytics and third-party integrations. We weighted general features at 25% of our total score.
Then we looked for features that we considered to be more unique offerings in the field. Again, we used the same criteria, meaning whether the feature was included automatically with the platform or whether it was necessary to purchase it for an additional price. These unique features included offering free domain names and ecommerce functionality. Additional features accounted for 20% of the total score.
We turned to popular third-party review websites, including G2, Capterra and Trustpilot, to find out what real users of these blogging platforms thought about them. To score these, we looked for reviews on each site that scored at least 3.5 out of 5 points and rated the companies on how many reviews were left in that range for each blogging platform. These customer reviews accounted for 5% of the total score.
Using all of the market research and the categories listed above, we also ranked additional criteria from customer reviews, such as popularity, value for the money, ease of use and stand-out features. This final section accounted for 30% of the total score.
If you’re just starting out, Forbes Advisor recommends using a platform, such as Wix or Squarespace. Neither requires any coding knowledge and each provides a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy to create a website.
The frequency of blog posts is not as important as the consistency of making the posts. It’s fine to make a post to your blog once a week or every few days as long as you are consistent about how frequently you make your posts. If you start by posting several times per week, then start posting randomly, you will lose your audience quickly and, if you are posting blogs to make money, you will also lose your source of revenue. Before beginning a blog, make sure that you are prepared to post to it consistently.
We recommend CMS Hub or Medium. CMS Hub offers adaptive testing, which helps businesses create and test different versions of their web pages to see which performs best. Medium is best for businesses that want to share their stories and ideas with a wider audience.
The most important step you can take to protect your blogging website is to have a secure, unique password―one that is only known to you and those whom you trust. You should also change the password frequently. You also want the site to be backed up frequently, which should be done by your web host. Consider using a domain privacy protection service, which protects your personal information. Another way to protect your personal information is to get a post office box instead of using your home mailing address and get an internet-based phone number instead of using your personal number.
You have a few options for posting a blog for free. You can set up a blog under a free subdomain such as those offered in free Wix, Weebly or WordPress.com plans. You can also open an account on a social media platform, such as LinkedIn or Medium, set up a profile, then publish your blog post using its publishing tools.
There are several differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. The main difference is that WordPress.com is fully hosted while WordPress.org is self-hosted.
