Blogging is getting immensely popular with every passing day. Some people prefer starting with a professional self-hosted WordPress blog, while others prefer using free blogging platforms.
As against most people think, selecting a good blogging platform is very critical if you want to reach the right audience. This is the reason I thought of writing this post to help people choose the best free blogging sites.
Is It Advisable To Use Free Blogging Sites?
The first question that should come to anyone's mind is, if you can start a blog for free then why pay for it? Well, the answer is simple. Most of the free blogging sites have their own set of limitations which makes them unsuitable for professional blogging.
So let us find out the pros and cons of each blogging sites.
Pros And Cons Of Free Blogging Sites
Below are the pros and cons of free blogging sites in general.
Pros Of Free Blogging Sites
Cons Of Free Blogging Sites
Do We Recommend Free Blogging Sites?
Free blogging sites have a lot of cons as compared to the pros. So, if you are planning to be a professional blogger, we DO NOT recommend free blogging platforms. This especially when you can start self-hosted WordPress blog for less than $60
However, if you are just a casual blogger or want to use free platforms as an additional source to create brand awareness, these free blogging sites can be a great option for you.
Best Free Blogging Sites In 2021
Below is the list of Blogging Sites that are considered to be the best among the free options.
1. WordPress.com
WordPress.com is often confused with self-hosted WordPress.org. However as against WordPress.org which requires you to buy Hosting server and Domain name, WordPress.com is a free blogging platform. By registering with WordPress.com you get free hosting services along with a subdomain of the format example.wordpress.com.
WordPress.com is considered to be the Best Blogging platform among the free ones. This is mainly because of its ease to set up a blog. It hardly takes 5-10 minutes to start a blog at WordPress. It also offers a large number of high-quality themes which most other free blogging sites lack.
Pros And Cons Of WordPress.com
Pros Of WordPress.com
Cons Of WordPress.com
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2. Blogger
Blogger is the oldest Blogging site which comes from the house of Google. It was started way back in 1999 by Pyra labs and was acquired by Google in 2003. Since then it has emerged out to be one of the most popular blogging platform.
Pros And Cons Of Blogger
Pros Of Blogger
Cons Of Blogger
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3. Tumblr
Tumblr is another very popular blogging site owned by Automattic, the same company that owns WordPress.com. It is considered as the best blogging platform for Microblogging.
Though Tumblr does not have any word restrictions, most Tumblr bloggers keep their posts between 100-500 words which makes it an ideal option for Personal Blogging.
It can be considered a bridge between a conventional blog and Social Media Platform. I say so because, like Facebook and Twitter, at Tumblr you can share pictures and quotes, follow people and like their content. Tumblr's "Reblog" feature works very similar to "Retweet" feature of Twitter and you will find many people "Reblogging" your content which can often make your content go viral.
However, unlike social media, at Tumblr, you write and create original content which is more like blogging. One more feature that separates it from social media is the ability to have multiple authors for a blog.
Pros And Cons Of Tumblr
Pros Of Tumblr
Cons Of Tumblr
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4. Medium
Medium is a blogging site founded by Twitter's co-founder Evan Williams. It was created with the intention of providing a platform for users which provides more than just 140 characters of Twitter.
Unlike Blogger or WordPress, Medium displays your blog posts on its home page with most recent and popular posts making it to the top. This makes sure your blog post gets a lot of exposure. Because of this reason, a lot of small businesses prefer using Medium as their blogging platform.
Pros And Cons Of Medium
Pros Of Medium
Cons Of Medium
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5. Weebly
Weebly is a more of a Drag and Drop website builder than a blogging platform. Nevertheless, it does allow you to create a blog along with some free blog themes. It offers free as well as premium services. Free services do come with Weebly branding and some usage restrictions.
Pros And Cons Of Weebly
Pros Of Weebly
Cons Of Weebly
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6. LinkedIn Pulse
LinkedIn is world's largest professional network. I am sure everyone knows about it. LinkedIn Pulse is not a full-fledged blogging site but it does allow you to share your articles with fellow LinkedIn users.
Since LinkedIn is a professional network, it is a great platform for Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs who are into the B2B sector to get more exposure.
Pros And Cons Of LinkedIn
Pros Of LinkedIn
Cons Of LinkedIn
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7. Wix
Wix is a freemium website builder and is very similar to Weebly. It was founded in 2006 and is considered to be among the top website builders.
Though Wix, is essentially designed for creating a static website, it does have some blog templates which you can use to start your own blog. For non-blogging templates too, it provides an option in website builder to add a blog. You can also integrate your Tumblr blog feeds within Wix, which can be edited both from Wix as well as Tumblr.
Pros And Cons Of Wix
Pros Of Wix
Cons Of Wix
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8. LiveJournal
LiveJournal is one of the oldest blogging sites which was launched in the year 1999. Apart from the blogging feature, it does provide you updates and news from various Journals around the world.
LiveJournal allows you to blog anonymously. So if you want to stay anonymous, Livejournal is the option you can consider.
Pros And Cons Of LiveJournal
Pros Of LiveJournal
Cons Of LiveJournal
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9. Postach.io
If you are someone who uses Evernote extensively, Postachio can be a great option for you to start a free blog. Postachio allows you to turn your Evernote notebook into a blog by just tagging the post as "Published"
It is a freemium blogging site which offers limited functionalities with their free plan.
Pros And Cons Of Postachio
Pros Of Postachio
Cons Of Postachio
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Final Words
Each of the free blogging sites has their own pros and cons. Most of them offer limited functionality with free plans. The paid version do offer some professional functionalities but they are costlier than hosting your own website on a quality server. Therefore, free blogging sites are never recommended for professional blogging.
I have made sure to include the best blogging platforms which are free to use. Do you know any good free blogging site which I might have skipped? If yes, then do share it with us through the comments below.
Found it very informative.
Hello Mr. Aquif Sir, thanks for sharing this, these sites are so important for me, Please keep continue. Thanks a lot
My pleasure Shehraz.
Hey Aquif Shaikh ,
Great post with effective blogging platform. Thanks for letting us know and making us aware about these great blogging platforms.
Blogging is an art that boost our skills, knowledge and provide better ideas. writing blogs are not so easy, as it requires in-depth knowledge and hard-works. Blog writing can be a tricky task if we don’t have proper knowledge and guidance. Blog writing
allows us to express our views, ideas, feeling and opinion with an entire world.But to start a blog writing we must have a perfect blogging platforms.
WordPress is a great blogging platform used by many people, as it is easy to set-up and offers varieties of high quality themes. Tumblr is also a popular blogging platform that allows us to write original content. Quora is also an amazing question & answer
platform used by several people.
Your each of the suggested blogging platforms are effective, offers helpful features but i truly like an idea of using WordPress, Wix, Tumblr, Quora, Medium, Weebly, Live journal and Pen.io. The pros and cons of each blogging platform are also great.
As this post will help several people, readers and especially the bloggers to choose the best blogging platform.
Truly helpful post and thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing this important blog. When I saw and read your blog, I knew it was very useful to me. I got a lot of ideas from the 9 blog lists you gave.