6 Best Blog Hosting Sites 2019

Blog hosting sites provide a place to store written content created by individuals or businesses, allowing users to access that content online via a blog or website address. We reviewed a dozen popular blog hosting sites and chose the top six—including the best overall—based on value, ease of use, and features such as analytics.

Top 6 Blog Hosting Sites 2019

How We Evaluated the Best Blog Hosting Sites

With so many options, it can be difficult to know which blog hosting site is the best for your business. To help narrow it down, we researched and reviewed the top choices by looking at price, ease of use, customer service, user reviews, and add-on features like SEO tools, social media integration, RSS feeds, and blog analytics.

The criteria we used to evaluate the best blog hosting sites include:

• Price: While there are both free and paid blog hosting sites, we looked for blog hosts that offer plans for no more than $15 per month—an affordable price for small businesses.
• Ease of use: We sought out blogging platforms that require minimal technical knowledge to set up and use. All of the platforms on this list can be used by bloggers without coding knowledge and a basic understanding of the internet.
• Customer service: We looked for blog hosting sites that include customer service at no additional cost and have response times of 24 hours or less.
• SEO tools: Search engine optimization (SEO) is key to getting your blog found in search engines, such as Google and Yahoo. We sought out blog hosting sites that include built-in SEO tools to help improve your blog’s ranking in search engine results.
• Social media integration: We considered blog hosting platforms that include social media share buttons so content can be easily shared. We also chose hosts that allow users to place social media profile icons on their blog for better branding.
• RSS feeds: All blogs should utilize an RSS feed, which allows readers to sign up for alerts to new content. This was a key consideration in our ranking.
• Analytics and reporting: Analytics give users the ability to see blog traffic and visitor engagement data, such as which posts are most viewed. This helps blog owners improve their blogging strategies. Platforms with included analytics were therefore favorably ranked.

Based on the criteria above, we recommend WordPress.com as the best overall blog hosting site. The popular platform gives users the ability to easily create, publish, and organize content and offers a comprehensive list of features, including social media integration and RSS feeds. WordPress.com offers a free plan as well as premium plans starting at just $5 per month. This makes it ideal for small businesses looking to grow their brands with new content.

Overall Best Blog Hosting Site: WordPress.com

WordPress, the world’s most popular blog hosting provider, is known for its versatility. It stands out for its comprehensive customization capabilities and user-friendly interface. It’s also appealing to small businesses and individuals because of its free plan. Given these features, WordPress.com is best suited for rapidly growing new businesses needing a blogging platform that can scale with them.

WordPress Pricing

Blog hosting plans on WordPress.com range from free to over $8 per month. Paid plans give you the ability to connect your own domain (as opposed to using a WordPress.com subdomain, i.e., yourname.wordpress.com), they are ad-free, and start at just $5 per month. The only difference in paid plans is the amount of included storage.

WordPress Tiered Features

WordPress Free Plan

The WordPress Free plan includes 3GB of storage, access to hundreds of free themes, a WordPress subdomain (yourblogname.wordpress.com), social media integrations for sharing content, an RSS feed, and the ability to easily connect Google Analytics for reporting. A unique feature of WordPress is the large number of available plug-ins that give your site more functionality—from diverse contact forms to ecommerce portals.

Since this plan displays ads on your blog and does not allow you to connect your own domain, it’s not the ideal solution for those looking to blog professionally. On the other hand, it is a good way of trying out WordPress before upgrading and committing to a paid plan, or building out a blog before upgrading to premium plan.

WordPress Personal Plan

The WordPress Personal Plan costs $5 per month and gives you all the features of the Free Plan, such as built-in SEO tools, an RSS feed, free themes, reporting, and social media integration, with storage increased to 6GB and ad-free posts and pages.

Given the lack of ads and the ability to add a custom domain, the Personal Plan is a good choice for businesses just starting out that want their blog to be professional and serve as a clear representation of their brand. It’s also very affordable and offers the opportunity to grow with WordPress.com.

WordPress Premium Plan

The Premium plan has all of the features of the Personal plan but costs $8 per month and increases the storage limit to 13GB. It includes all the features from the Personal Plan, such as free themes, built-in SEO tools, social media integration, analytics, reporting tools, and an RSS feed.

This plan is best for those that have larger static sites with a moderate amount of graphics or videos, such as restaurants that showcase pictures of their food. Still, 13GB is not a lot of space compared to other providers, so this would not serve businesses that intend to regularly post videos or add dynamic content to their blog. For graphics-heavy blogging, consider Tumblr instead.

Connect WordPress to a Third-party Web Host

Another way to utilize WordPress for a blog, but without the cost of hosting directly with WordPress, is to connect a third-party web host of your choice, as such as Bluehost. We recommend Bluehost because it is a WordPress-recommended web hosting company that offers one-click WordPress installation for easy setup, as well as many other features such as a free domain name, 50GB of storage, and unlimited bandwidth for as little as $2.95 per month.

Visit Bluehost

Ease of Use

WordPress does not require coding or technical expertise, though it is the hardest blog hosting site to use on our list. The vast number of customization options mean there is likely to be a learning curve for first-time users, though once they get used to the platform, they often find it to be user-friendly.

WordPress user interface

Customer Service

Only users on paid plans get access to the WordPress customer service team, which is available via a website contact form and live chat. Users can expect a response in 24 hours for customer support submissions. While Free plan users don’t have this support, they can post a question on the WordPress forum; fortunately, active WordPress users are often quick to respond to these questions and supply very helpful answers.

What WordPress Is Missing

WordPress.com lacks an affordable premium plan that includes a high amount of storage; their mid-range plan includes 13GB of storage for $8 per month, and the next plan (not included in this article) jumps to $25 per month for unlimited storage. This is a big jump in terms of price and storage. For this reason, many choose to use a third-party host for their WordPress blog, such as Bluehost, where you can get unlimited storage for as little as $5.95 per month.

What Users Think About WordPress

Users frequently note on our reviews page that they like WordPress.com’s wide range of features, plug-ins, and tools, and that it is generally a user-friendly platform. Users also note that if you’re new WordPress, there can be a slight learning curve to using the platform. Learn more about what real users have to say about WordPress on our WordPress reviews page.

Where to Find WordPress

To learn more about WordPress and sign up for blog hosting, navigate to their home page and click on the “Plans & Pricing” tab from the horizontal menu at the top of the page. Review the available plans, then select the button below the plan you want. You can also click here to get started.

Visit WordPress

”When clients come to me and they want to start a blog, I always guide them to WordPress. WordPress is an open-source blogging platform, meaning anyone can view the source code behind it and build on top of the foundation. This has led to over 50,000 plug-ins in the WordPress plugin directory and tens of thousands of themes. Almost anything you’re looking to do online can be accomplished via WordPress, the right theme, and a few plug-ins.”

– Eric Nagel, PHP Programmer, Eric Nagel & Associates

Best Blog Hosting Site for Ecommerce: Weebly

Weebly is an easy-to-use business website builder and blog hosting site in one, with free and paid plans. The platform offers a wealth of functionality, but stands out for its included ecommerce features that provide businesses with a way to easily monetize their blogs with minimal setup. Given this intuitive offering, Weebly is a great option for non-tech-savvy businesses that need the ability to easily create a blog and eventually monetize it.

Weebly Pricing

Weebly has plans ranging from free to $12 per month. The Free and Connect plans display Weebly ads and include only 500MB of storage, so those looking to blog professionally will need to upgrade to the Pro plan, which costs $12 per month; it includes unlimited storage and the ability to connect your own domain.

Weebly Tiered Features

Weebly Free Plan

The Free plan offers basic Weebly features. This includes access to hundreds of web design templates that can easily be customized using Weebly’s drag-and-drop builder, a Weebly subdomain (such as yourbusiness.weebly.com), SEO tools, and SSL security with just 500MB of storage. It also displays Weebly ads on all of your web pages.

This plan is best for those interested in trying Weebly at no cost without being restricted to a short-term free trial. It’s not a good long-term option for businesses that want to create a professional-quality blog given that the Free plan displays Weebly ads on all web pages and doesn’t allow you to connect your own domain. On the other hand, those looking to create a blog for personal use will find this plan to be sufficient.

Weebly Connect Plan

The Connect plan is very similar to the free plan and costs $5 per month. It includes Weebly ads on every web page but also features SSL security, SEO tools, and 500MB of storage. The main difference between the free and Connect plan is that the Connect plan allows users to connect a domain (purchased separately). Instead of your URL being yourbusiness.weebly.com, it would be yourbusiness.com, giving your blog a more professional appearance.

This plan is a good entry-level plan for those creating a professional blog given that it allows you to connect your own domain. However, it does display Weebly ads on web pages, so it’s best for businesses that plan to use third-party banner ads, making the Weebly ads less conspicuous. This might include ecommerce sites that sell multiple brands or have multiple vendors.

Weebly Pro Plan

For $12 per month, the Weebly Pro plan includes everything from the Connect plan, but with no ads and unlimited storage. It also includes lead capture tools to collect contact information from website visitors, phone support, a free domain, and a $100 Google Ads credit.

The Weebly Pro plan is the best choice for brands looking to build a professional blog and ecommerce site. Not only is there built-in SSL security and the ability to build out an online store, but the single-branded sites afforded by this plan are ideal for businesses that depend on brand awareness for increasing online sales.

Ease of Use

Weebly is known for being an easy host with an intuitive drag-and-drop website builder. This makes it easy to create sites by adding content boxes and ecommerce elements to individual pages. Additionally, Weebly includes a built-in code editor for those who are familiar with HTML and CSS and want to add more nuanced customization. Wix, which also has a drag-and-drop editor, does not offer this.

Weebly website editor interface

Customer Service

All Weebly plans come with access to Weebly’s community forum as well as chat and email support. The Pro and Business plans get the added benefit of also having phone support. However, with high uptimes and an incredibly user-friendly interface, Weebly websites seldom require troubleshooting.

What Weebly Is Missing

Weebly is missing audience-building tools, as its focus is on the drag-and-drop website builder. Those who are looking to build a blog on a platform with an existing audience should consider blog sites such as Medium.

What Users Think About Weebly

Weebly is highly rated among its 40 million users worldwide. Positive reviewers comment that they like how easy Weebly is to use—especially for those with no coding knowledge. Negative reviews note the lack of customization options available within the drag-and-drop editor and that sometimes servers are slow. Read what users are saying on our Weebly reviews page.

Where to Find Weebly

Learn more about Weebly and why it’s the best blog and ecommerce hosting site. Getting starting with Weebly is easy and free with their entry-level plan. Browse beautiful themes and create your blog in no time for free.

Visit Weebly

Best for Intuitive Drag & Drop Editor: Wix

Wix is a website host and website builder (with free and paid options) that makes it easy to quickly create a professional blog. It stands out for its easy-to-use, drag-and-drop builder that requires zero coding or web design experience. It’s best for non-tech-savvy businesses that want an easy way to build a professional-looking blog without any technical expertise.

Wix Pricing

Wix offers a wide range of plans, from a basic Free plan to premium plans that cost as much as $19 per month. Each plan offers different storage amounts (from 500MB to 20GB) and bandwidth, but all plans include SEO tools, social media integration, RSS feeds, free themes, and reporting via Google Analytics.

Wix Tiered Features

Wix Free Plan

The Free plan gives users access to hundreds of free templates, the easy Wix editor, built-in SEO tools, social media integrations, and an RSS feed. What the free plan lacks is the ability to connect your own domain name; instead, users must use a clunky subdomain, such as username.wixsite.com/siteaddress. It also displays Wix ads on every web page and includes just 500MB of storage and 500MB of bandwidth.

The free plan isn’t a good option for those looking to blog professionally. However, it is a good way for new users to test out Wix at no cost. Free plans still give you access to the easy-to-use editor, so it’s a good way to see if Wix is right for your blog. It’s also a suitable plan for individuals looking to create a personal blog.

Wix Combo Plan

The Combo plan costs $11 per month and comes with 3GB of storage, 2GB of bandwidth, a built-in SEO analyzer, and no ads. Users can also connect their own domain or sign up for a free one. While the storage is still limited, it is more than what’s offered in Wix’s second-tier plan.

The Combo plan is a good choice for early-stage companies with static, informational-only blogs, given the limited storage. Branding is easy with the free themes and the ability to add your own domain. If your content grows significantly, you can easily upgrade to Wix’s Unlimited plan.

Wix Unlimited Plan

Wix’s Unlimited plan costs $14 per month, and for just $3 more than the Combo plan, users get unlimited bandwidth, 10GB of storage, and $300 in pay-per-click (PPC) ad credit to use on Bing or Google Ads. The unlimited plan also comes with all Combo plan features such as a free domain, the option to connect to Google Analytics, the built-in SEO analyzer, and hundreds of themes.

Given its inclusion of unlimited bandwidth, this plan is good for businesses that know they will have a high volume of regular blog visitors. This might include news-heavy blogs with regularly updated content and educational or resource blogs that are referenced frequently.

Wix Pro Plan

The Pro plan costs $19 per month and includes everything from the Unlimited plan but with 20GB of storage instead of 10GB. The Pro plan also comes with free professional logo design, an event calendar, and more.

With an included events calendar and logo design, this plan is unique for established businesses building a blog for a new offshoot brand. This brand would likely require a new logo plus ample room for content and a calendar to promote company-sponsored events.

Ease of Use

Wix is one of the easiest ways to build a blog that looks like a custom-designed website. It utilizes a simple drag-and-drop interface and comes with hundreds of free templates for dozens of industries, from consulting to hospitality. While Weebly also boasts a drag-and-drop editor, Wix’s editor is more robust and user-friendly; floating toolbars and large icons allow users to customize almost every element of a page without needing extensive training.

Wix website editor

Customer Service

Wix has a comprehensive help center that serves as their primary customer service resource. Unlike many support forums where content is supplied by users, Wix’s help center content is created by Wix employees. The help center answers hundreds of common questions and addresses frequent issues with step-by-step troubleshooting instructions. Those who want live help will need to upgrade to the VIP plan (not in this article), which costs $29 per month.

What Wix Is Missing

Wix is missing a plan with unlimited storage. Their top-tier premium plans max out at 20GB of storage for the price of $19 to $29 per month. Those looking for an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop builder, but need more than 20GB of storage, will find Weebly to be a better option, which has unlimited storage for just $12 per month.

What Users Think About Wix

Wix is a highly rated web and blog hosting site. Users frequently comment that Wix is easy to use. There are limited negative comments, but some do find that Wix is on the expensive side and they wish there were even more customization abilities with the drag-and-drop builder. See more reviews on our Wix reviews page.

Where to Find Wix

Visit Wix online to learn more about why they are one of the best blog hosting sites. From the homepage, you can browse templates to see how professional Wix sites look. Start building your blog with Wix today for free.

Visit Wix

Best for an Existing Blog Audience: Medium

Medium is a news-style blogging platform that allows users to create accounts and add content, but does not host customized blog sites. While customization is limited, all Medium content is shared with other users for increased visibility. Additionally, it automatically connects your social followers (those who are also Medium users) to your account. This makes Medium best for businesses that want to launch a blog and hit the ground running with a built-in audience.

Medium Pricing

The free version of Medium limits the number of posts a user can add. For full access, Medium offers a premium membership for $5 per month or $50 per year; this gives users the ability to publish an unlimited number of stories, save bloggers’ stories for later, and access premium features.

Medium Features

While all of Medium’s 30 million bloggers are exposed to content from across the platform via “similar article” suggestions, the real benefit of using Medium is the ability to grow your following by connecting to your social media accounts. Medium will find your followers on social platforms who are also Medium users and automatically “subscribe” them to your feed. This creates a built-in audience.

Additionally, Medium bloggers have the opportunity to earn money by signing up for its Partner Program. This pays users when other members read and applaud their work. The pay is generally minimal, but it’s an easy way to monetize blogging efforts.

Ease of Use

Medium has an easy-to-use, word processing-based editor that requires no coding or web design skills. The interface is clean, modern, and simple—but also offers limited post customizations. Text, photos, and videos can be added in a single column fairly easily, but nothing more. Those looking for a blog that can be fully customized should consider WordPress or Wix instead.

Create a new post on Medium

Customer Service

Medium offers three forms of customer service: email support, a contact form, and a forum-style help center. Like Wix, its help center is robust and provides a great deal of resources for bloggers on Medium. For those who fail to find the answer they’re looking for, they can send the Medium team an email or submit a query via the online contact form.

What Medium Is Missing

Medium’s ability to automatically connect social media followers to your blog posts is really useful for those with large social followings. However, currently these social media account types are limited to Twitter and Facebook. Ideally, Medium would also have the ability to connect to Instagram, Snapchat, and LinkedIn followers as well.

What Users Think About Medium

Medium is a well-regarded blog hosting site. People note that they like the model of sharing content that Medium bloggers publish, which makes it easy for blog posts to get discovered by a larger audience. On the other hand, Medium does include links to other blogs at the bottom of posts, which can make it difficult for businesses to keep users on their feed.

Where to Find Medium

If you’re not familiar with Medium, get a better understanding of the platform by checking out their site and browsing content by topic area. Or, register for your free account and create a blog that comes with a built-in audience.

Visit Medium

Best for Portfolio-based Blogging: Tumblr

Tumblr is a free blog hosting site popularized for it multimedia-centric content. The easy image and video upload process is particularly attractive to bloggers who are more focused on visual elements than text-based posts. With this emphasis on graphics, Tumblr is ideal for portfolio-heavy businesses such as photography and design studios.

Tumblr Pricing

Tumblr is free to use and includes unlimited storage, dozens of free templates, built-in analytics, a mobile app, and the ability to connect your own domain. You can also easily monetize your site with Tumblr’s built-in monetization tools.

Tumblr Features

A simple but popular blog hosting site, Tumblr offers users several themes, guest posting functionality, Google Analytics integration, a mobile app for on-the-go posting, and easy reblogging features to share other Tumblr content.

Storage

Tumblr does not have a set storage limit, though there are set daily limits. Users can post a maximum of 250MB worth of content per day, of which up to 75MB can include images. These images can be no larger than 10MB each for standard image formats and no larger than 1MB for GIF files. This limit resets daily at midnight.

Analytics

Tumblr comes with built-in analytics called Tumblr Activity. This provides basic blog stats, such as the number of new followers and the number of post likes. Those looking for more comprehensive data will find the Google Analytics integration a better source for blog analytics. Adding this integration is as simple as copying your unique Google Analytics code and pasting it onto your blog page via the “Customize” option in the top menu.

Post via Mobile

For those who frequently take photos or record videos on their phones, Tumblr offers a mobile app for streamlined mobile blogging. Simply open the app and click on “Photo” or “Video” at the top of the screen to bring up your on-phone image and video gallery. Select from available files to quickly post them to your blog.

Monetization

Those looking to make money with their blog have the option display ads in their sidebar using Google AdSense and Bing. If activated via the “Settings” menu, banner ads will appear on a user’s blog and the owner will get paid when readers click on the ads. Learn more about how to connect AdSense to Tumblr.

Ease of Use

Tumblr is a very easy-to-use blog hosting site that requires no technical knowledge. However, Tumblr blogs do not have the same customization capabilities as other blog hosting sites, such as WordPress.com or Wix, so it’s best for those who are looking for a simple image-driven blog hosting platform.

Tumblr user interface

Customer Service

Tumblr doesn’t offer a help forum, but they do offer customer service from representatives—an unusual feature for a free platform. To use their customer service, users complete an online form with the details of their problem or question, their blog’s username, and (as applicable) screenshots to illustrate their issue.

What Tumblr Is Missing

Tumblr does not allow a lot of blog customization. It would be better if there were more extensive options for changing design and layout to align with individual company branding. This would help make blogs appear more professional.

What Users Think About Tumblr

Tumblr is a popular blog hosting site that is generally well-regarded. Positive reviews frequently note how easy it is to use Tumblr given its simple editor and minimalist features. Negative reviews note that the platform seems to have a number of bots despite Tumblr’s high security measures. Not infrequently, this leads to blogs being shut down.

Where to Find Tumblr

Visit Tumblr.com to learn more about the blogging platform’s features. From the homepage, you can see how it works, review the signup process, examine features, and more. Sign up for a free account today and start building your online portfolio.

Visit Tumblr

Best for Free, No-frills Blogging: Blogger

Blogger is Google’s blog hosting site. It stands out for being a no-frills blogging site that is free to use with options to monetize content through on-page ads. Blogger is an essentials-only blog hosting site that is ideal for those looking to blog casually and aren’t interested in aligning their blog with their brand.

Blogger Pricing

Blogger is a free blogging platform; it does not offer premium paid plans like most other blogging sites do. It does allow you to connect your own domain name and integrates with Google AdSense for monetization.

Blogger Features

Blogger is a minimalist blog hosting site with a simple-to-use interface, a variety of customizable templates, the option to connect your own domain name (purchased separately), the ability for users to post comments on your posts, and extra options such as monetizing through Google AdSense.

Storage

Blogger comes with 15GB of total storage and 1GB of photo storage via Picasa Web album service or unlimited storage for those uploading from a Google+ account. It’s free to create a Google+ account, so those planning to post a large amount of media will most likely benefit from creating a Google+ account and uploading media to Blogger from there.

Connect Your Own Domain

Blogger gives its users the ability to connect their own domain name as opposed to using a subdomain such as yourblog.blogger.com. Domain names do need to be purchased separately and typically cost around $12 per year. For more information, read our article on how to register a domain name.

Monetization

Bloggers using the Blogger platform have the ability to earn money by displaying ads on their blog. This is done through the Google AdSense program. Users can sign up for the program by clicking the left-hand menu from the Blogger dashboard, clicking “Earnings,” and following the prompts to create an AdSense account. Get the step-by-step details on how to connect Blogger to AdSense.

SEO Optimization

A benefit of Google owning Blogger is that blogs are search-engine friendly. This means that blogs and blog posts are automatically indexed by Google. This eliminates the extra step of submitting posts to Google to be indexed, saving bloggers time and increasing the chances that their blog posts are ranked in search results.

Ease of Use

Blogger is a very simplistic, no-frills blogging platform. No web design or coding knowledge is needed to add posts, which are edited and published using a straightforward word processor-style editor. This simplicity is a huge advantage for those who are not technically savvy and want to focus on getting their content live. However, this simplicity also means that there are limited customization options.

Blogger new post interface

Customer Service

Blogger customer support is hosted by Google and is available via a help forum on Blogger.com. Like Wix’s forum, this knowledge base was created by employees, not users. Most common questions are addressed in the forum, with additional step-by-step instructions on how to troubleshoot frequent blogging issues.

What Blogger Is Missing

Blogger lacks the ability to scale with a growing blog given its limited customization features. For this reason, it’s common for those with a Blogger blog to switch to WordPress once their blog grows, as WordPress has immense customization abilities.

What Users Think About Blogger

Blogger is a well-regarded blogging platform with more than 46 million users worldwide. Users most often comment that they like how easy it is to use Blogger with their simple and straightforward interface. Negative comments tend to revolve around Blogger’s lack of customization options.

Where to Find Blogger

Visit Blogger online to learn more about how easy it is to get your blog up and running. Signing up is easy and free. It has a straightforward interface; there is only a slight learning curve and no coding knowledge is needed. Click here to create your no-frills blog today.

Visit Blogger

Bottom Line – Best Blog Hosting Sites

Blogs provide a way for businesses to increase brand awareness, establish subject matter expertise, and capture new customers via SEO-optimized content. The best blog hosting sites make this possible with easy-to-use content editors, SEO tools, RSS feeds, and more—while also being affordable and scalable.

Given our criteria above, our pick for the best overall blog hosting site is WordPress. Its customization options, ease of use, and versatility—not to mention free plans—make it a standout among other blog hosting sites. Create your free WordPress account today and start building your versatile blog.

Visit WordPress