10 Best Blogging Platforms

Best website builder for blogging

$16 – $49 per month, billed annually

Editor's Choice

Squarespace

Best website builder for blogging

Excellent

4.7

out of 5

• Best blogging features
• Beautiful blog designs
• Save 10% with code WBE

Free trial available

Paid Plans: $16 - $49 / month

Pros

• 113 stunning, customizable templates
• Tons of creative freedom over your blog
• Best blogging features and powerful SEO

Cons

• No free plan
• You don’t get full creative control

Read Review

Use code WBE for 10% off

Visit Site

Squarespace is the best blogging website builder available. Its stunning designs make for beautiful posts, and its powerful SEO tools can help you get your content in front of tons of readers. In recent years, its ease of use has seen massive improvements, and overall, Squarespace scored 4.7 out of 5 in our research process.

Squarespace Gallery

Click the image below to expand

Close

Squarespace is the best blogging platform on the market right now.

Squarespace has everything a growing blog could need, from excellent features to stunning templates.

Squarespace has 60 blog-specific customizable templates to choose from – you can filter by ‘Blog’ and by niche, such as ‘Food’.

Here’s a closer look at one of Squarespace’s templates, called Stanton. You can make it uniquely yours with Squarespace’s editing tools.

The Good Trade is a blog website built using Squarespace, and now has a global audience.

Blogging Features: 5/5

Squarespace hooked a top score for features in our user testing, putting it right at the top. With this builder, you can:

• Display blogging categories
• Allow comments
• Add an RSS Feed
• Set up social sharing
• Create a paid newsletter
• Track blog analytics
• SEO tools
• Schedule your posts

Squarespace’s blogging features are strong, and they’ve gotten even stronger in recent years. It used to be that on their cheapest paid plan, you were limited to just 20 pages. Now that cap has been lifted entirely. Squarespace also offers powerful SEO tools that can help your blog posts attract an audience. If you’re a total SEO beginner, it may take a little while to get comfortable with these tools – but Squarespace offers in-depth SEO guides to help you get started!

It is worth mentioning, that recently Squarespace has made some major improvements. Currently, they now provide in-built analytics, along with Google Analytics. Additionally, you can now add an archive to your blog, so you won’t lose any valuable information.

Play

Design: 4.7/5

Squarespace is well known for its stunning templates, and they’re part of the reason why this platform is number one for blogging.

You can browse free and paid templates by industry and select one that suits your blog’s needs. There are even 12 templates to choose from that have been designed specifically for blogs. Squarespace has taken great care with how your content is laid out on its templates. The designs are top-of-the-range and features like grid layout and 3D scrolling can give your blog a unique look and feel.

At times it feels like blog-building from the future!

Pricing: 4/5

Squarespace’s $16/month Personal plan is its cheapest pricing plan, and offers plenty of scalable features. The Personal plan will give you everything you need to start blogging. If you ever want to monetize your blog, then you’ll need to upgrade to the $23/month Business plan.

Squarespace also has two specialized ecommerce plans, but these are designed for online stores rather than blogs. Here’s a quick look at all of Squarespace’s plans, billed annually:

• Personal: $16/month – best for new blogs
• Business: $23/month – best for growing blogs and monetizing content
• Basic Commerce: $27/month – designed for small online stores
• Advanced Commerce: $49/month – designed for larger online stores

Although Squarespace doesn’t come with a free plan, it does start every plan with a 14-day free trial so you can test it out yourself risk-free.

Although not the cheapest, we still think that Squarespace’s plans offer awesome value for money, so you can realize your blogging dreams without having to plunder your savings. Sure, you can choose a builder with a cheaper starting plan, but it won’t be able to match Squarespace’s quality reputation. Squarespace provides a premium service – without the premium price tag!

Are you a student? Squarespace offers students 50% off any plan with a valid academic email address (Terms and Conditions apply).

Do You Want a Beautiful Blog?

Squarespace can’t be beaten for its stunning designs and visual templates. If you need looks as well as features, this is worth a try!

Yes! Show Me More of Squarespace

Further Information:

• Squarespace Review
• Squarespace Pricing
• Squarespace SEO Review
• Squarespace vs WordPress

Best for powerful built-in blogging features

$16 – $59 per month, billed annually (free plan also available)

Wix

Best for powerful built-in blogging features

Excellent

4.7

out of 5

• Easiest platform to use
• You can publish for free
• Endless creative freedom

Free plan available

Paid Plans: $16 - $59 / month

Pros

• Create a whole website including a blog
• Easy, beginner-friendly editor
• Ideal for long-term growth

Cons

• No in-built search feature’
• Cheapest plan is pricey at $16/month
• Lacks storage, especially on cheap plans

Read Review

Visit Site

Wix is an intuitive site builder that lets you integrate a blog at the click of a button. It’s easy to use and comes packed with features. Plus, Wix makes it simple to integrate your blog with a fully fledged website.

Wix Gallery

Click the image below to expand

Close

Wix is an excellent blog website builder that gives you plenty of creative control over your design.

You can now schedule and collaborate anywhere with the Wix blog productivity place

Choose from 900+ templates and get a professionally designed blog

Wix gives you tons of blogging templates to choose from – some are better than others, so choose carefully.

Blogging Features: 5/5

Wix offers:

• Analytics, so you can track your blog’s performance
• Comments sections, so readers can engage with your content
• Social bookmarking, so readers can easily revisit your blog
• Search feature to help both you and your users make the most of your blog
• Best SEO practice tools to get your website ranking higher on Google

Plus, Wix is also strong on mobile. Updating your blog on mobile is a painless experience. Think about this if you’re someone who travels a lot and plans to blog on the move.

However, you can’t create an archive in Wix’s blogging tool, and you can’t add an RSS feed – which makes it more difficult to update content.

Design: 4.2/5

When it comes to blog design, Wix has a great selection of stunning and up-to-date templates for you to choose from.

Wix has recently upgraded its content editor. Along with all the existing features, you can now:

• Personalize image galleries
• Add captions and links to images
• Insert videos from YouTube or Vimeo

The rich editor in Wix makes you feel like you’re crafting your blog with the finest materials. Powerful customization is made simple.

Pricing: 3.4/5

You can launch a blog with your Wix site on any plan, from the Free plan upwards. However, to connect your domain name you’ll need to sign up to the $16/month Combo plan. This will also enable you to get rid of Wix ads. We’d recommend upgrading to a paid Wix plan, despite it being more costly than before. It’s a small price to pay to make your blog look professional.

The more professional your blog, the more readers will trust you. Think about it. When you go into a book shop, would you pick up a book that had adverts stuck all over the front cover and different authors’ names on it? Probably not!

For this reason, we recommend the Combo or Unlimited plan for building your blog. Here’s a full list of Wix’s website plans, all billed annually:

• Free plan: $0/month – adverts displayed on your blog
• Combo plan: $16/month – perfect for small but professional blogs
• Unlimited plan: $22/month – generous features for growing your blog
• Pro plan: $27/month – best for fully branded blogs
• VIP plan: $45/month – suitable for large business blogs

If you want to monetize your blog, check out its ecommerce plans too:

• Business Basic plan: $27/month – this is the plan we recommend if you want to accept payments through your blog
• Business Unlimited plan: $32/month – cheapest plan to sell subscriptions
• Business VIP plan: $59/month – designed for very large stores, not suitable for most bloggers

Does Wix Sound Like Your Winner?

Wix is great for combining a website with your blog. Explore its features, templates, and more to see if it’s right for you!

Yes! I Want to Create My Blog With Wix

Further Information:

• Wix Review
• Wix Pricing Plans
• Wix SEO Review

Best for more control over your blog’s design

$4 – $45 per month, billed annually (free plan also available)

WordPress.com

Best for more control over your blog’s design

Very Good

4.2

out of 5

• Built purely for blogging
• More advanced platform
• Coding skills are helpful

Free plan available

Paid Plans: $4 - $45 / month

Pros

• Powerful built-in blogging tools
• Easier version of the CMS WordPress.org
• Cheapest starting price at $4/month

Cons

• Not user-friendly for beginners
• Not as powerful as WordPress.org
• No autosave function in editor

Read Review

Visit Site

WordPress.com is a blog hosting service from the same company that’s behind WordPress.org. It’s a great option for building a blog, and in our research, it achieved an overall score of 4.2 out of 5.

It’s free to launch your blog on WordPress.com, but you have to pay for extra features like storage and your own domain name. Like Wix, to remove the WordPress.com logo you need to upgrade to one of WordPress.com’s paid plans, which start from $4 a month.

WordPress.com Gallery

Click the image below to expand

Close

WordPress.com is a very popular website builder – not to be confused with WordPress.org!

WordPress.com was designed for blogging and so comes with a huge range of features to help run your blog.

WordPress.com has plenty of blog-specific themes, both free and paid, to choose from.

Blogging Features: 5/5

Like Squarespace and Wix, WordPress.com sits ahead of the pack when it comes to blogging features. Here’s a snapshot of the key WordPress.com features that make it one of the best blogging platforms:

• Mobile-optimized themes make your blog look great on all devices.
• Technical upkeep managed, including software updates, hosting and domain registration.
• Modern site design.
• Advanced analytics
• An archive
• Comments
• Social sharing
• Schedule your posts

WordPress.com comes with almost everything you’ll ever need to run a blog, however, it doesn’t have an in-built search function or blog-specific SEO.

Design: 1.8/5

Designing your blog with WordPress.com isn’t quite as simple as you might want it to be. It comes with a steep learning curve and little in-editor guidance, which is why it only scored 3.2 out of 5 in our ease of use testing. This means that making an attractive blog quickly is pretty unlikely.

Despite this, once you get your head around the controls, WordPress.com allows for more creative control, giving users access to the HTML code for direct customization.

There’s also more scope for further personalization if you opt for one of WordPress.com’s premium price plans. This is because Premium blogs include custom CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). CSS is a coding language and having the freedom to alter it means you can make really comprehensive changes to your blog. Bear this in mind if you have long-term ambitions for your blog.

Great customization potential, plus hosting and technical upkeep, make WordPress.com a great middle-ground between WordPress.org and drag-and-drop website builders. It’s perfect for you if you don’t want to get your hands dirty with the mechanical side of running a blog, but are worried a builder like Wix may feel limiting in the long run. Just be prepared – it isn’t the easiest platform to use when you first get started!

Pricing: 4.8/5

With a an overall score of 4.2/5, WordPress.com ranks third place (just a bit better than WordPress.org) in our blogging research. In terms of value for money WordPress.com got a 4.8 out of 5 (joint second place with WordPress.org), second only to Weebly. Here’s a quick look at its price plans, all billed annually:

• Free plan: $0/month – adverts on your blog
• Personal plan: $4/month – remove adverts and monetize your blog
• Premium plan: $8/month – advanced social, analytics, and customization tools
• Business plan: $25/month – remove all WordPress.com branding, unlock business tools
• eCommerce plan: $45/month – suitable for online stores rather than blogs

You can blog on WordPress.com’s free plan, but in order to really get started with a custom domain and an ad-free site, we recommend you start with the Personal plan for $4/month. The Personal plan also comes with access to email and live chat support, which isn’t available on the free version.

Is WordPress.com Your Favorite So Far?

WordPress.com has powerful blogging tools without the technical demands of WordPress.org. Plus, it’s free!

Yes! Show Me WordPress.com

Best for creative, content-heavy blogs looking to grow

WordPress: free to use!
Bluehost hosting: $2.95 – $5.45 per month

WordPress.org

Best for control and customization

Very Good

4.1

out of 5

• Famous for blogging!
• Limitless customizations
• Requires separate hosting

Free plan available

Paid Plans: $2.95 - $5.45 / month

Pros

• 54,000+ plugins to customize your blog
• Build from scratch with total control
• Add whatever blogging tools you need

Cons

• Steep learning curve for beginners
• You manage security, hosting, updates
• No in-house support team or resources

Read Review

We recommend using Bluehost

Visit Site

WordPress.org is a free and open source software that has helped millions of people launch blogs online. In fact, WordPress.org is so popular that it now powers 40% of all websites. That’s one heck of a social recommendation!

To use WordPress.org, you need hosting. WordPress.org itself recommends Bluehost for this and so do we, because of how well it performed in our research for WordPress blogs.

WordPress.org Gallery

Click the image below to expand

Close

WordPress.org is an open-source blogging platform for more advanced blogging sites.

To use WordPress.org, you need to pay for separate hosting. Bluehost is the best host for WordPress sites.

WordPress.org is one of the best blogging platforms and is used by some of the world’s biggest companies, such as Walt Disney!

Blogging Features: 5/5

There’s a reason why WordPress.org is a popular favorite amongst bloggers worldwide. It offers a range of powerful blogging tools, from forums and comments sections to RSS feeds and analytics. Plus, WordPress integrates with thousands of plugins, both free and paid. Plugins can add a range of functionalities to your blog, including:

• Comment management
• Email marketing
• Visual analytics
• SEO
• Anti-spam

The possibilities are virtually endless! There’s no wonder we gave it top marks for this section.

With WordPress.org, a lot of your core features such as storage space, bandwidth, and security, come from your web host.

If you choose Bluehost for your provider, you get automatic WordPress installation (saving you time and effort), automatic WordPress updates (to keep your site secure and running smoothly), a free domain for one year, and at least 50GB storage. All on its cheapest plan!

Design: 2.2/5

Open source means you can play around with the code. The upshot of this is you get complete control over the look and feel of your blog. It would be like being in charge of the font, color and image on your physical book cover. The caveat is that you’ll need some technical skill (or money to hire a developer) to take full advantage of this flexibility.

WordPress.org is a particularly good option for more technical bloggers looking to develop a more complex blog long-term. But one downside to WordPress’s power is that less technical users will find the learning curve steeper than launching a blog on a drag-and-drop website builder, like Wix or Squarespace.

Pricing: 4.8/5

WordPress.org performed well in this category, coming joint second in our research for value for money. The platform is free to use, making it kind on your wallet, but you will still need to cover some costs. Essentials like hosting, security, and registering your domain name can add up. That’s why we recommend a good value web host like Bluehost, which provides a free domain for one year, plus built-in security features to protect your blog.

Hosting means giving your blog somewhere to live online.  This can be a pain for bloggers who aren’t as computer-savvy.

The good news is Bluehost provides one-click integration with WordPress.org to save you time and headaches. It provides hosting plans that are specifically designed to support WordPress websites, called shared WordPress hosting.

Here’s a run-down of Bluehost’s price plans. We’ve listed annual plans and three-year plans, because you can save money by signing up for a longer contract:

• Basic plan: $4.95/month, billed annually – or $2.95/month for a three-year contract
• Plus plan: $7.45/month, billed annually – or $5.45/month for a three-year contract
• Choice Plus plan: $7.45/month, billed annually – or $5.45/month for a three-year contract

Hosting plans work a little differently to website builder plans because you get huge discounts for your first term. For example, Bluehost’s cheapest plan starts at just $2.95 per month. This is great if you’re starting out on a budget, but just make sure you check out the renewal price before you commit – you don’t want to be caught off-guard with a huge price tag when it comes to your second term!

If you want to start your blog on WordPress.org, hit the button below the image to get started.

Is WordPress Your Perfect Match?

The first step to a successful WordPress blog is a good web host. We recommend Bluehost – take a sneak peek to see why!

Yes! Show Me Bluehost

Further Information:

• WordPress Review
• How To Install WordPress With Bluehost
• How to Write a Blog Post

Best for starting a basic blog for free

$6 – $26 per month, billed annually (free plan also available)

Weebly

Good choice for a very basic blog

Very Good

4.1

out of 5

• Best value blog platform
• Simple editing tools
• Good for beginners

Free plan available

Paid Plans: $10 - $29 / month

Pros

• Good range of blogging features
• Cheap plans offer great value for
• Excellent SEO guidance

Cons

• Limited customization options
• Outdated templates and designs
• Poor mobile performance

Read Review

Visit Site

As of 2022, Weebly powers just over 50 million websites globally. Weebly is an ideal website builder for anyone that wants to create a blog for the very first time. This is because it’s pretty simple to use. To add a blog to your website and populate it with great content, all you have to do is point and click with its intuitive drag-and-drop editor. Plus, it’s the most affordable choice out of all the builders on this list!

Weebly Gallery

Click the image below to expand

Close

Weebly is a simple blogging website builder with a solid range of blogging features.

Weebly doesn’t have a huge range of blogging themes, but the nine it does have are clean and modern.

Weebly uses drag-and-drop tools to make building your blog pretty quick and easy.

Using Weebly, you can build a blog of real character, complete with an RSS feed, categories and archives.

Blogging Features: 4/5

With Weebly, you can build a website and add a blog page without touching any code. Weebly will take care of all the technical heavy lifting in the background, and make sure your blog loads quickly and is accessible to readers.

Weebly also offers a good number of blogging must-haves. This is a big reason why it earns a 4 out of 5 in the “features” category of our blogging research.

Check out the tools Weebly offers:

• Different writer profiles
• An easy-access archive
• Comments section
• Social bookmarking to help your blog go viral
• A in-built search feature
• Blog specific SEO

However, Weebly is still lacking in some of the more advanced features. For example, it doesn’t provide an analytics feature, or allow you to schedule your posts. You won’t be able to display specific categories, either. As a result, we think that Weebly is better suited to those looking to build a simpler kind of blog!

Design: 2.6/5

Since we last tested Weebly, it’s clear that the platform hasn’t really moved forwards in terms of design. Both its template designs and its editor are outdated, and this makes building a polished blog quite tricky. Plus, none of its templates are optimized for mobile, meaning they aren’t ideal for viewing on smaller screens.

You also won’t have as much design freedom with Weebly as you would with some more advanced builders. Its templates are pretty structured, so you won’t have complete control over layouts and color schemes as you would with builders like Squarespace and Wix.  For these reasons, we only awarded it 2.6 out of 5 in this category.

But, it’s not all bad! Weebly’s drag-and-drop editor is quite easy to use, even if it isn’t the most up-to-date out of all the platforms. That means you can get up and running quickly with no technical headaches!

Pricing: 5/5

Weebly achieved the highest score out of all the platforms we tested for value for money, scoring a perfect 5 out of 5. Creating a blog is possible on any of Weebly’s pricing plans, which start at the Free plan and go up to the $26/month Performance plan for online stores:

• Free plan: $0 – adverts on your blog, but you can monetize from day one!
• Personal: $6/month – still have adverts, but connect a custom domain
• Professional: $12/month – remove adverts for a professional looking blog
• Performance: $26/month – designed to support larger online stores, not blogs  

If you’re creating a personal or hobby blog, then we recommend jumping on the $6/month Personal plan. This comes with the same features as the free plan, with the added bonus of letting you connect your own custom domain, to give your site a more professional image.

However, to remove Weebly adverts from your blog you’ll need to upgrade to the $12/month Professional plan.

This is the plan we recommend to most Weebly users, as it offers awesome features and great value for money. For $12/month you can say hello to features such as unlimited storage, a free domain, and password protected pages – perfect for releasing exclusive content to your subscribers!

The Professional plan is the best choice for bloggers wanting to create a blog that’ll be taken seriously by its readers – rather than seen as a “just for fun” or short-term project.

On the whole, we suggest that bloggers steer clear of both the free plan and the most expensive Performance plan, as neither are tailored to suit bloggers’ needs.

Do You Need a Blog Quickly?

Weebly is ideal for building a blog quickly and easily, and even throws in a great range of solid blogging tools. Try it for free!

Yes! Create My Blog With Weebly

Further Information:

• Weebly Review
• Weebly Pricing Review

Good choice for a very basic blog

$6.99 – $29.99 per month, billed annually (free plan also available)

GoDaddy

Best for getting your blog up and running quickly

Good

3.9

out of 5

• ADI Builder
• Great for smaller blogs
• User-friendly setup

Free plan available

Paid Plans: $6.99 - $469.99 / month

Pros

• Shown massive improvements recently
• Quick and efficient
• Good range of must-have features

Cons

• Templates can look the same
• Limited SEO tools on cheaper plans
• Restricted customization

Read Review

Visit Site

GoDaddy’s website builder is an excellent option for building a professional-looking blog quickly, thanks to its ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) builder. This means all you have to do is answer a few questions and it will build your blog for you! It’s perfect if you’re a beginner, or just short on time.

GoDaddy Gallery

Click the image below to expand

Close

Answer a few questions and GoDaddy will build you a blog in seconds.

Although limited, GoDaddy’s editor allows you to make changes to your blog to reflect your brand.

Clicking on your blog page will take you to your blog dashboard, where you can start writing and editing your posts.

If you don’t like the look of the blog GoDaddy creates, you can choose from a limited number of additional layouts.

GoDaddy has four plans to choose from, in addition to its free plan.

Blogging Features: 3/5

Although GoDaddy doesn’t come with the most comprehensive set of blogging features, it has plenty to satisfy you if you’re looking to create a smaller blog. This includes:

• The ability to display categories
• Comments
• Social sharing
• Blog-specific SEO

GoDaddy also allows you to schedule your posts, so you can time exactly when you want them to go live for your visitors.

Like Weebly, it also misses some of the more advanced blogging features, so you won’t find analytics, an archive feature, or a search bar anywhere in your GoDaddy blog. This makes it harder to grow your readers in the long term, so if you’ve got ambitions to turn your blog into something big, GoDaddy might not be your best option.

Design: 4.3/5

When it comes to design, GoDaddy has come a long way since we last tested it. Its score has improved by 14%! This is thanks to its new and improved templates, as well as a general overhaul of its customization possibilities.

Although it uses ADI to build its websites, GoDaddy produces some very stylish designs. All of them have a clean and contemporary feel, as well as being optimized for mobile. Plus, if you don’t like what GoDaddy’s made for you, you can choose something else from a number of other layouts.

Despite the steps it’s taken to provide a better experience in this category, GoDaddy still comes with some limitations. For example, customization is still not as free and easy as it is on builders like Squarespace and Wix. The templates are more restrictive, so you won’t be able to resize or move image blocks around too much.

Pricing: 4.3/5

GoDaddy scores well in this category thanks to its range of affordable price plans. There are four premium packages to choose from:

• Basic: $6.99 per month
• Premium: $13.99 per month
• Commerce: $14.99 per month
• Commerce Plus: $29.99 per month

All of these come with a 30-day free trial so you can try before you buy. Or, alternatively, GoDaddy also has a free plan, meaning you can build your website without paying a single dime!

Although this is great when you’re just starting out, we don’t recommend staying on the free plan for very long as the features it offers are very limited. You won’t get any advanced SEO, for example!

Do you want to take the stress out of building your blog?

GoDaddy’s ADI builder makes building a blog fast super-easy. It also comes with a ton of useful tools for smaller bloggers Give it a go today!

Yes! Take Me To GoDaddy

Further Information:

• GoDaddy Review
• How to Build a Website on GoDaddy
• GoDaddy vs Squarespace
• GoDaddy vs Wix

Best for a simple, grid-based, drag-and-drop blog

$2.90 – $29.99 per month, billed annually

Hostinger - Web Builder

Best for a simple, grid-based, drag-and-drop blog

Good

3.6

out of 5

• Up-and-coming builder
• Experimental AI tools
• Popular with our users

Free trial available

Paid Plans: $2.69 - $39.99 / month

Pros

• Cheap and affordable
• Easy to use
• Comes with some innovative extras

Cons

• Missing some key blogging features
• No app market
• No blog-specific analytics

Read Review

Visit Site

Although Zyro hasn’t been around as long as some of the other big names, that doesn’t mean you should overlook it in your search for the perfect blog builder. Like Weebly, it doesn’t come with all the fancy extras, but it’s solid and reliable, as well as being super-easy to use. If you want a simple but classic blog that allows your content to speak for yourself, Zyro could be your best bet.

Zyro Gallery

Click the image below to expand

Close

Zyro had four different pricing plans to choose from, and it often runs promotional discounts, too.

Zyro offers both a classic and an ADI builder, although you can also choose to build your blog from scratch if you’ve got the techy know-how.

Zyro has a great selection of blog-specific templates to choose from.

Zyro’s editor is simple and easy to use, especially because the gridlines help you to keep your design neat and tidy.

Type your blog posts directly onto your website page so you can easily see what they’re going to look like.

Blogging Features: 3/5 

Although it’s not the most full-featured, Zyro does come with a handful of essential blogging features. These include:

• Writer profiles
• The ability to display categories
• Social sharing
• Blog specific SEO

If you aren’t looking for something too complicated, this should be more than enough to get you on your way. However, Zyro does miss some notable must-have tools. For example, it doesn’t support comments or an archive, there’s no search bar, and you can’t schedule your posts in advance. Plus, the absence of any blog analytics makes it tricky to track performance.

Because of this, bloggers who plan to expand and grow their platform might want to look for something more advanced.

Design: 3/5 

Zyro offers a host of very attractive templates to choose from. They’re all very stylish, with a contemporary flavor that will appeal particularly to a younger audience. Additionally, you can choose to use the ADI builder, which will create your website for you, or start from scratch if you’ve got a particular creative vision.

Thanks to the drag-and-drop editor, Zyro has pretty good customizability, too. It’s very easy to use, and the optional grid-overlay gives a handy set of guidelines for keeping your layout neat and tidy. In fact, this was an area of strength for Zyro, and our users awarded it 4 out of 5 in our ease of use testing.

However, its simplicity comes at the cost of its features. Being so new, we get the impression that Zyro hasn’t quite finished building out all of its features yet, which means there should still be lots of great stuff to come. Currently, however, it suffers in this area.

Pricing: 4.2/5

When it comes to money, Zyro performs pretty poorly. We gave it a score of 2.5 out of 5 because of its not-so affordable plans. There are four to choose from, and each comes with a free trial so you can test it out before you commit. Here’s a snapshot of the plans on offer and how much they cost:

• Basic: $8.90 per month
• Unleashed: $12.49 per month
• eCommerce: $24.49 per month
• eCommerce Plus: $29.99 per month

Both the Basic and Unleashed plans are good choices for running a blog, although if you want to monetize it, you’ll need to make sure to choose one of the ecommerce packages, instead.

Although Zyro is pricey for what it offers it does often runs sales, slashing prices by up to 69%! If you’re lucky enough to select your plan on one of these occasions, you could get the Unleashed plan for just $2.90 per month!

Do You Want To Try Zyro’s Simple and Easy Builder?

Zyro is perfect for creating a simple but effective blog, and is ideal for beginners. Take advantage of its free trial and test it out today!

Yes! I Want To Try Zyro

Further Information:

• Zyro Review

Best if you need a helping hand

$12.80 – $34.80 per month, billed annually (free plan also available)

Site123

Best if you want plenty of stock images for your blog

Above Average

3.3

out of 5

• Brilliant live chat help
• Limited features
• Plenty of stock images

Free plan available

Paid Plans: $12.8 - $97.5 / month

Pros

• 24/7 live chat perfect for nervous users
• Design-assistance makes setup very fast
• Suitable for small, personal blogs

Cons

• Dated designs and clunky, limited editor
• Poor quality features, no archive tool
• Paid plans expensive for what they offer

Read Review

Visit Site

Site123 is a very basic builder, so not ideal for serious or complex blogging sites, but it is intuitive and easy to get the hang of while you get started. Overall, it scored 3.3 out of 5 in our research and testing. You get a brilliant live chat feature, making it perfect for beginners who are a bit nervous or need that extra level of support.

SITE123 Gallery

Click the image below to expand

Close

SITE123 is a free, basic blogging website builder suitable for small hobby blogs.

One of the best features of SITE123 is its 24/7 live chat – perfect for beginners needing extra support.

SITE123’s editor is fairly basic, and its designs aren’t the most exciting, but you can create a simple blog.

Blogging Features: 3/5

SITE123 is only suitable for small, personal blogs. You get tons of features included, but it leans towards quantity over quality. That said, here’s a few features you can expect from SITE123:

• Blog specific templates
• Comments system
• Blog post scheduling
• RSS
• Comment reply tool
• Comment auto-confirmation
• Social media integration

Apart from the built-in blogging tools, you also get access to the SITE123 App Market. This gives you tons of extras to boost your blog, from Google Analytics to live chat apps. There’s a mix of free and premium apps to choose from. Like everything with SITE123, the App Market is easy to use and designed to help you out!

Although not a blogging tool, it’s also worth highlighting SITE123’s excellent 24/7 live chat support. This makes it easy to ask questions, and save time if you hit a bump when you’re building your site.

Design: 1.4/5

Sadly, SITE123’s blogging templates aren’t the most inspiring – in fact, most of them look pretty dated compared to the themes offered by builders like Squarespace. They also don’t give you much creative control, either. However, they aren’t a complete lost cause. Each one is simple and clean, for a minimalist, pared-back feel.

The main thing to know with SITE123’s templates is you can’t switch your design once you’ve published your blog.

Pricing: 4.1/5

You can build your blog for free with SITE123’s free plan, which gives you 250MB storage and bandwidth. Or, you can upgrade to the $12.80 per month Premium plan for more advanced features, including a free domain, 10GB storage, and ecommerce functionality.

Once you’ve signed up for SITE123, you’ll discover a broader range of plans than it displays on its website. Here’s a quick run-down of all its plans, billed annually:

• Free plan: $0/month – suitable for hobby blogs, comes with SITE123 adverts
• Basic plan: $12.80/month – removes floating ad, connects custom domain, 100 mailing list messages
• Advanced plan: $19.80/month – cheapest plan to remove the SITE123 branded footer tag
• Professional plan: $28.80/month – unlock website statistics to track your blog’s performance
• Gold plan: $34.80/month – add up to five extra languages for a multilanguage blog

Do You Need a Helping Hand?

SITE123 is there to support you every step of the way, so if you’re a nervous beginner this is a smart choice.

Yes! Show Me SITE123

Further Information:

• SITE123 Review
• Cheapest Website Builders

Best for building a single-page blog

$8 – $49 per month, billed annually

Strikingly

Best for a simple, grid-based, drag-and-drop blog

Above Average

3.3

out of 5

• Good for personal blogs
• Outdated overall
• Relatively easy to use

Free plan available

Paid Plans: $8 - $59 / month

Pros

• Excellent on-page help and support
• Large storage space capacity

Cons

• Least improved builder in our research
• Poor value for money
• Others do it better

Read Review

Visit Site

Strikingly isn’t going to win any awards for innovative blog design, but it is a good builder for simple, one-page personal blogs. Overall, it scored 3.3 out of 5 in our research, and its standout features include a thorough onboarding process and a handy on-page chat feature to help if you get stuck. However, it is lacking in features, and our users found the editor a bit tricky to get a grip on.

Strikingly Gallery

Click the image below to expand

Close

Strikingly has a number of plans to choose from, but you’ll make a saving if you sign up for an annual plan rather than a monthly one.

Strikingly has four blog-specific templates, although you can add a blog to any of the themes available.

Strikingly’s editor is easy to use but it doesn’t come with a huge number of in-built features.

Blogging Features: 3/5

Similar to Zyro, Strikingly offers a compact but effective set of blogging features that are perfect for small blogs. Strikingly comes with:

• Blog post categories
• Comments
• Social sharing

You can also schedule your posts to go out at a specific time, meaning you can write them all in one go instead of day-by-day. It also has blog-specific SEO tools, too.

However, it’s worth noting that Strikingly doesn’t come with inbuilt blog analytics, making it difficult to measure and improve against your current performance.

Design: 2.8/5

Strikingly offers a small selection of blog-specific templates to choose from. There are four of them, and although they’re pretty basic, they look clean and professional. If you decide to go with another template, though, you can still add a blog page.

Customization is restricted, but you can still change the overall color scheme and move your rows around. Problems arise when you want to do anything more complex than this. Strikingly’s editor isn’t super intuitive, and it only scored 3.4 out of 5 in our ease of use testing thanks to its general clunkiness.

The most important thing to know about Strikingly’s templates is that if you’re on the cheapest plan, you’ll only be able to create a single-page website. This will suit bloggers that use images more than words, or only want to write very short posts. However, it’s not ideal for anything bigger or more complicated. If you want more than one page, you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro plan.

Pricing: 2.9/5

Strikingly has four different pricing plans, including a free plan. Its paid packages are as follows:

Limited: $8 per month

Pro: $16 per month

VIP: $49 per month

As a general rule, we don’t recommend staying on Strikingly’s free plan forever. This is because, although it gives you access to a set of basic features, you won’t be able to move beyond a single page and you’ll have to contend with a ‘.strikingly.com’ subdomain as well as Strikingly branding. You won’t get access to any website analytics, either. None of this is ideal for building and maintaining a successful, professional blog!

The Pro plan is the best out of the bunch, giving you access to all Strikingly features, as well as getting rid of that pesky branding. You’ll be able to sell things, too. However, at $16 per month, it’s pricier than many of its competitors, which is why Strikingly only scored 2.9 out of 5 in our value for money category.

Is Strikingly Your Dream Blog Builder?

Strikingly is perfect for small personal blogs and the good news is that you can get started with them for free today!

Yes! I Want To Try Strikingly

Further Information:

• Strikingly Review

Best if you’re building a blog for a client

$14 – $44 per month, billed annually

Duda

Expensive, but offers a lot for the design-conscious

Above Average

3.3

out of 5

• Design-focused platform
• Basic blogging tools
• Poor value for money

Free trial available

Paid Plans: $14 - $59 / month

Pros

• Easier to use than other builders
• Easily build cool in-house widgets
• Drag-and-drop tools make editing easy

Cons

• Expensive plans lack value for money
• Not enough scalability for larger blogs
• No blog archive or comments section

Read Review

Visit Site

Duda is a design-focused website builder that demands no technical skill – think of it as a less powerful version of Squarespace. Its variety of stylish templates and excellent ease of use make it a good choice for starting a blog quickly, but you won’t get many standout features for the price. In fact, Duda is around 59% more expensive than Squarespace, which is why it only scores 1.2/5 in our research for value for money!

Duda Gallery

Click the image below to expand

Close

Duda is a creative, design-focused blogging website builder originally built for web designers to use.

Duda has a decent range of blogging tools, but lacks an archive and comments section.

Duda’s templates are stylish, and come with pre-made structure to give you some creative guidance.

Blogging Features: 3/5

When it comes to blogging features, Duda has the basic necessities covered – it includes:

• Display categories
• Social bookmarking
• Search functions
• RSS feeds

Duda also offers site stats and analytics, so you can easily keep track of everything from the number of visitors you get to which pages they’re viewing.

However, Duda is lacking in two very central blogging features: it doesn’t offer an archive or a comments section, two gaps that make it significantly harder for visitors to interact with your posts.

Design: 4.1/5

Duda offers 98 beautifully designed templates, all of which are built so that your blog displays seamlessly across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices (and you can preview these views before choosing a template). You can choose between pre-filled templates or templates with a little more design freedom, so the creative aspect is only as involved as you want it to be.

All of the edits you make to your template will happen directly on-screen – meaning you won’t be sent to a confusing new window every time you want to make small changes!

With a 4.4 out of 5, Duda comes joint first alongside Wix in the ease of use category of our blogging research, and its drag-and-drop templates are a huge reason why. This ease of use does come with certain limits on your design freedom, but if you’re not much of a tech whiz, then you probably won’t mind Duda’s lower level of customization when compared to builders like Squarespace.

Pricing: 1.2/5

Pricing is one of Duda’s weaker areas. Duda offers a 14-day free trial, but it doesn’t have a free plan after that. Plus, those on the cheapest plan won’t get any access to help and support tools.

Here are Duda’s three paid packages:

• Basic plan: $14/month, billed annually – best for a small blog run by one person
• Team plan: $22/month, billed annually – better support, and team collaboration tools
• Agency plan: $44/month, billed annually – unlock a widget builder to create personalized content

Duda’s Basic plan is the cheapest option at $14/month. This can be a decent price or slightly expensive, depending on what you get for your money. With Duda, you won’t get as much scalability or as many features as you would with Wix or Squarespace – both of which offer blog comments and more customizable templates for only a fraction more.

Interested in Duda's easy design?

This builder is a great starting place for creatives, and you can test out Duda’s templates risk-free with a 14-day free trial.

Visit Duda

Further Information:

• Duda Review
• How to Choose a Website Template

We’ve given you the 10 best blogging platforms on the market – perhaps one jumped straight out at you, but what if you’re still scratching your head? How are you meant to pick just one to build your blog?

Here are some questions to ask, which will help you find the best blogging platform for you.

#1. Do You Want to Monetize Your Blog?

Weebly makes it easy to start monetizing your blog with affiliate marketing and Google AdSense, so it’s the easiest platform for beginners to start making money through blogging.

If you’re more technically advanced or want to grow your blog into a substantial revenue stream, then WordPress.org with Bluehost is a more scalable solution. With these tools, you can use all kinds of plugins to help your blog start making money.

#2. What’s the Focus of Your Blog?

If you’re a photographer, featuring lots of imagery, or doubling your blog as a portfolio, you’ll need a platform to show off your talent! Choosing a platform like Squarespace will give your work the space and aesthetics it needs to really shine.

#3. How Technically Confident Are You?

Wix and Squarespace are both beginner-friendly options that strike the balance between easy editing functions and advanced features. In other words, you can create an impressive blog without any tech skills.

If you’re happy taking on more technical responsibility, then WordPress.org with Bluehost could be very rewarding – but there is less guidance offered along the way.

#4. How Will People Find You?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is essential for ranking on Google and getting found in search results. If you choose a builder with weak SEO tools, it’ll be much harder for your blog posts to get the readership they deserve!

Wix ranks number one in our comparison of the 5 best website builders for SEO, and its beginner-oriented SEO tools allow for anyone to promote blog posts with ease.

#5. How Design-Focused Are You?

Is a stylish blog design important to you? If so, you need a blogging platform with modern, attractive templates to give your readers the very best experience of your website.

Squarespace has the best designs on the market, and is perfect for creating a stunning blog. Its designs are fresh, clean, and consistently high quality – check out its blogging templates to see for yourself!

Plus, we’re the first to admit that getting the design of your blog right can be a tricky endeavor – so let us help. We’ve put together a list of 15 of the best blog examples to inspire you in 2022 – why not go explore them for yourself?

#6. Why Are You Creating a Blog?

The motivation behind your blog is a key, but often overlooked, part of choosing the right blogging platform. For example, if you’re creating a personal hobby blog then a free, basic platform like Weebly will be fine. However, if you want to make money from your blog, share it online, or even add it to your resume, then you need a professional, scalable builder like Squarespace.

#7. Which Features Are Most Important to You?

If you plan on using a lot of images, then you need a builder with generous amounts of storage space. If you’re running your blog as a side-hustle, it’s smart to look for post scheduling so you don’t have to be tied to your blog 24/7.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the number of features on offer, so think about which ones are most important to you.

If you’re still not sure which builder to choose, you can’t go wrong with Squarespace, our top-rated overall blogging platform. Squarespace’s dedicated blogging features paired with its stunning templates offer a simple recipe for success.

Whichever builder you choose, have fun – and happy blogging!