When it comes to starting a blog, not every writer wants to spend an arm and a leg to get one set up.
If you have been looking for a list of free blogging platforms, you have come to the right place. As of the time of writing the article, these are some of the best ones out there for you to use.
Now, free blogs are not for everyone, but there are a few reasons you might want to start one such as building your portfolio as a writer.
Let’s dive into some of the options so you can find the right platform for what you need.
Is Blogging Still Worth It?
Even though things like YouTube channels and TikTok accounts have grabbed the attention of a lot of people, there are still a ton of benefits to starting a blog.
One of the top reasons for a lot of writers is that blogs still make money. Yes, tons of blogs still make money and provide a full-time income for writers.
However, even if you just want to use a blog to express your thoughts or practice writing, you can become a stronger writer by doing so. Putting in the work and the hours to continue practice your writing skills can make a difference, especially if you need to practice.
Another reason to start a blog is to use it as a portfolio or a platform for attracting writing work. When you have something that is high-quality for clients and publications to see, you are more likely to get writing gigs.
Should You Use A Paid Or Free Blogging Platform?
While there are quite a few blogging platforms that are cheap, it can add up to quite a bit of money.
Yes, if you want to take your blogging seriously and make money with it, you will most likely have to pay for your blogging platform, hosting, domain, and more.
However, using a free blogging platform is a great way to test the waters and test it out before you choose to pay for everything.
You can also simply use it for your portfolio or to practice your writing skills.
You always can hire people or pay for upgraded services, so starting with a free platform can save you money until you are ready to take that step.
Free platforms also often come with basic website design, so that can help people who do not have a lot of website tech skills. That way, you can just get right to writing instead of getting stuck in the weeds of the technical aspects.
Cons Of A Free Blogging Platform
Now that we have covered all the reasons you might want to use a free blogging platform, there are a few reasons you might not want to use a free blogging platform.
- Harder to monetize. Blogs that are free can be harder to monetize because you do not often have as many customization or monetization options as you will have with your own site.
- May not be able to fully customize your site. If you have a free blogging platform, you do not always have the option of installing templates or website themes to fully customize your website look.
- Cannot take payments. Some free blogging platforms will not allow you to take payments, so be sure do double-check if ones do or not if that is something you need out of a platform.
- You do not have a custom domain, unless you choose to purchase one (they often have a yearly fee, which is not expensive).
- Search engine issues. Sometimes sites like Google will prioritize websites that have their own domain versus sites that do not and only are using a free platform.
List Of Free Blogging Platforms
Let’s go over some of the options of the free blogging platforms out there so you can pick a good fit for what you need.
Keep in mind, unless you buy your own domain for your blog, you will often have a subdomain from the main website host you plan to put your free blog on.
#1 – Wix
Wix is a popular blogging option for people who want to use a free platform.
With Wix, if you do decide to grow your website and upgrade your hosting, domain, or website in general, there are options for you to easily pay and do so. Upgrading will also allow you to do things like take payments.
If you do not have any tech skills, Wix is easy to set up since you can use drag-and-drop options to design the overall look of your site.
#2 – WordPress
WordPress is a common blogging platform, both for free bloggers and for professional websites. It is one of the most powerful options when it comes to putting a website.
Keep in mind, there are two versions of WordPress, although they are both the same parent company: WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
The .com website is the options that offers free websites. The .org option is one you will need to install on a website you have purchased for hosting, the domain, and so on.
With WordPress.com, you have less ways to customize your website and overall design, but you do have templates to choose from that can work best with your free blog.
#3 – Weebly
Weebly is another option for a free blog with a way to customize your overall site design. There are also multiple free templates that you can use to help customize your site even more.
Their free plan is limited to five custom pages with a 500MB storage maximum, but if you are only building a basic site that might be more than enough.
If you decide to sell things, they also offer SSL certificates and a shopping cart, which you will need if you decide to start selling things through your website.
#4 – Drupal
Drupal might not be as well-known as some of the other blogging options on this list, but if you are up for a little bit of a tech learning curve, it might be a perfect fit for what you need.
It offers an open source content management system that you can fully customize with code and build to be exactly what you need.
If you do not know much about coding or anything in that world, you can skip this option, but for those that do, this might be exactly the type of thing you need.
#5 – Medium
Medium is becoming one of the more popular blogging options over the past few years.
With Medium, you do not get your own website but you can start to write a blog in just a few minutes of registering with an account.
Medium also has their own internal search, so people can find your blog and posts to read and then choose to subscribe. There is also a payment method within Medium, if your blog is doing well and attracting enough readers.
What To Do Next
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