Most of the time when you start an online business, you will want to use free blog sites. Free blog sites allow you to have your own blog and start delivering content and building your audience. In this blog post, I will discuss 10 of the best blogging platforms that you can use without spending any money.
Table of Contents
1. WordPress.org
WordPress.org is the most popular blogging platform. More than 43% of all the websites on the internet. Don’t confuse WorsPress.com with WordPress.org. WordPress.org is a self-hosting platform that implies that you will need a hosting service and purchase a custom domain name. You will own the blog and can monetize it to generate revenue. With WordPress.org, you control every part of your website.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Completely Free | Steep Learning Curve |
| Complete Control | Managing Your Blog Depends On You |
| Limitless Features To Expand |
Needs Web Hosting & Custom Domain
|
| Easy Optimization For Search | |
| Scalable |
2. WordPress.com
WordPress.com is a free blog hosting service. It is not the same as WordPress.org; they are two different blog hosting services. WordPress.com gives you the opportunity to start your blog without any added cost. You have limited options to enhance your site. There is no way for you to monetize your blog.
However, WordPress.com will show their ads on your blog and it will have their branding. Your account can be suspended if it violates their terms of service. You can upgrade to the Personal plan for $4.00 per month (billed yearly) to have your custom domain, and remove WordPress branding and advertising from your website.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Easy To Use | Limited Options |
|
Completely Free
|
Can’t Be Monetized |
| Owned By WordPress.com |
3. Google Sites
Google has its own site platform. It is easy to set up and publish your website. You can create and modify your Google site. Since it is owned by Google, your site will quickly be indexed. Sites created on Google’s platform can get a lot of traffic as there are many viewers on Google sites.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Completely Free | No Ownership |
|
Easily Indexed By Google
|
|
|
Can Tap Into Traffic From Google
|
|
| Options To Design |
4. Blogger
Blogger is a free blogging service owned by Google. It is easy to use and set up a blog for your online business. If you have an account with Google, you already have the opportunity to create a blog with Blogger. With Blogger, design options are limited. However, your blog will quickly be indexed by Google.
You don’t own your blog and it can be suspended by Google at any time. Moreover, your blog’s name will be a subdomain of blogger. Your blog can be monetized with Google Adsense ads and get paid with Google Adsense.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Easy To Use | Limited Features |
| Completely Free | Not Updated Regularly |
| Google Owned | Google Can Suspend Account |
|
Integrated with Google Analytics
|
|
| Monetized With Adsense |
5. Tumblr
Tumblr is a free microblogging platform with social networking features such as following other blogs, reblogging, and sharing tools. It is easy to set up and will have a Tumblr subdomain. Tumblr makes it easy to add videos, images, and other content. The features are limited with Tumblr.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Easy To Set Up & Use | Limited Features |
| Completely Free | No Ownership |
| Social Media Integration | Backups & Moving Blog Is Difficult |
| Great For Multimedia Content |
6. Medium
Medium is a free blogging platform that is easy to use. You can easily deliver our content to an audience of your niche by creating articles, and other content. You don’t own your blog and its name will be a subdomain of Medium. You have limited social networking and design features with Medium. Moreover, you can’t monetize your blog on Medium.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Completely Free | No Ownership |
| Easy To Use & Set Up | Limited Features & Design Options |
| Good Reporting | Limited Content Control |
| Niche Audiences To Target | |
|
Monetization With Medium Partner Program
|
7. Wix
Wix is a popular blogging platform that you can use to build your website. With its free account, you can start a website with no coding skills. It has an easy drag-and-drop website builder. You can also add a blog to your website. Your website will be a subdomain of Wix. However, you can add a custom domain for $4.50 per month and their premium plans start from $8.50 per month and go up to $24.50 per month.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Scalable |
No Ownership
|
| Wide Range Of Templates | Limited Features |
| Easy To Set Up & Use | Not Flexible |
8. Weebly
Weebly is a website builder platform with a free blog. It is easy to set up with no coding skills required. Its free version features Weebly’s branding and ads. You don’t own your blog and it comes with a Weebly subdomain. Its paid plans start from $8.0 per month and go up to $25.0 per month.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
|
Free SSL Certificate
|
Limited Features & Integrations |
| Easy To Use | Export Issues |
| Responsive Themes |
9. Web.com
Although this blog post is about free blogging platforms, Web.com isn’t free; it starts at $1.95 per month. It is a popular website builder with a blogging platform. It is easy to set up with its drag and drop builder. Web.com features many professionally designed templates. For the nominal price, Web.com comes with a free domain name, hosting, and a business email address. Additionally, it has SEO tools, web analytics, security, backup, autosave, etc.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Easy To Set Up & Use | Limited Apps & Extensions |
| Many Design Options | Less Powerful Features |
| Free Domain Name | Moving Blog Is Difficult |
| Business Email Address | Limited eCommerce |
| SEO Tools & Analytics |
10. Hubpages
Hubpages is a blogging platform that you can use to start a blog. Hubpages is similar to Medium as there are audiences on Hubpages that you can tap into for the niche you will build your blog about. However, you don’t own your blog and don’t have control over it. Hubpages is good to start your blog, attract the audience to your content, and maybe build a website with WordPress.org and funnel the traffic from Hubpages to your WordPress.org website.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Easy To Set Up & Use | No Ownership |
|
Niche Audiences To Target
|
Limited Customization Options
|
The Bottom Line
When starting out with an online business, you could have limited funds, and starting with a free blog is always a good option. There are many free blogging platforms available today that you can use to build your presence and create an audience.
In this blog post, we not only discussed 10 of the best free blog sites but also gave the pros and cons of each. We hope this blog post will help you find a free blog site that you can use. If you are interested in web hosting services, you can read about the best web hosting services.