Have you caught the blogging bug? Do you feel ready to refine your texts and publish them? Excellent! But which platform to choose to create a free blog? Do not panic, here is the list of the best sites tocreate your blog:
As you may have guessed, there are plenty of free blogging platforms online and not all are created equal. So the best will vary depending on your needs:
Do you want to reach a wide audience?
Want to join a community of like-minded people?
Do you want to display your words as nice as possible?
Do you want to earn money?
Do you need a multilingual system?
Don’t worry, I will give you a good option for each answer. But first, let’s see how to get started:
Blog Creators: How To Start A Free Blog?
It starts with logging in. So this usually applies:
Sign up for a free blogging site (usually just an email address) Create a username Select a blog template Create a new post Add formatting (links, bold, etc…) and media Press publish. And that’s all! At least this is the case with the best solutions.
Have you heard of a platform that deserves to be on our list? Do you have questions about creating a blog? Let us know in the comments (at the bottom of the page).
In our opinion, Wix is the most used, well-known and recommended website editor. The Wix team’s strategy is clear: make its free version irresistible. This also applies if you want to start your first blog.
If we compare the free version to the paid plans, we notice that most of the features remain available. Let’s see what you get with the free version.
The most of a free Wix blog
✔️ A large choice of models ✔️ Ideal for graphic and photo blogs ✔️ Access to royalty-free image banks ✔️ Full access to the best app store among website builders ✔️ Basic email marketing and social integration features ✔️ Ability to fully customize SEO settings ✔️ Wix app for publishing and managing tickets when you’re on the go
The less of a free Wix blog
❌ Annoying static advertising (mediocre on desktop, a little better on the mobile version) ❌ 500MB of storage with the free plan ❌ Domain name too long: account-name.wix.com/site-name ❌ Readers must log in to leave comments
What if I want to upgrade to the next plan?
You’ll need the Basic plan to remove ads ($16 per month). This plan includes a free domain name for one year, and increases storage capacity up to 3 GB.
Let’s start at the beginning, there are two versions: WordPress.com and WordPress.org. It’s a bit confusing, but here’s how to remember it:
WordPress.com offers you acompletewebsite, which includes hosting.
With WordPress.org, you will have to organize yourself on your side for accommodation.
This section is dedicated to the .com version of WordPress. Discover the differences between the two options here:
To summarize, WordPress.com is a platform that allows you to choose between a free or paid plan, and use its blog editor immediately. Hosting is included and the software pre-installed, so you don’t have to set anything up.
It’s much easier to get started, but it still comes with some constraints, especially when it comes to the free version.
✔️ Good text and media management ✔️ Responsive and fast editor ✔️ Stylish themes suitable for mobile viewing ✔️ Release schedule ✔️ Ability to publish blog posts from mobile and desktop apps ✔️ Excellent import and export features
❌ 1GB storage space with the free plan ❌ Display of WordPress ads ❌ Limited choice of themes ❌ Rudimentary theme customization options (colors, fonts, and that’s about it) ❌ Unable to install extensions
About 80 free themes are available. This is a nice selection, and all the themes are fast, stylish and suitable for mobile viewing. Be aware, however, that you will not benefit from all the customization options (CSS and HTML), unless you upgrade to a higher plan. Premium themes are not available in the Free plan.
Unlike the hosted version, you have access to all the available features. Thanks to the software, extensions and free templates, there are countless possibilities available to you. Let’s look at the rest of the features of the software WordPress.org when you use it for your site.
The advantages of free blogging software WordPress.org
✔️ One of the most powerful content management systems on the market ✔️ Access to hundreds of excellent extensions (free and paid) ✔️ Possibility to install the themes of your choice (free and paid) ✔️ Full SEO features ✔️ Solution that allows you to evolve your blog as you wish ✔️ Very important community
❌ Requirement to purchase your own hosting service (some bloggers will appreciate more control though) ❌ Rather complex for beginners ❌ Manual updates (in all honesty, most of the time it only takes a few clicks) ❌ No official support
✔️ Arguably one of the most efficient blog builders when it comes to dragging and dropping (you can easily lay out and move elements around the page) ✔️ Free, stylish and_responsive_ themes ✔️ Good SEO Options ✔️ Sharing on social networks ✔️ Release schedule
The less of a free Weebly blog
❌ Support only available in English ❌ Invasive and imposing advertising ❌ 500 MB storage ❌ Limited media capabilities (no audio or video player) ❌ Does not allow users to register ❌ Weebly hasn’t updated the platform in a while, so you may be limited in the features you can add.
What if I want to upgrade to the next plan?
The first paid version that allows you to remove annoying ads is called Personal and costs $8 per month. It gives you access to a free domain name for one year and an SSL certificate.
Using Medium for blogging couldn’t be easier. In reality, its minimalist, no-frills style is gradually becomingthe standard that all blogs should strive to follow. It gives pride of place to typography, without distractions or decorative elements. It is easy to recognize that this is a site dedicated to those who enjoy reading posts published by authors who like to write beautiful texts.
In addition, Medium is more than just a blogging platform: it’s also a community. Withmore than 60 million users, and this figure continues to grow, your tickets will find an audience, however small it may be at first.
Finally, a reservation to make: in my opinion, Medium is certainly one of the best choices for bloggers, but does not offer the most successful publisher. You have virtually no control over design and customization options, and very few features or tools.
The advantages of a free Medium account
✔️ Elegant and minimalist typography ✔️ Opportunity to (potentially) earn money for your items ✔️ Easy account creation and setup ✔️ Access to a wide audience ✔️ No ads ✔️ Trustworthy platform (used by well-known journalists, entrepreneurs, politicians and authors) ✔️ Possibility to republish the posts of your different blogs (the platform even allows you to optimize your content for search engines)
The less than one free Medium account
❌ Only available in English ❌ No control over the design ❌ Medium keeps encouraging users to download its app ❌ Hard to get organic traffic ❌ Not ideal for a photo blog ❌ - No custom domain name ❌ Niche market-focused solution: not ideal for informal blogging
Webnode is another example of a website builder that also allows you to start a blog for free. This is a rather ordinary platform, except for one feature: you can display your pages and posts in several languages, provided you use a paid version.
Apart from that, the drag and drop editor is decent, and the templates are modern and_responsive._ You can add a small online store, which is pretty cool without being extraordinary.
You can fully customize the design through the visual editor: it’s a great choice for designers and advanced users.
Benefits of a Free Webflow Blog
✔️ Flexibility: You can fully customize all aspects of the design (layout, HTML, style, etc.). ✔️ Knowledge Base: Webflow offers courses, videos, and articles to help you build your website. ✔️ Availability: Webflow guarantees 99.99% availability.
Webflow offers 2 main plans for bloggers: the CMS plan for beginners with 100,000 monthly visits: $20/month. And the Business plan, for high-traffic blogs at $45/month.
Bookmark is a website publisher whose only selling point is itsartificial intelligence system. This asset is not entirely unique, Wix and Jimdo offering comparable features, but Bookmark particularly highlights it on itslanding page.
In any case, this is a feature that is supposed to help you design a neat and stylish blog. I tested it and the results are quite conclusive. Perhaps not enough, in my opinion, to make it a selling point, but it is nevertheless aquite decent option for a free blogging platform.
The most of a free blog Bookmark
✔️ Fast, AI-assisted setup ✔️ Ease of use ✔️ Simple interface
The less of a free blog Bookmark
❌ Bandwidth limited to 1 GB per month ❌ 500MB of storage with the free plan ❌ Bookmark Ads ❌ Lack of adaptability of models
What if I want to upgrade to the next plan?
Plans that allow you to remove ads start at $9.59. This is a pretty high price compared to well-established platforms like Wix or Weebly. You can also get a business email address for $2 per month, a rather affordable price.
I wanted to add Blogger to this list, as this service provided by Google remains a well-known name. However, it must be recognized that it is becoming more and more difficult today to recommend this platformto anyone who is new to the world of blogging. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it joinGoogle’s graveyard of abandoned and “dead” products.
What for? The service has been around for 15 years and it’s starting to show. Templates sometimes take a long time to display. The product has not been the subject of any innovation for years. In 2018, only one post was published on the official Blogger blog.
However, let’s not forget some advantages that the platform could offer, as we will see below.
The most of a free blog Blogger
✔️ Totally free and ad-free ✔️ Unlimited storage space ✔️ Integrated data analysis ✔️ Integration with Google’s suite of products (Photos, Drive, etc.)
The less than one free blog Blogger
❌ Aging back office ❌ Sometimes slow page display ❌ Limited choice of models ❌ Few customization options
You probably know LinkedIn for one of two things: the champion of spam invitations or the social network of the business world. Nevertheless, it is anincreasingly renowned platformfor publishing articles on topics related to business, entrepreneurship or finance, among others.
Creating an account is free and complex, and you canboost your professional profileby presenting your articles to other like-minded experts. Just like Medium, it’s an ideal platform for blogging, but the publisher itself isn’t very good. You can’t choose a template or control the design. Everything is LinkedIn like LinkedIn, hosting included, making it difficult to migrate your content to other platforms later.
The most of a free LinkedIn account
✔️ Ideal for developing professional relationships ✔️ Trustworthy platform ✔️ Easy-to-use editor ✔️ Allows you to reach your audience (your network first, other professionals second)
The less of a free LinkedIn account
❌ Only suitable for writing corporate or business articles ❌ Unable to connect your domain (you can still request a public LinkedIn URL) ❌ No customization options ❌ Aggressive email marketing strategy (for your network)
Note that it is possible to create a professional website for free.
However, the user base is Tumblr’s main asset. The site welcomes 550 million visitors each month and hosts more than 459 million blogs. It is designed on the model of social networks: users are encouraged to reblog posts they like, subscribe to blogs and in general add comments and share each other’s content.
But in practice, how do we blog on Tumblr? You will realize that the tickets are rather short and that the platform occupies a niche. Tumblr is indeed the number one microblogging, users favoring short content that can be shared. The site is also heavily focused on graphic content. Illustrators, graphic designers and photographers are doing well (even if Tumblr is losing more and more popularity to Instagram).
The most of a free Tumblr blog
✔️ Totally free and ad-free ✔️ Intuitive interface ✔️ Access to a very large and active community ✔️ Unlimited storage capacity ✔️ Flawless content management
The less of a free Tumblr blog
❌ 250 tickets and 75 images per day (more than enough) ❌ File size restriction to 10 MB or 1 MB for GIFs ❌ Not ideal for long tickets ❌ No data analysis features or SEO features ❌ Limited choice of free themes
What if I want to upgrade to the next plan?
You can connect your Tumblr to your domain name for free. Premium themes are also available and will cost you between $9 and $49 on average.
As you can imagine, there aredozens of free blogging solutions online, but they are not all created equal. The best option will largely depend on your needs:
Do you want to reach a wide audience?
Join a community of like-minded people?
Present your texts in as pleasant a way as possible?
Do you want to make money?
Do you need a multilingual solution?
You will first need to create an account. I only know of one platform that allows you to publish blog posts without registration. Here are generally the steps to follow:
Create an account on a platform (an email is enough most of the time)
Choose a username
Select a template for your blog
Write a blog post
Format your text (links, bold, etc.) and add media
Click Publish
There you go! In any case, this is the method to follow for the best software on the market.
Yes, unfortunately. In the freemium model mentioned above, providers reduce the number of features available for free to entice users to upgrade to a paid plan. Here are the usual limitations:
Unable to remove ads: another aspect that gives the impression of a low-end site.
Reduced storage capacity: You are limited when it comes to data storage. Although text takes up very little space, the weight of images and other media is higher.
Limited bandwidth: If your posts attract too many readers, you’ll reach a monthly limit and your blog will go offline.
In most cases, yes. For example, Wix offers a list of convenient ways to monetize your site, just like Weebly. It is usually possible to activate an advertising network (such as AdSense) and publish affiliate marketing links, even with a free version.
However, there are restrictions, especially if you use the WordPress and Medium platforms, for example. The latter has its own monetization system, which you can discover in more detail below. Be sure to read the terms of use if you want to set up a monetization system on your blog from the beginning.
Want to drive traffic to your blog from Google or other search engines? Good luck! Although getting into the first results of search engines is still possible using a website edit, the task will be difficult if you opt for a free version. What for? Search engines appreciate personal domain names. And you won’t have a choice: you’ll have to buy one.
Finally, there are some additional problems. A good optimization for search engines is done by respecting the page structures, which does not always allow free platforms (URLs, title tags, meta description, etc.).
As we recommended in our review of the best free website builders, if you value SEO, choose a cheap option rather than a free one.
When it comes to free platforms, it’s on a case-by-case basis. If I had to choose only one or two, I would probably choose Weebly or Webnode, which are among the best solutions for their ease of use and functionality.
However, one of the main challenges for beginner bloggers remains finding their audience. You will often feel like you are publishing in a vacuum, hence the interest of joining a community to boost your publications. That’s why Medium is, in my opinion, one of the best choices for bloggers, without offering the best blog editor.
Nevertheless, let’s take a detailed look at the options available depending on your goal.
Find the best compromise between functionality and ease of use: Webnode or Weebly.
Create a blog with neat aesthetics: Wix and Weebly offer beautiful and ready-to-use templates.
Make money from your blog: Medium, without hesitation.
Generate interest and find readers: Medium is the best choice for niche blogging. Prefer Tumblr if your posts include a lot of images.
