12 Best Blog Sites Compared - 2024

Let’s get our best blog sites list started with Blogger. If you want to get a blog up and running but aren’t super tech savvy, Blogger is definitely a blogging site you can turn to. It is a free blog hosting service that was bought by Google 15 years ago, so if Google likes it you know it’s good.

Some great things about Blogger are that:

• It is incredibly easy to use, maintain and manage for people that aren’t well versed in tech.
• Thanks to being a part of Google, Blogger comes with Google’s secure platform and its reliability.
• And the best part…it’s free!

Of course, just like with anything there are some cons that go along with the Blogger blogging site such as:

• There are limited templates so designed options are few and 3rd party templates for Blogger are usually low quality.
• Since Google owns Blogger they have the power to either suspend your blog at any moment or completely cancel the Blogger service should they decide to abandon the project.
• There are no frequent updates or new features for blogger which means you are limited to the tools you initially get and can’t add new features as your blog grows.

But Blogger could still be a great choice for what you are looking for in a blogging platform. Also, if you begin working on Blogger and it goes well you can also switch from Blogger to WordPress so you will have the options of more features and more control over you own site.

This next blog site is one you have probably heard of before, it’s Tumblr! What makes Tumblr special is that is it a micro blogging platform that has social media features. These features let you take your blog to another level by following other blogs , built-in sharing tools, being able to reblog and many more!

Pros of this Tumblr are:

• There is the integrated social media aspect of it
• Since it is a microblogging tool, making fast blog videos, images, audio, and GIFS is incredibly easy.
• And Tumblr is free!

But even thought Tumblr is so popular, like with anything, it is not perfect and has some limitations like:

• They don’t offer more features, what you see is what you get with this site
• Importing your blog to other platforms or just backing up your Tumblr blog can be difficult.
• With its limited features, you can’t add new aspects to your blog as it grows.

Tumblr is free but you can purchase a custom domain for you blog should you want.

Joomla is another one of the best blog sites, which some of you may also be familiar with. Joomla is an open source software content management system, similar to WordPress.org. While Joomla itself is free, since it is a self-hosted solution you will need to purchase a domain name and web hosting to actually use it.

Perks of Joomla include:

• It also you to choose from an incredibly wide variety of templates so you can create a uniquely customized site.
• There are extensions, like apps, that you can get that will provide you with more features.
• Since Joomla is very powerful, in addition to being very flexible, you can use it to build any type of blog your website you want.

The downsides to Joomla are:

• You are the one responsible for doing backups and managing updates and security.
• There are not as many themes and add ons available for Joomla in comparison to WordPress because the Joomla community is much smaller.
• You support options will be limited to community support unless you want to pay for paid support which can be difficult to find and expensive

Wix is another hosting platform you may know of that allows you to build your own websites. It is a great tool for small businesses because it is quick and easy to use due to its drag and drop building feature. If you should want a blog added to your website you can do this by adding the Wix Blog app.

Some great features of Wix are:

• Setting up your site will be quick and painless
• You have the ability to really customize your site thanks to the dozens of third party apps and dozens of templates Wix offers.
• Create your blog with the easy to use drag and drop tools so you don’t need to know any code to make something amazing.

But there are a few cons with Wix such as:

• There are limited 3rd party apps.
• Once you start using a template you can not change it to a different one.
• The eCommerce aspects are limited to those with paid plans and even if you pay the features are still limited.
• The free account option is limited and you will get Wix branding and ads on your site.

Next up on our list of the best blog sites is Drupal. Drupal is a little similar to Joomla as it is also an open source software content management system. Drupal is also easy to use for those not comfortable with too much tech and there it comes with great integration tools.

The positive aspects of Drupal are:

• It has multi-site capabilities
• To get started is free
• It can support multilingual content

But here are a few downsides to Drupal including:

• Once the installation is complete, it can be a little complicated for complete beginners
• Changing the look of your site and adding non content items can be difficult

The next best blog site on our list is Weebly which is a hosted platform. With Weebly you have to ability to make and customize a website simply by moving items around the page and placing them where you like by using the drag and drop tool. Weebly comes with many themes that come ready to use and you can customize them by using their web-based interface.

More awesome features to Weebly are:

• A fast and simple setup, since Weebly is your host site
• You don’t need to have any technical skills to make your site with Weebly, since it has the drag and drop feature.
• Since Weebly has a free plan you have nothing to lose if you want to try it and if you like it you can then pay for more.

However, there are a few negatives that come with Weebly as well.

• There is limited integration with 3rd party platforms.
• If you deicde to export you site from Weebly to a different platform can be difficult.
• The features that come built-in are limited and you can’t add new ones.

And we continue our best blog sites list with one of these most famous blogging software out there, WordPress.org. WordPress.org is another open source software platform where you can create your own blog or website by yourself. Since this is a self hosted solution you do need to sign up with a WordPress hosting provider.

WordPress.org has some great perks, for example:

• It is search engine friendly so your website is more likely to get noticed in online search results
• WordPress.org comes with over 45,000 free plugins. Plugins are a similar concept to apps that allow you more features for your WordPress blog.
• Expand your blog with extra features like: an online store, forums, and memberships options.
• There are thousands of premium  and free themes that can work with WordPress and make your website more unique.

While there are so many great things about WordPress.org, there are a couple of small negatives to it.

• There is a slight learning curve when figuring out how to manage your own website.
• You need manage your own security and backups

While WordPress.org is free you will need to purchase your domain name. However, you can start for just $2.75 each month using Bluehost.

Medium is a relatively new blogging platform but it has grown a lot and increased in recent years. It is easy to use and has social networking features.

The pros of using Medium for you blog are:

• You can devote complete focus and attention to you writing and not on designing your website
• You can reach an online community of people with overlapping interests that already exists through Medium.
• It requires no setup or coding skills so it is super easy to use.
• It is free.

Just like everything, Medium does have a few cons to it like:

• You can’t run your own ads to make money on your blog.
• Since Medium owns your audience, you will lose your followers if you lose your blog.
• There are not a lot of feature options for design or creating you brand.

Our next item on our best blog sites list is actually not really a platform for you to create a blog with. Shopify is a name you may have heard of before as it is a popular eCommerce solution. It is very similar to the WooCommerce plugin you can use on your WordPress site. The reason we are mentioning it is that many people out their that have an eCommerce site using Shopify also create blogs in order to improve their SEO.

So if you are interested in selling a product, check out Shopify, they will help you make it easy. And once you have your eCommerce site in business check out how you can learn to make a blog with WordPress.

See our post -> Shopify vs. WooCommerce

Keep on checking out Shopify by using our Shopify theme detector.

I know what you may be thinking, “didn’t we already talk about this one?”. Actually, there are some important differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. WordPress.com is a blog hosting service offered by the company, Automattic. The blog hosting service offered by WordPress.com is free. If you want you can buy more options such as: a custom domain name, more storage and other types of premium services.

The pros with this one are that no set up is required and it is easy to manage and use

Unfortunately there are a few more negatives to WordPress.com like:

• You are not able to run advertisements on your blog
• There are limited choices to expand your site
• Since you don’t own your blog, WordPress.com can suspend your account should they feel you are violating their terms.

Last on our best blog list is Site123 and it is known to be one of the easiest website builders currently available. It is super user friendly and is a cinch to get your blog started with its already made themes and layouts for you to choose from. This one is so simple you don’t even need to drag and drop your content, just upload it to get your designed working cross-platform site.

There are a few more pros to Site123 such as:

• It is totally free
• It is also Search Engine Friendly so you will show up in online search results.
• You can register as many sites as you want under your account

The only thing is that if you want  a custom domain name, this is not a free feature and you will have to pay for it.