When blogging came about, it was mainly a platform for people to express their feelings and ideas. A blog was meant to become an online diary, journal or log for those who wanted to express themselves online. Blogging has now emerged into one of the most powerful means of sharing information on the internet. It is now a specialized industry and is being used worldwide by the individual and businesses to establish and enhance their presence online.
Quick and easy set up
Setting up a blog is a lot easier than starting a business website. It allows the user the freedom to be creative and express their feelings without any constraint of a corporate tone.
You may be thinking that you would have to pay a lot to get a decent looking and easy to use blog – wrong. There are plenty of free blogging platforms available with thousands of themes and templates for you to choose from. If you think that you can splash to cash on an advanced blogging platform then there are many other paid blogging platforms to invest in.
Comparing the top 4 blogging platforms
Looking for the right blogging platform may be a difficult task, especially if you don’t know what you are looking for.
Wix (www.wix.com) – Overall score 6/10
Wix is a free blog platform with limitations but these can be accessed by buying the premium version. One of the limitations is not being able to have your own domain, however if you buy the premium version of Wix, you can have your own domain (hosting is provided). Both versions do not require any level of CSS or HTML however, you cannot create any post categories on the blog.
Wix offer ‘many different’ themes depending on which version you have. If you have the free version, you have access to around 40 themes. If you buy the premium version, then you have access to 90+ themes. Custom plugins are very limited which creates difficulties when making your site unique. Updates will be updated automatically and you have between 500MB to 5GB of storage available. StartBloggingOnline.com rated the user friendliness an 8/10.
Tumblr (www.tumblr.com) – Overall score 7/10
Tumblr is another free blogging platform, which has no paid advancements or premium versions. It is possible to have your own domain and some HTML/CSS is required for customisation, excellent for those who know a lot about HTML/CSS, although custom plugins are very limited making it hard for basic use. Tumblr provides hosting to users and Tumblr will also automatically install new updates to the website. Posting wise, scheduled posting is not available but post categories can be used. With unlimited storage and a user-friendliness score of 8/10.
Blogger (www.blogger.com) – Overall score 8/10
Blogger is a free to use blogging site set up by Google. With 20-30 themes and very limited plugins available, Blogger cannot be customised to the full extent that other blogging sites can be. No level of CSS and HTML is needed but CMAP is required, for the technical side, if you want your own domain name. Hosting is provided by Blogger and is available to all users, even those who want their own domain. The maximum amount of storage that users will receive is 1GB, not a huge amount compared to other blogging websites. Blogger will automatically update the website so the users won’t have to keep updating themselves. Scheduled posting has been set up on the site but bloggers won’t be able to categorise their posts. StartBloggingOnline.com gave Blogger a user-friendliness rating of 8/10. Read: WordPress Vs Blogger, which Gives the Best Blogging Experience?
WordPress (www.wordpress.org) – Overall score 9/10
WordPress is said to be the best free blogging site and you can have your own domain! There are no major limitations and to customize your website, you have 1500+ themes and over 20,000 plugins to choose from but a level of CSS is required for advanced editing. Hosting can be provided by WordPress however, the amount of storage you get all depends on the hosting company and you will need to manually update the system. My blog TechnTechie is in WordPress and I use Hostgator as my hosting company. Their service is just awesome and I am using this web hosting company for the last 4 years. I always recommend Hostgator as a hosting company for other bloggers. One of the great aspects about WordPress is that you can post your articles into categories, making it easier for readers to search your content for the topics they like. You can also schedule your posts to also allow the readers for easy reading. StartBloggingOnline.com gave WordPress a user-friendliness rating of 9/10. Tips to Choose The Best Web Hosting Service is an awesome article to read if you want to start your WordPress blog using your own hosting. Why WordPress Books are Important for a WordPress Blogger? is also important for those who wants to start their blog in WordPress.
Conclusion
So overall WordPress has come out on top because your blog can be fully customised to how you want will thousands of plugins and hundreds of plugins to choose from. A blogging site needs to fully accessible and customisable for the user as this is what blogs are meant to be, filled with expression and opinions about a range of subjects or just one topic in particular. WordPress is an excellent blogging site for any level of blogging and/or website experience. WordPress is accessible to any person whether they are a beginner or experienced in websites and blogging.
