The Top 10 Free Blogging Platforms in 2023: A Tested, Comparative, and Review List

 Looking for some free blog platforms to start promoting your content online? We've put up five fantastic sites where you can establish a blog for free, whether you just want to share updates with your family and friends or you want to start a blog and attract more readers.

By Mehran Mazari

In order for you to simply build a blog for no cost, we'll also strive to direct you toward the exact platform that is perfect for you. What you need to know is as follows:

The best free blogging platforms to use in 2023

Here are the top free blogging platforms you can use right now to launch your own blog:

1. Wix (www.wix.com)

Wix is a completely front-end-manageable, free website creation tool. The key feature of this platform is the drag-and-drop functionality, which eliminates the need for back-end management. Both novices and experts may use the design because it is so user-friendly and contemporary.

Wix offers the benefit of having free hosting built-in, so all you need to do is configure the layouts and choose a template to get started. It offers a nice selection of themes and templates, both free and paid, for various uses, including blogging.

To start a Wix blog, simply register and choose between having the Wix ADI generate your site based on a questionnaire or creating your blog manually, which involves choosing a template and setting up the layouts using the WYSIWYG editor. If you choose the second option, all you have to do is select a lovely template and begin customizing everything on the front end while viewing a live preview.

 

You can include a variety of features on your pages, including backgrounds, menus, fonts, forms, video boxes, and multimedia widgets. Click Publish when you believe the website is prepared to begin posting your tales. You can go back at any moment after posting to edit the content blocks.

2. WordPress (www.wordpress.org)

The king of free blogging platforms is WordPress.org. Although it is a free platform, you will ultimately need to develop the majority of the website yourself. Additionally, you must host the software yourself. Although you can find some free WordPress hosting, investing a reasonable sum in a reliable WordPress host is a better long-term plan.

Here Bluehost enters the picture. The Basic plan, which starts at just $2.75 per month when you sign up for three years, is not only extremely affordable, but it also offers a number of useful features, such as a free domain name, 50GB of disc space, unrestricted bandwidth, free SSL, and 100MB of email storage per account. The most affordable practical WordPress hosting service available right now is Bluehost.

You have complete control over how your site appears and operates, as well as how you monetize it because you are hosting the WordPress software yourself. On the other hand, the setup procedure is a little bit more manual.

This is how the WordPress user interface appears when creating a new post.

On the other side is WordPress.com, which is WordPress' alternate face and is primarily used for personal blogs because it's free and simple to set up (assuming you don't mind forgoing a custom domain name). However, the extent to which you can customize the site is also somewhat constrained.

Furthermore, using the free WordPress.com edition will restrict you from monetizing your blog in any way.

In light of this, we advise you to start using Bluehost. A 30-day money-back guarantee is in place; if you decide against the entire blogging adventure, just request a refund.

3. LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com)

This one undoubtedly caught you off guard. Most people don't choose LinkedIn as their first preference when deciding which of the free blogging platforms to use. Having said that, it definitely merits some attention!

Tools that are simple to use and an established audience are the two main causes of this.

Regarding the audience, LinkedIn's user base is fantastic because it consists primarily of highly focused professionals and business owners. In fact, according to reports, LinkedIn is used by over 30 million organizations. They also aren't just there for show. According to other data, the platform is used as a primary lead source by 94% of B2B marketers.

Simply said, LinkedIn serves as a platform for exposure, making it one of the greatest free blogging platforms available.

Technically speaking, publishing on LinkedIn is simple. Use the "Start a post" widget at the top of the page by going to your LinkedIn feed. Click "Write an article on LinkedIn" to launch the full-screen editing window and turn your status into a complete post.

All the editing tools you're accustomed to using—for text formatting, inserting photos, and more—can be found here.

Read this comprehensive guide if you want to know more about how blogging on LinkedIn functions.

4. Weebly (www.weebly.com)

Weebly is an additional website builder that you may use to create a blog, sell goods, or display your portfolio. In that it offers a drag-and-drop WYSIWYG editor, it is comparable to Wix in certain ways. You may easily drag a certain button to the page and customize it if you wish to add it. The same holds true for slideshows, photo galleries, and any other multimedia component.

Sidebars, media boxes, forms, ad spots, social media icons, newsletter subscriptions, and many other features are available on Weebly. Additionally, the platform allows you to utilize your own custom domain (for a fee) and has built-in analytics.

You receive a Weebly subdomain, 500MB of storage, five custom pages, and ad slots with the free plan.

5. Medium (www.medium.com)

Anyone with an account can write on Medium, a versatile platform that covers a range of subjects. The main benefit of Medium, in contrast to most other free blogging platforms, is that your posts will be seen by a large audience because the website receives 60 million visitors (*) per month (and that figure rises annually).

It's quite easy to use; all you have to do is sign up and begin writing. The drawback is that Medium is where you post all of your material. You aren't truly creating your own "space" like you would with WordPress, in other words. For additional information on the variations between WordPress and Medium, read this article.

6. Ghost (www.ghost.org)

This is another blogging platform that resembles WordPress. Although you can download the Ghost software for free, you must pay for hosting in order to run it. Ghost is supported by DigitalOcean, a fantastic service that is affordable and offers a tonne of useful features right out of the gate.

The disadvantage is that installing Ghost is more difficult than installing WordPress, and depending on the host you select for your site, you may need to get your hands dirty with some server work.

Once your website is set up, creating a post in Ghost is simple. The editor is straightforward and understated, and on the right side of the screen, it provides a live preview of your writing. It's nice because the front end gives off a Medium vibe. There is a sidebar with settings next to the editor screen where you can select your preferences.

7. Blogger (www.blogger.com)

One of the first free blog platforms was Blogger, albeit its use has declined in recent years.

Although it's a good option for personal blogs, it's not the finest tool for business use. Similar to other hosted platforms, you must first establish an account in order to utilize this one. You must choose one of the pre-installed themes after creating it (which is easy), at which point you may begin jotting down your ideas. The editor on this platform resembles a Word page, while the user interface is comparable to a Google+ profile.

Blogger offers a variety of themes to select from, each with a unique skin, sophisticated color filtering, and distinct minimalist gadgets (also known as widgets). But nothing too elaborate or sophisticated customization. Blogger often offers straightforward design options, which keeps the emphasis more on the text portion. One appealing feature of this website is that you may insert advertisements inside your material.

8. Tumblr (www.tumblr.com)

Tumblr is one of the first free blogging platforms on the internet. Just a little bit "milder" than the other items on the list. This platform is mainly geared towards multimedia or social media-like content, in contrast to the other platforms, which were primarily developed for publishing purposes. Tumblr's user interface is more fun and simple to use; after creating an account, you can immediately begin posting.

Similar to a standard blogging platform, it offers a variety of post forms for various kinds of content. Tumblr is just intended for personal use, therefore it wouldn't be a fantastic alternative if you had aspirations for a business. It is basic, provides simple modification possibilities, and, as I have mentioned, has a stronger social networking atmosphere.

Despite not being designed for businesses, it does let you use affiliate links, display adverts on your page, and integrate Google Analytics with your blog.

9. Joomla (www.joomla.org)

Joomla is comparable to WordPress.org but less obvious when compared to other free blog platforms. The software is free but requires hosting and a name, just like WordPress. Similar to the WordPress situation, we choose Bluehost because it is affordable, dependable, and comes with a free domain.

Generally speaking, Joomla features a versatile interface that works well for both blogs and more complicated websites (you may select from a wide range of templates and extensions to add unique functionality).

The platform offers a dated editor that somewhat resembles Microsoft Word in terms of usability. You can customize the typeface by selecting its color, size, emoticons, tables, and backdrop. The menu's tools actually give the impression that you are working in a Word window.

Joomla's editor has tabs. The standard texting window is on the first tab, and you must go to another tab to choose the post categories, tags, date, meta description, keywords, etc.

10. Jimdo (www.jimdo.com) 

Jimdo is more than just one of many unrestricted blogging platforms. However, considering Jimdo's fundamental qualities, blogs are the most suggested use for its free edition. By filling out a brief questionnaire about the purpose of your website, you can rapidly construct a website using Jimdo. Your site is automatically constructed depending on your selections after you check these choices. Jimdo's drawbacks include the inability to have a custom domain (at least not for free) and the requirement to pay in order to get rid of the adverts.

But a key feature of Jimdo is that it's a page builder; unlike other blogs, you can generate blog entries directly from the front end. This calls for you to modify each content box directly, without being forwarded to another page, on a live page. The same method can be used to change the logo and footer. You have a few alternatives when it comes to content elements: plain text, text with an image, a photo gallery, columns, buttons, etc.

You can add the post's date, title, category, status (published or draught), summary, and image preview using the left sidebar. In other words, your article will be totally composed of numerous distinct components, each of which you will edit separately. The sequence of the text, image, and button is up to you.