8 Best Blogging Platforms for Beginners & Small Businesses
Elizabeth Kraus has more than a decade of first-hand experience building and growing a boutique digital marketing agency and double that in small and mid-size business marketing management. She provides expert answers to marketing questions related to branding, content marketing, web development, email, social media, and SEO.
Michael DeVault is a career journalist with almost 20 years’ experience in online, print, and broadcast media. He provides insights and expertise gained from more than a decade of marketing consulting, including brand launches, franchise marketing, SEO, and web development.
Choosing a blogging platform can mean success or failure of your blog. The best platforms make it easy to get content online quickly, build a reader base, and monetize your blog. Here are the top options for beginners and small businesses looking to start a blog based on features, costs, and different types of use cases.
- Overall best blogging platform: Wix
- Ideal for ecommerce businesses and blog merchandise sales: Weebly
- Best blogging platform for memberships: Dorik
- Best built-in AI tools: Hostinger
- Top blog platform for sales lead generation: HubSpot
- Cheapest paid plan to start with: IONOS
- Best for building a blog on WordPress: Bluehost
- Best for design-forward or content-heavy blogs: Squarespace
Best Blogging Platforms at a Glance
Blog Platform | Expert Score Out of 5 | Free Plan | Starting Cost of Paid Plans* | Learn More |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 5 | ✓ | $16 | |
 | 4.8 | ✓ | $12 | |
 | 4.2 | ✓ | $4 | |
 | 4.1 | ✕ | $2.99 | |
 | 4 | ✓ | $23 | |
 | 3.7 | ✕ | $1 | |
 (Via Bluehost) | 3.7 | ✕ | $2.95** | |
 | 3.6 | ✕ | $16 |
*Monthly, based on annual prepayment for ad-free paid plans
**First year price per month, billed annually, for WordPress hosting through Bluehost
Wix: Best Blogging Platform Overall
Overall Score:
5 / 5
Pros
- Beginner-friendly
- Free-forever plan to start with
- Most intuitive and customizable
- Artificial intelligence (AI) content writer in the dashboard
- Best for search engine optimization (SEO)
- Most robust base ecommerce plan
- 300+ third-party apps
- 900+ templates plus premade content blocks to get a blog up fast
Cons
- Not easy to switch templates
- Low storage limits in lower tiers
- Paid plans are more expensive than other platforms in general
- Can’t use the free version on your own domain, unlike HubSpot
Wix offers more template choices, customization, and add-ons than any other site builder on the market. Wix also offers bloggers unlimited blog posts. That’s why Wix is our top choice for an overall blogging platform.
The site editor is intuitive, even for true beginners who want to set up a blog quickly. Simply choose a template and then click on “Edit Site” in the dashboard to customize it. If you didn’t click the blog widget during setup, add a blogging app by clicking on the Apps icon in the left side menu, then “Add Apps.” Search for “blog” and then click to install the Wix blog. Voila—you have a fully functional and mobile-responsive blog.
Wix provides a good deal of freedom to start a blog that makes money. Some of the ways you can monetize your Wix blog include:
- Selling digital products (e.g., memberships, subscriptions, or digital downloads)
- Implementing webforms for lead generation
- Adding Google AdSense to Wix
- Integrating ads through other top ad networks for bloggers
There’s a lot more functionality packed into the Wix site builder as well. Search engine optimization (SEO) is easy for individual blog posts. Simply open the post and click “SEO” in the left side menu to customize the page title, metadata, and slug. Additional functionality, like booking appointments, can be accomplished through Wix’s library of free and premium add-ons. Learn more by reading our expert Wix review.
Zion Adventure Photog relies on Wix to power its image-heavy blog. (Source: Zion Adventure Photog)
The photographer’s blog ZionAdventurePhotog has racked up some impressive stats since going live in May 2019. It has a Google domain authority score of 26, over 36,700 backlinks, and gets around 6,000 visitors each month. It uses a pop-up to get site visitors to sign up in exchange for a free Zion National Park guidebook full of ideas for making a trip to the park unforgettable.
You can use Wix to build a website for free to create and publish a site without paying a dime. However, your site will be on a subdomain (yoursite.wix.com), and Wix displays ads on your free site, which detracts from your brand and your website’s credibility. Instead, use the free version to build out your blog, then when you’re ready to go live, upgrade to a paid plan.
Free | Combo | Ecommerce | |
|---|---|---|---|
Monthly Cost* | $0 | $16 | $27 |
Connect a Domain | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Free Domain & SSL | SSL only | ✓ | ✓ |
Storage & Bandwidth | 2GB | 3GB | 50GB |
Third-party Apps | Some require paid plan | ✓ | ✓ |
SEO Tools | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Remove Wix Ads | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Monetize With Google Ads | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Integrated Ecommerce | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Sell Digital Products & Memberships | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
*When paid annually; month-to-month payments are available at a higher rate.
Wix offers the most customizable and beginner-friendly drag-and-drop website builder on the market. The Wix builder gives you nearly endless design options, it has a built-in artificial intelligence (AI) writer, and more than 300 add-ons provide functionality that rivals WordPress. All that customization means extra work at the front-end, but the results speak for themselves, making Wix the best overall platform for blogging.
Key Features
- Free SSL, and a free domain for one year with paid plans
- Artificial intelligence (AI) content writer in the dashboard
- Save blog drafts and schedule posts in advance
- Monetize with AdSense (paid plan required)
- Create a community forum website
- Paid memberships (with an ecommerce plan)
- Connect Semrush for built-in search engine optimization (SEO) keyword research
- Integrate Google Analytics for insights and performance metrics
- Site and page-level SEO settings plus auto-image compression and schema markup (see why Wix is the best website builder for SEO)
The free-forever plan allows you to build your new site and try out key features before stepping up to a paid plan. With more than 900 templates, you’re sure to find a design starting point that fits your blog’s needs, and if you don’t, you can use Wix’s artificial design intelligence (ADI) to start your template.
For more insight, follow along with our Wix video tutorial and step-by-step guide on how to make a Wix website.
Weebly: Best Blogging Platform for Ecommerce or Merch Sales
Overall Score:
4.6 / 5
Pros
- Most affordable for bloggers selling merchandise online
- Free-forever plan to start with, including robust ecommerce for physical products
- Sell online starting for free via built-in Square payment processing
- Third-party apps to extend your site’s functionality with any paid plan
- Unlimited storage, bandwidth, and pages with paid plans
Cons
- Not as intuitive or customizable as Wix
- Less advanced SEO vs Wix, HubSpot, or IONOS
- First paid plan still displays ads
- Limited support in low-tier plans, whereas IONOS plans come with personalized support
- Memberships limited to 100 and require the highest-tier plan
With Weebly, you have two options for blogging: the Weebly editor for personal sites and the Square Online editor for ecommerce operations. However, both editors put ecommerce front and center, making it easy to sell products online, no matter which way you start out.
Weebly is primarily an online storefront, which means it is easy to sell products online—even in the free version. It also includes an inventory system that makes easy work of adding products and tracking sales. Payment integration is seamless, which makes sense since it’s integrating Square’s payment system.
For individuals hoping for a feature-rich website, Weebly offers only the most basic functionality. Appointment booking, reservations, and other in-demand features require add-ons, and those add-ons may come at an additional cost.
In addition to selling products, subscriptions, and digital downloads, Weebly has several possible avenues to monetization. You can add Google Ads to your site if you’re using Weebly and monetize your content. You can also sell digital downloads or subscriptions via Weebly, though you’ll have to upgrade to the highest tier of service.
Find out what else you can do with this blogging platform by reading our Weebly review.
Caribeans specializes in selling premium chocolates using the Weebly website builder. (Source: Caribeans Chocolate)
Caribeans Chocolate is built on Weebly and includes highly visual elements, a blog, and embedded Tripadvisor reviews to spark tourism and visits to the store’s physical location. It has a domain authority of 22, around 200 site visits a month, and has earned 756 backlinks since being published in 2017.
Weebly’s free plan is far better for ecommerce than other free website builder plans, but your blog will perform better if you upgrade to a paid plan. You’ll be able to get a free domain for your blog and remove Square and Weebly branding. However, if you want to sell memberships, subscriptions, or digital products like downloads, you’ll need the highest-tier Performance plan.
Weebly Plan | Free | Professional | Performance |
|---|---|---|---|
Monthly Cost* | $0 | $12 | $26 |
Storage | 500MB | Unlimited storage | Unlimited storage |
Free Domain & SSL | SSL only | ✓ | ✓ |
Ad-free | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Connect a Domain | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Apps/Plugins | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Post Scheduling | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Monetize With Google Ads | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Sell Online | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Memberships / Subscriptions | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
*Billed annually, or pay monthly at a higher rate
Weebly is a website builder owned by payment processing company Square. As such, Weebly users get built-in ecommerce for physical products with every plan, including the free version. This makes Weebly the best blogging platform for bloggers who want to sell merchandise or small businesses that sell online and want to have a blog to support search-generated web traffic, customer education, and sales.
Key Features
- Unlimited storage with ad-free plans from $12 each month
- Ad-free plans all include a free domain the first year and free SSL
- Robust ecommerce (all plans)
- Automatic tax calculator included with all plans
- Sell digital products with any paid plan
- Membership features with Professional or Performance plan
- Hundreds of third-party app integrations
- Dropshipping integrations, plus shipping calculator with higher tiers
- Publish a blog and sell online completely free if you need to
- You can set up an ecommerce store on Weebly in under an hour
The Weebly editor makes it easy to build a small business website to host your blog. Weebly enables users to create and build their own websites without any prior coding or design experience. It has a simple, clean editing interface that lets you customize your chosen template.
While using the platform is easy, it’s less so compared to some competitors. Plus, Weebly’s SEO features leave a lot to be desired—especially if you’re relying on Google search volume to drive traffic to your site. Still, if you need an ecommerce store with blogging functionality, Weebly may be the option you’re looking for.
Read along step-by-step on how to use the Weebly website builder to see how easy it is. Alternatively, we showcase the steps of how to use the Square Online editor in our article on how to create a restaurant website.
Dorik: Best for Membership-based Blogs
Overall Score:
4.2 / 5
Pros
- Membership features with all plans (even free)
- Up to 3,000 paid members in the base paid plan for just $4 a month
- Multiple collaborators (paid plans)
- Custom design capabilities through settings
- Easy-to-navigate content management system (CMS)
- Multi-site plans keep costs affordable for agencies, freelancers, and entrepreneurs managing more than one site
Cons
- Post editor and design tools aren’t the most visually intuitive
- More than five collaborators requires Agency plan, which gets expensive if you’re only managing one website
Adding a blog post in Dorik CMS is simple. Access the Dorik CMS control panel, click on your website, and then click “Posts” in the left-hand menu. From there, you can manage existing posts or create new posts.
Editing posts is accomplished using a rich text editor that is easy enough to utilize, but it is not particularly intuitive. Styling text is accomplished by combining right-clicks and menus hidden behind one of two icons: the four dots menu or the plus menu. The four dots menu controls the formatting of headers and certain design elements, while the plus menu allows you to add images, tables, and specific design elements to your blog.
While Dorik CMS makes easy work of memberships, it doesn’t necessarily make for the best monetization platform. Monetization with Google AdSense is not as straightforward as other platforms. You can add Google AdSense to Dorik, but you will need to do so using a custom code. Similarly, the lack of app add-ons definitely hinders functionality that many blogs will want. If you need a lot of functionality beyond basic blogging, Dorik may not be right for you.
Plan | Free | Personal | Agency | Agency Plus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Cost per Year | $0 | $48 | $399 | $649 |
Custom Domain | ✕ | 1 | 25 domains | 100 domains |
Free SSL | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Static Pages | 25 | 100 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Unlimited Blog Posts | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Collaborators | 1 | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Memberships | 500 (non-monetized) | 3,000 free or paid | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Dorik CMS is a powerful content management system (CMS) that provides all the features needed to build robust membership-based websites and blogs. Membership features come on all levels—even the free version, though you’ll need a paid plan to monetize memberships. The combination of affordability ($48 per year) and membership features make it the best blog website builder for bloggers offering free or paid memberships.
Key Features
- Memberships at all levels of service (paid members require a paid plan)
- Approximately 75 visually stunning professional templates to choose from
- Rich-text CMS editor
- Unlimited blog posts on all paid plans
- Multiple collaborators on all paid plans
It’s important to note Dorik offers two website builders: Dorik Classic and Dorik CMS. Only Dorik CMS includes a blogging feature, so when you sign up, make sure you choose the correct plan. With Dorik CMS, you can access beautiful templates that make building and customizing your blog website simple. The design editor is section-based and includes dozens of content blocks to choose from. The result is a sleek, contemporary site with all the functionality you need.
With memberships, a state-of-the-art CMS, and unlimited contributors available on paid plans, Dorik makes a powerful entry into the blogging community. Its rich text editor gives you freedom of design and layout and makes the CMS easy to use. Best of all, a free-forever version makes Dorik risk-free to try.
Hostinger: Best Built-in AI Tools & Assistants
Overall Score:
4.1 / 5
Pros
- AI writing assistant and logo creator
- Free domain, SSL, and email
- Up to 100 email addresses
- Easily incorporate Google AdSense and Facebook Pixel
- Connect Messenger Live Chat
- Cheap option for large blog sites
- Beginner-friendly and intuitive
Cons
- No free plan or free trial
- Limited template selection
- Lacks membership features that are native to platforms like Wix and Dorik
Not sure what to include in your article? No problem; Hostinger’s site builder has a built-in artificial intelligence (AI) writing assistant, right in the dashboard, to help you with the writing process. In addition, the editor will also highlight potential errors or misspellings, giving you a chance to make everything perfect before publishing your blog online.
Creating a blog post in Hostinger is simple. Go to the Website Builder and choose “Blog” from the left-hand menu. From there, click “Add New Post” at the bottom to start your new blog post. Editing is done via a rich text editor and you can set headers, text styles, add images, and more, all from intuitive right-click menus.
Hostinger’s website builder makes monetizing your blog via Google AdSense easy through ready-made integrations. Simply go to integrations, choose Google AdSense, and complete the walk-through setup to enable ads via the Google advertising network. Additionally, integrations also make adding a shopping cart straightforward, so you can sell products or services online.
Though social media integrations were lacking, you can add social media sharing buttons so your visitors can share a post via Twitter or Facebook. You can add custom code to your site to enable this functionality. Hostinger provides a helpful walk-through to show you how to integrate sharing functionality.
What you won’t get easily through Hostinger is a blog site for paid memberships. Wix offers robust membership features, as does Dorik, and at a fraction of the cost.
An example of a website built with the Hostinger site builder (Source: Datrick)
Tech services company Datrick built its website and blog on Hostinger. They integrated appointment booking for lead generation via Calendly thanks to the platform’s code embed widget. In just a few months, Datrick has already added about 50 blog posts, and the site is gaining keywords for online search traffic quickly.
Monthly cost: $2.99 a month with a 12-month contract, renews at $8.99
Option to save long term with contracts up to 48 months
What’s included:
- Free domain and SSL certificate
- Up to 100 email addresses
- Unlimited blogging and storage
- Easy Google AdSense integration
- Ecommerce
- 24/7 customer support
- AI writing assistant
- Unlimited bandwidth
At just $2.99 per month the first year, Hostinger is among the least expensive blogging platforms. Beginners will also appreciate that they can use AI to generate a template by simply providing a business name and description. The plan also includes unlimited storage and bandwidth, a free domain name and SSL certificate, and up to 100 email addresses on your domain–everything needed to start building brand presence online.
But what makes Hostinger truly stand out are its native AI features and tools. There’s a AI content writing assistant in the dashboard as well as a logo maker and slogan generator. You can even use AI to write SEO meta descriptions for your pages and blog posts. In addition, you can use an AI heat map to get insights into how site visitors interact with your web pages and articles.
Key Features
- AI writing assistant, logo maker, and heat map analyzer
- Ecommerce included
- Free domain, SSL, and up to 100 email addresses
- Marketing integrations including Messenger, AdSense, Google Remarketing, and Facebook Pixel
- Up to 100 websites per account
Hostinger Website Builder also makes adding ecommerce easy, though adding products requires building an individual page for each product. That can make adding large numbers of products cumbersome, and if your website has an ecommerce component, Hostinger might not be the best option—consider Weebly in this case instead.
Hostinger does not offer a free trial version, but at $2.99 per month, it’s the most affordable blogging platform with unlimited blog capacity. The website builder makes quick work of building a new website and gets your blog up and running. Visit Hostinger to get started today.
HubSpot CMS: Best Blog Website Builder for Lead Generation
Overall Score:
4 / 5
Pros
- Robust lead acquisition and nurturing
- Blog for free on your own domain
- SEO guides and top-notch security
- Comprehensive reports
- Free landing pages with conversion guides
- Multi-language blog sites
- Like Wix, automatically adds structured markup
- Add HTML code to headers and footers
Cons
- Paid plans don’t include a free domain, unlike Wix and IONOS
- Ecommerce requires a plugin, unlike Wix and Weebly
- Limited to 100 blog posts on free plan
- Paid plans are very expensive after the first tier
To build a blog with HubSpot CMS, you’ll start with a template and then customize it with premade content blocks and widgets. HubSpot CMS menus aren’t as intuitive as Wix, but they’re comprehensive. To add a blog to your HubSpot website, click on CMS Hub in the left side menu from your main user dashboard. Then under settings for “Create a blog,” click on “create blog.”
Bloggers will appreciate using HubSpot CMS Hub because of the wealth of features. Pages are automatically mobile-optimized. HubSpot blogs also give you the option to optimize content for Google. For those building an international website, multi-language sites are just a couple of clicks away—even in the free version.
Monetization is easy as well, especially for those who want to generate revenue through lead generation. HubSpot’s CMS incorporates its powerful suite of client relationship management (CRM) and SEO tools, which supercharges your site’s monetization efforts.
Read our full HubSpot CMS review to learn more.
Nationwide’s Companion Magazine publishes a blog on the HubSpot CMS. (Source: Nationwide)
By leveraging the HubSpot CMS, Nationwide’s Companion Magazine digital magazine was transformed into a blog format to streamline content creation and publishing workflows. As a result, the marketing team of Nationwide can create, publish, and manage content more easily, allowing this blog to get an authority score of 23 since being launched in 2021.
When using HubSpot for free, it displays HubSpot branding and ads. To remove ads, upgrade to the Starter plan. Get an overview of what each plan includes below.
HubSpot Plan | Free | Starter | Professional | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Monthly Cost* | $0 | $23 | $360 | $1200 |
Site Limits | 25 pages, 20 landing pages, and 100 blog posts | 50 pages, 20 landing pages, and 10,000 blog posts | 10,000 pages, 10,000 landing pages, and up to 100 blogs | Same as Professional Plan |
Unlimited Storage | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Connect a Domain & Free SSL | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Built-in AMP for Google Mobile | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Multiple Contributors | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Apps/Plugins | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Post Scheduling | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Monetize With Google Ads | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Sell Online | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Ad-free | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
*When paid annually; monthly billing is available at a higher rate.
The biggest draw for using HubSpot comes outside of its content management system (CMS), with the ability to seamlessly integrate “Hubs” for sales, customer care, marketing, and more. Most also have freemium pricing models, meaning you can build a fairly robust marketing and sales tech stack completely free.
If you plan to sell memberships or subscriptions, you might be able to do this through apps but not with native tools unless you choose HubSpot’s costly Enterprise plan tier. For beginners just starting out with blogging, HubSpot is probably not an ideal option. Wix is the best platform to start a blog for bloggers who want to earn revenue through memberships, subscriptions, and other digital products.
HubSpot, an industry leader in SEO content marketing, offers the best blogging platform for those using online ads or content marketing for lead generation. It’s our top pick for sales teams and sales-oriented businesses. For example, you can create a full lead generation and management solution using free tools when blogging on HubSpot CMS, including its world-renowned CRM system, high-converting landing pages, and integrated email marketing.
Key Features
- 99.99% measured uptime
- Easy-to-integrate CRM, Marketing, and Customer Service Hubs (all starting for free)
- Website and blog import tools to migrate from other platforms
- Large third-party app marketplace, including ecommerce, appointments, and more
- Enterprise-grade software, security, and SEO
- Integrates easily with HubSpot’s other sales and marketing tools
- Automatic Google AMP formatting
HubSpot is also unique among free website builders. Most free plans from other hosting providers require you to use a branded subdomain (myblog.wix.com, for example). With HubSpot, you can build your website for free on your own branded domain name.
When combined with the HubSpot CRM and SEO features, even the free version surpasses much of what is offered on the paid premium plans of other providers. Keep in mind that the free version limits you to 100 blog posts, so upgrading to the base paid plan may come sooner rather than later. This feature-rich platform may be right for you.
Learn how to build a website on HubSpot, then try it risk-free today.
IONOS: Cheapest Starting Paid Plans for Blog Hosting
Overall Score:
3.7 / 5
Pros
- Cheap blogging platform—from $1 a month ($12 per year) to start
- Good SEO and fast site loading
- Cheap online store/blog combo plan
- Beginner-friendly and intuitive
- Integrated email marketing
- Dedicated consultant and top-notch customer care 24x7
- 17,000+ royalty-free image library
Cons
- No free plan or trial
- Not as many templates and poorer selection than Wix
- Digital product sales (like memberships) require the highest online store tier
- No automated structured markup or AMP features, unlike Wix and HubSpot
Similar to other all-in-one small business website builders, starting a blog with IONOS is easy. Sign up for a plan, choose a template, and get to work customizing it with the colors, fonts, and images that work for your site.
Edit your pages in the section-based interface.
The site editing interface is section-based, and you’ll use widgets to add various items to your pages and blog posts. You’ll also get email marketing tools built into the page builder, making it easy to build a loyal readership and following.
There’s not a large app marketplace, but it does provide shopping carts, online appointment booking, and other features small business websites can use. In addition, you can embed custom code to add any functionality lacking in the platform’s native features.
International bloggers can publish their blog (and website) in multiple languages. Websites built using the IONOS site builder have solid page and site-level SEO settings to help ensure your content can get found on Google.
IONOS does not offer a free trial period or free-forever option. However, its paid plans to start a blog on a basic site or an ecommerce website are by far the cheapest we reviewed. The Starter Plan doesn’t include blog functionality, so we didn’t include it below.
IONOS Plan | Plus | Pro | Expert |
|---|---|---|---|
Monthly Cost | $1/month for 12 months, renews at $15/month | $15/month for 6 months, renews at $25 | $35/month for 6 months, renews at $75 |
Cost With Ecommerce | $1/month for 12 months, renews at $25/month | $25/month for 6 months, renews at $50/month | (Same as above) |
Free Domain, SSL & Email Address | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Storage | 50GB | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Pages | 200 pages, 1,000 blog posts | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Business Apps | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Post Scheduling | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Monetize With Google Ads | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Gate Content for Members | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Multilingual Blogs | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
SEO Tutorials | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Sell Online (Physical Products) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Digital Product Sales | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
IONOS offers the cheapest paid plans for blogging during the first 12 months, with plans starting at just $12 for the first year, with or without ecommerce. The plan is not lacking in features as your domain, SSL, and a business email account are all included in IONOS blog website builder plans. This makes it the best blog website builder for businesses and startups on a budget.
Plans are inclusive of a domain, SSL certificate, and an email account, as well as a fairly intuitive drag-and-drop editor: MyWebsite Creator. IONOS includes more than 17,000 royalty-free images to make easy work of graphics. A success consultant can help you optimize your site while explaining features and apps. You can even give users a personalized visitor experience, delivering specific pop-ups for returning vs new visitors.
Key Features (Plus plan, $1 per month the first year)
- Free domain, SSL security, and 12GB email account
- 50GB of storage and up to 200 pages
- Marketing Radar to track competitors’ Google and social media activity
- 99.99% measured uptime and Google PageSpeed optimization
- Integrated email marketing and appointment booking
- NEW AI content generator
- Embed custom code
- Dedicated success consultant to answer questions and help you get the most from your blog
If there is a downside to IONOS’ website builder, it’s monetization. You can monetize your content using Google AdSense, or you can use it to build a lead generation blog. However, if you plan on selling products, services, or digital downloads, you must subscribe to the Online Store Plus plan, which costs more than comparable plans with Wix or Weebly.
Still, with a $12-first year price point with or without an online store, IONOS offers tremendous value for casual blog hobbyists and small businesses. There’s a 30-day money-back guarantee, which further mitigates any risk to trying out its site builder to see if it’s the best blogging platform for your needs.
Bluehost: Best Way for Beginners to Start a WordPress Blog
Overall Score:
3.7 / 5
Pros
- No-code WordPress page builder and free templates
- Easiest way to blog on WordPress
- Unlimited sites, storage, and bandwidth
- 55,000+ free and paid plugins for virtually limitless blog functionality
- All-in-one plans for blog hosting with a free domain, SSL, and email addresses on your domain
Cons
- Need to maintain your site and update plugins and themes over time
- Apps, themes, and security plugins drive up costs
- WordPress plugins aren’t vetted, so may not be compatible with your site
- Plugins can become obsolete and let hackers in or even take your site down
Bluehost Builder is a true drag-and-drop website builder powered by WordPress. When setting up a site on WordPress, you’ll choose a template, customize fonts, and pick a color palette. After that, you can drag and drop elements from the Builder design panel onto any page of your site to add content or design features.
From a functionality standpoint, Bluehost Builder with WordPress taps into a virtually limitless function set via the 58,000-plus WordPress plugins available. If there is a function users accomplish via a website, there is a WordPress plugin available. Thousands of plugins are free, but most advanced functions require you to buy or subscribe to a quality premium plugin. Prices range from just a few dollars to hundreds per month, depending on your chosen plugin.
Because Bluehost Builder uses WordPress, the avenues to monetization are endless. You can add any of the major advertising networks, incorporate Google Ads, or even sell your own ads. Plugins also enable selling subscriptions, digital downloads, physical products, and more. With WordPress, your imagination is the limit when it comes to features or monetization.
Pro tip: There are over 58,000 plugins available for WordPress, but you’ll have to vet each one separately, including ensuring it’s up to date and compatible with your version of WordPress and your theme. For more details, read our list of 30 WordPress tips and tricks.
Nomadic Matt travel blogging uses WordPress. (Source: Nomadic Matt)
Nomadic Matt is one of the most popular travel blogs in the blogosphere. It has a high 55 domain authority score with over 800,000 backlinks. The blogger enjoys around 250,000 visits a month, which includes monetized e-books, courses, and affiliate marketing
Bluehost Builder plans include WordPress installation and a free domain, SSL, business email, and unlimited storage after the first tier. This makes it an affordable and easier way to build a blog using WordPress.
Keep in mind that, unlike all-in-one site builders, all functionality in WordPress is achieved through plugins or coding. So, in addition to plan inclusions, you’ll have full access to free and paid plugins available in the WordPress ecosphere for everything from search engine optimization (SEO) and website security to ecommerce, memberships, appointments, backups, and more.
WordPress via Bluehost Plan | Basic | Pro | Online Store |
|---|---|---|---|
First-year Monthly Cost* | $2.95 | $9.95 | $12.95 |
Renews At | $12.99 | $16.99 | $39.95 |
Unlimited Storage | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Free Domain, SSL & Email Addresses | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Apps/Plugins | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Post Scheduling | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Monetize With Google Ads (via Plugin/Code) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Ready to Sell Online | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Appointment Booking | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Memberships / Subscriptions | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
*Billed annually, or pay monthly at a higher rate
Operating more than 63% of the world’s 1.5 billion websites (as of this writing), WordPress is by far the most popular blog CMS. But it’s far from user-friendly, especially for novice website designers just starting out. Thankfully, Bluehost offers a no-code WordPress website builder to help you overcome the hurdles to building the WordPress blog of your dreams.
Bluehost site builder plans include everything you need to start a WordPress blog—a free domain, SSL security certificate, and business email addresses. Plans also include unlimited storage, bandwidth, and business email. Bluehost blogs enjoy a free Cloudflare content delivery network (CDN) to ensure your site runs as fast as possible everywhere in the world.
Key Features
- Bluehost plans come with WordPress installation and updates
- From $2.95 monthly the first year
- All-inclusive of a domain, SSL, hosting, and business email
- No-code page builder for WordPress with approximately 100 free themes to choose from
- Navigate between the Bluehost Builder and WordPress dashboard seamlessly
- Tens of thousands of free and premium WordPress plugins for endless features and functionality
- Consistently ranks among the best WordPress website builders
While Bluehost’s plans start under $50 the first year, your cost for hosting will increase on renewal. In addition, there are other costs WordPress will entail, including the need for premium themes, plugins for memberships and digital product sales, and more. Get the complete breakdown of how much WordPress costs.
Even with the no-code page builder, making a WordPress site to blog on can be complex to configure and manage. However, if you’re willing to invest the time and effort to overcome the learning curve, Bluehost Builder plans with WordPress offer the best option for those wanting to get started blogging with a feature-rich, powerful CMS.
Squarespace: Best for Creatives & Bloggers Needing Portfolios
Overall Score:
3.6 / 5
Pros
- Unlimited storage and bandwidth
- Native video creator tool
- 100+ visually impactful, sleek, modern templates
- Switch templates any time
- Fully mobile responsive
- Drag-and-drop page editing
- Up to 1,000 pages
Cons
- Not the cheapest, and ecommerce plans get expensive
- Membership, email marketing, and appointment booking tools all require paid add-ons
- Only a few dozen apps in the Squarespace Marketplace
Designing your new blog in Squarespace begins with choosing a template. Squarespace templates are contemporary and stylish, with industry-specific designs to choose from. Once your template is selected, you can customize images, fonts, colors, and more using intuitive menus. Adding new elements is easy with Fluid Engine, a drag-and-drop editor.
Squarespace templates are some of the most popular in the industry. (Source: Squarespace)
What Squarespace offers in design prowess, however, it sacrifices in functionality. Core functions like memberships, email marketing, and appointment booking are locked behind paid add-ons, which can drive up the cost of the site. Ecommerce is easy to add, and this can make Squarespace an attractive choice for design novices looking to get online quickly.
Building an ecommerce solution to sell products, services, or digital downloads is straightforward. All you do is follow the prompts for new products. You can also incorporate Google Ads into your site’s design using a third-party plugin. However, you might find Squarespace limiting if you want to utilize other advertising networks for monetization.
Read our Squarespace review to learn more.
Yarza Twins portfolio-based website is built on Square. (Source: Yarza Twins)
Design agency Yarza Twins site is built on Squarespace and showcases the platform’s visual capabilities incredibly well. From the landing page with a portfolio to the fast-paced slideshow on the About page, Yarza Twins leans into the features that make Squarespace a top choice for creatives and portfolio-based blogs.
Squarespace offers month-to-month billing as well as annually priced plans. Keep in mind, though, that some blog-friendly features require add-ons, like memberships and email marketing.
Squarespace Plans | Personal | Business | Commerce Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
Monthly Cost* | $16 | $23 | $49 |
Free Domain & SSL | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Blog Post Scheduling | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Monetize With Google Ads | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Third-party Apps | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Unlimited Ecommerce | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Transaction Fees | N/A | 3% | 0% |
Website Pop-ups & Banners | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Custom Code | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Contributors | 2 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Social Selling (Facebook & Instagram) | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
* Billed annually, or pay monthly at a higher rate
Add-ons
- Appointments: From $20 to $61 a month annually (or higher month to month)
- Email marketing: From $5 to $48 a month annually (or higher month to month)
- Memberships: From $9 to $35 a month annually (or higher month to month)
- Restaurants: Tock add-on starting from $199 a month
Squarespace is a popular website builder with novice designers. Its sleek and contemporary templates make it easy to build a design-forward website with high-quality visuals.
If you’re a graphic designer, photographer, videographer, or other visual artist considering starting your own blog, our top recommendation for you is Squarespace. Not only will you be happy with the visual design you can achieve with the platform’s drag-and-drop editor, but you’ll have all the storage you need to showcase images and videos to promote your art and services.
Key Features
- Unlimited storage and bandwidth
- Free domain and SSL
- Free Google Workspace with Gmail business email for one year with all but base plan
- Visually stunning templates that are easy to use
- Templates can be changed without starting over
- Fluid Engine drag-and-drop editor
- Unlimited ecommerce after the base tier
- 0% transaction fees in the two highest tiers
All Squarespace plans include a free domain and SSL certificate, unlimited storage and bandwidth, and up to 1,000 pages of content. This page limit might put a hamper on certain high-volume blogs, but for most bloggers, that’s more than enough pages for years’ worth of blog posts.
While Squarespace makes it easy to build a visually stunning website, requiring add-ons for member areas and email marketing, as well as more difficult monetization, caused it to rank lower than other entries in this article.
Still, there’s no risk to trying the blogging platform out with Squarespace’s risk-free, 14-day free trial. Get started by following along with our video tutorial and step-by-step instructions for building a Squarespace website.
How We Evaluated the Best Blogging Platforms
To be considered a top option, blog site builders have to give bloggers the ability to build a strong brand presence online. This means that while platforms like Medium and LinkedIn can be used for blogging, they aren’t a good option for influencers and small businesses looking to drive subscriptions, sales, or leads using blog content.
Click through the tabs to learn more about our methodology.
20%
Cost
20%
General Features
30%
Niche Features
10%
Customer Support
20%
Expertise & Hands-on Testing
20% of Overall Score
We compared the cost to get started, such as free plans or introductory pricing, and affordability overall. We also rated providers for the value for the money in terms of blog-friendly features.
20% of Overall Score
Our general features review included things like storage and bandwidth, SEO, and the availability and ease of implementing third-party integrations. We also considered the number of templates, widgets, and design tools of each blog platform.
30% of Overall Score
We looked at features often crucial to bloggers, like the ability to monetize, sell memberships, or sell products or services online, social and email integrations to build a following, and factors like storage. We also excluded site builders with blog functionality but whose page limits aren’t sufficient for frequent blogging.
10% of Overall Score
Having customer support available is a key consideration, especially for web design beginners. We rated providers for the types of support offered, the hours that individualized support is available, and whether built-in guides, forums, and knowledge base documents were sufficient to help a beginner build a blog website from the ground up.
20% of Overall Score
We tested the blog-building capabilities of each platform hands-on. We also looked for real-world blog examples for each provider to see the scope of what can be done with each platform.
*Percentages of overall score
Key Considerations When Choosing a Blog Platform
While blogging refers to a specific type of website functionality, different types of blogs require different features and tools. For example, a business-to-business (B2B) lead generation blog relies on being able to publish frequently and integrate webforms, whereas an artist may want built-in ecommerce or an influencer might want to be able to monetize with Google Ads, digital goods, or subscriptions.
Before committing long term to a blog site builder, here are some things to consider when choosing between platforms and plans:
- Site size limitations: Does the platform have a limit on the number of pages or blog posts that would prevent you from publishing as many articles as you want?
- Storage limits: Is the storage included enough to allow you to upload and use high-quality images and videos?
- Cost: Is there a plan available that fits within your budget based on the features and functionality you want?
- Features: Does the blogging platform have the features you want now and those you might want to add in the future?
- Monetization: Can you monetize through direct sales, subscriptions, memberships, downloads, or ads?
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the best blogging platform for SEO?
Wix is the best blog site builder for SEO. It automatically compresses images for fast site loading and applies schema markup to make it easier for search engines to properly index your site. There are site and page-level optimization settings, built-in guides and checklists, and you can connect a free Semrush account for instant keyword research.
What are the best free blog platforms?
If you want to sell online, Weebly is the best free blog hosting site, whereas Wix and HubSpot make it easy to integrate display ad networks and have strong SEO features to ensure your blog gets found online. Keep in mind, though, that with HubSpot, you can blog for free on your own domain, but you are limited to 100 posts before you’ll need to upgrade.
Which blogging site is best for beginners?
Wix is the easiest blogging tool for beginners. You can leave it up to Wix’s AI to build a template for you based on onboarding questions, then customize it with intuitive design tools and easy-to-integrate features and apps. Wix also has built-in guidance to help beginners build a site and optimize it for online search.
Bottom Line
Whether it’s design accessibility or blogging functionality, Wix is the best overall blogging platform. It offers everything you need to start your website, including a free domain and SSL certificate. There are features for monetizing your content and selling products, and it makes SEO a breeze. You can use Wix for free, so there’s no risk in trying it before you buy.
