According to statistical data provided by popular search engine platforms like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. Blogs have become among the top three forms of media used in content strategies today for several solid reasons, notably the ability to promote & monetize your content. 

Blogging has become one of the most popular forms of communication in recent years. The blog format can essentially be an online journal or diary. Where you can share your thoughts and ideas, among other things.

Such as creating informative guides, knowledge bases, creating entertainment spectacles, etc.

There are several different blogging platforms available that can claim the title of best blogging platforms for beginners, each with its own advantages & disadvantages. 

Choosing The Best Blogging Platform – What to Look for?

Whether you want to start up a blog to promote your small business or as a hobby, documenting your day-to-day journey.

Utilizing the most popular blogging Platform can help you cater to your growing audience and will help you establish authority in the industry. 

Before talking about our top picks for the best blogging platforms for 2024. We should talk about what makes a blog site great and what features you should look out for when selecting the right platform for you:

On-board Content Editor: 

As a blogger, you’re going to be spending a lot of time with your content editor. So it’s important to pick a platform with an editor you like. 

One great way to evaluate different platforms is by looking at the features of the content editor provided with each platform. 

For example, does the platform have drag-and-drop functionality? Is there an auto-save feature? 

These are just some of the features you might want to look for when considering different blogging platforms.

But keep in mind that what’s important to you might not be important to someone else. So make sure you weigh all of your options before making a decision.

Simplicity: 

Maybe you’re not looking to create a whole website from scratch and don’t mind working from an already well-established free blogging platform such as Tumblr or Medium.

If you want to go the easy route, there’s no harm in that. But we’ll still want to stick around for the entire read to help you pick the best option for you. 

Simplistic options are also available for those who want to create their own blogging website that comes with all the preset content and features already bundled with the platform. 

Themes, Templates, & Preset Content:

This is an important section that you shouldn’t overlook. Bloggers should thoroughly go through the themes, templates, and preset content offered by the platform before opting in. 

Does the platform you’re choosing offers a lot of options for bloggers? How many/what types of free and premium themes and templates do they provide?

Can you edit the themes and templates to create a truly customized look for your site?

You might also want to have the option to start from scratch rather than use a pre-designed theme. Just some questions that can help you select a platform with the design and customization options you would like to have.

SEO Features: 

It is widely known how important SEO is for any blogging platform. Choosing the right platform with all the necessary SEO features will make or break your SEO journey.

In a study by Sistrix, 88% of organic clicks go to sites listed on top of the Google SERPs for a keyword or phrase, with 28.5% going to the first result alone.

For your blog to thrive and grow in the competitive online environment, you must choose a platform that incorporates all the necessary SEO tools and features. 

Features such as the ability to create SEO friendly URLs, the ability to structure content header tags, the ability to add/edit metadata, etc. 

Some platforms may not have advanced SEO features or tools, but they do provide the option to integrate third-party SEO tools. Otherwise, you’ll have to get up to speed on SEO best practices and manual optimization. 

Extensions & Third-party Tool Integrations:

As a blogger, you know that no platform can offer every feature you want. Besides, your blogging needs and goals will likely change over time as your audience grows or your strategy shifts. 

That’s why it’s important to select a blogging platform that offers extensions or integrations with third-party tools.

Platforms with an ecosystem of apps & third-party tools will provide you with the ability to scale your blogging platform over time. So, you don’t have to migrate to a more flexible alternative in the future.

Now that the matter of how to choose the best blogging platform is out of the way, let’s focus on our picks for the best blogging platforms on the market in 2024. 

For your convenience, we’ve divided the list into both free and paid blogging platforms. So, that you have a better understanding of each platform and can make an educated decision. 

Best Professional Blogging Platforms in 2024

Compared to free platforms, most premium blogging platforms will provide you with more built-in customization options and control over your blog. If you have the money, making an investment in your blogging endeavors will indeed benefit you in the long run. 

And if you’re strapped for cash, we’ve also picked some excellent, feature-rich – free blogging platforms to get you up and running. 

WordPress

WordPress.org is easily the world’s most popular blogging software because of its convenient user dashboard and an array of open-source features.

Since 2003, WordPress has taken the world by storm and it now powers more than 43% to 48% of all active websites on the internet.

If you didn’t already know how to use the WordPress CMS functions and how to start a WordPress blog, we’ve already covered these topics, which you might find enlightening. 

Although this is the best free blogging platform to make money, it’s not completely free! You will have to invest in a hosting solution for this platform to function.

And additional costs will add up if you choose to use premium themes and plugins. 

What sets WordPress apart from the rest of the popular blogging platforms mentioned in this list is the fact that WordPress houses the largest repository of free WordPress plugins. 

WordPress itself is pretty barebones. But the great thing about this open-source platform is that you have the option to mix and match a multitude of plugins to achieve the features you’re looking for. 

For example, you have all the necessary blogging functionality and customization features using a popular drag & drop website builder.  

With some work, WordPress can easily be turned into an all-in-one blogging platform for small, medium, and enterprise websites.

WordPress offers the best combination of content management features and platform extensibility. But comes with a steep learning curve and requires more maintenance downtime than other platforms. 

Another great option that comes with WordPress is its wide selection of the community-made most popular WordPress themes collection. 

WordPress Pros: 

• WordPress was originally created as a blogging platform, and it still retForm ains all the classic blog elements. But the platform has evolved into a multipurpose powerhouse that can power websites from any genre. 
• The source platform works well with all the popular hosting platforms. 
• A wide selection of free WordPress plugins from the WordPress repository. 
• Choose any of thousands of free/pro WordPress community-made themes. 
• The ability to switch plugins and themes at any time. 
• Very expandable. 
• WordPress is great for handling heavy traffic. 
• The ability to integrate Google Analytics to get a better understanding of your website’s performance and traffic. 
• Make money blogging by monetizing your blogs and content by setting up subscription services. And building a shop around it using a WordPress drag-and-drop editor. 
• The ability to choose great SEO plugins for additional optimization experience. That will help you create SEO-friendly URLs, custom links, provide you with an SEO score, detailed optimization tips, etc. 
• And the best features of WordPress are on the WordPress admin dashboard of the platform. From here users can control their entire website with precision. 

WordPress Cons:

• WordPress has a steep learning curve, some users may find WordPress a bit tedious to use at first. 
• WordPress software, themes, and plugins may run into compatibility issues. Keep your plugins up to date with the latest version of WordPress. 
• Since WordPress is a barebones open-source software, you will have to manage your own database & website backups and security.

Additional Resources: 

Here’s a list of the Must-Have WordPress Plugins for WordPress. 

HubSpot CMS

HubSpot CMS Hub is another popular all-in-one CMS platform that comes with all the required features and customization options that are required for operating a successful blogging platform. 

The CMS platform/website builder is built on the basis of HubSpot’s marketing and CRM tools. Which helps you in managing your own website with minimum effort and technical know-how. 

Want to monetize your blogs and make money blogging? CMS Hub could be the best option for you. The platform can help you set up newsletters and subscriptions to help you monetize your content faster. 

In addition to its website builder, HubSpot CMS Hub offers the ability to customize your website design to best suit your blog content style.

You have the ability to customize the blog page layout to provide your readers with a personalized reading experience. 

CMS Hub Pros:

• CMS Hub is a powerful, yet easy-to-use platform with an intuitive, user-friendly layout. 
• It offers pre-designed themes or you can create one from scratch. 
• Hosted by HubSpot, no third-party hosting service is required. 
• It is optimized for SEO and provides built-in SEO features and tools. 
• A free SSL certificate is included.
• The CMS platform offers CTA blocks, forms, and other interactive elements.
• The ability to create multi-language variations of blogs. 
• A/B testing system. 

CMS Hub Cons:

• No Free CMS version. 
• Steep higher tier packages. 
• Not well suited for small blogs and businesses. 
• Weak A/B testing allows testing of one page at a time. 

WIX 

Wix provides newcomers with an easy website-building solution to make their beginner blogs appear professionally created.

With hundreds of themes spanning a broad variety of website categories, you can quickly choose the perfect design for your blog from the design library and adjust it to suit your content style and preferences.

Wix is also well-documented and provides an extensive knowledge base with informative guides to assist new users. The WIX ADI builder is an amazing feature that comes in handy if you don’t want to put in the work of creating your blog.

In addition to the ADI builder, it also comes with a blog manager that is easy to use and straightforward, plus it has built-in stats and SEO functions.

WIX Pros:

• WIX as a blogging platform provides users with two options to create a beautiful website: 1. Using its built-in ADI website builder with 800+ pre-design templates, 2. Creating a blog website from scratch using CSS & HTML. 
• ADI will create a blogging site by filling out a quick WIX questionnaire. 
• Customize your blog using third-party templates. 
• Extremely flexible customizer experience. 
• In-built App Market provides extension apps with additional functionalities, such as –  newsletter tools, live chat, online booking widgets, social media integration, etc. 

WIX Cons:

• Wix as a blogging platform is more adaptable than other hosted website builders. But it falls short of a lack of customization options & CMS tools. Especially when compared to WIX vs WordPress or another competing CMS.
• Templates cannot be easily changed or switched. 
• The free plan is very limited and displays Wix branding & ads. 
• Third-party apps are limited in number. 

Weebly

Weebly is another popular most popular blogging software that is a great choice for beginners with little to no web development experience.

This simple platform provides all the required features that are needed to launch a responsive professional blogging website.

Weebly hosts a hosted solution with a well-rounded website builder and awesome templates for creating professional websites in various genres and niches. 

Weebly Pros:

• Offers a well-rounded hosting solution for professional blogs. 
• Weebly is affordable and comes with an intuitive drag-and-drop website builder.
• It is capable of working with complex page layouts and elements. 
• Square Payment gateway integration. 
• It offers mobile-optimized templates. 

Weebly Cons:

• There are limited features and bandwidth with the free plan, and it displays Weebly branding. 
• The pricing is high compared to their competition. 
• Limited SEO features and possibilities. 

Joomla

Like WordPress, Joomla is also an open-source community-driven content management system (CMS) software.

Its goal is to provide the average Joe with all the necessary CMS and management features to help them quickly get their website up and running. 

Joomla can help users build dynamic websites and blogging platforms. It also comes with thousands of extension tools to enable added functionalities to your website. 

Joomla Pros:

• Joomla offers several extensions to add additional functionality to the CMS. 
• Joomla offers rich built-in CMS functionality with thousands of extensions, making it a great alternative to WordPress. 
• It enables users to create, manage, and customize multilingual blogs. 
• The built-in builder offers an elegant drag-n-drop function. 
• Excellent social media integration with extensions. 

Joomla Cons:

• Steep learning curve. 
• The themes and plugins repository is not as large as WordPress. 
• It demands more server-side resources to run.
• The template adjustment options are limited. 

Web.com

Web.com is a convenient way of setting up a professional blog for your day-to-day documentation that caters to your audience.

It offers the ability to add blogs to your company platform or e-commerce storefront. Web.com comes with an intuitive drag-and-drop website builder platform. 

The web provides users the ability to change the look and feel of their websites without any coding requirements. Which is a must-have since all the other platforms in this list have provided this. 

Moreover, it has sophisticated SEO functionality, security, and autosave functionality. 

Web.com Pros:

• Beginner-friendly webpage builder.
• Fully customizable blogging templates. 
• Autosave is a must-have if you’re writing your copy directly on the blog. 
• Affordable pricing.
• All paid plans include a free domain.
• Great support desk structure. 

Web.com Cons:

• A small library of extensions and apps. 
• Not as powerful or robust as platforms such as WordPress, CMS Hub, etc. 

Squarespace 

Squarespace has been a great, well-rounded platform for professionals and casual bloggers alike.

Squarespace offers hundreds of ready-made templates and drag-n-drop customization features for the best blogging experience. And Squarespace also provides an enticing reading experience for visitors on a consistent level across every page. 

Moreover, all the templates provided by the platform offer’s great mobile-optimized experience with all the necessary SEO functionality. 

If you are someone who is concerned with security on your website, then Squarespace is by far the easiest to use and most secure solution for beginners, which requires no manual work.   

Squarespace Pros:

• It’s easy to configure for any non-tech-savvy person. 
• Professionally crafted design and templates.
• The templates are mobile-optimized and highly customizable. 
• The platform offers domain names with SSL/HTTPs.
• An excellent platform to retain a growing audience. 

Squarespace Cons:

• Limited features are built into the base platform. 
• Limited integration functionality. 

Medium

Medium works as a social media publishing platform for a wide range of detailed oriented blogs and articles. The platform has gained wide recognition from the authoritative figures publishing their content on the platform, and it is free! 

Medium has to be the best free blogging platform to make money since the platform distributes money based on total article read time. You just have to make good, informative content that attracts readers. 

The platform features an excellent yet simplistic content editor that is both easy to use and features all the necessary tools.

Another important feature of Medium is that you can narrow down your audience by genre. Which is great when considering you’ll have to manually promote blogs on other platforms. But Medium already very self sufficient with a healthy reader base. 

Medium Pros:

• Easy to use, just log in and start publishing. No configuration is required. 
• Easy to create an online reader base and community. 
• A hub to get connected with like-minded other bloggers. 
• Excellent content editor screen.
• Authoritative. 
• Excellent for those who are not interested in setting up a website of their own. 

Medium Cons:

• Limited features in terms of design or self-branding. 
• Medium owns your follower base. Shifting platforms will mean losing all your followers.
• You cannot have your own domain name. 
• You have no option to run ads on your ads. 

Tumblr 

Tumblr is a similar platform to Medium, but it offers a larger variety of multimedia formats, and it’s much more casual in nature compared to Medium. Tumblr is a time-tested blogging platform and can host any kind of content from any genre. 

Tumblr is more appealing to a more casual personal blogging genre because of its upbeat and customizable blog aesthetics. Making it one of the most popular personal blog sites on the web today.

And the best part of Tumblr is that it’s less restricting, with fewer rules and guidelines for a much more comfortable experience. 

Tumblr Pros:

• A free blogging platform that offers subdomains like – https://example.tumblr.com. 
• The ability to add a premium custom domain name. 
• No configuration is required. 
• An integrated social media platform is a big selling point. 
• Supports all the popular multimedia formats. 
• The ability to choose and add hundreds of free & premium themes.

Tumblr Cons:

• Limited set of features, that cannot be expanded upon. 
• Backing up your database and reusing it is not easy. 

Drupal

Drupal as a CMS platform is designed to be very flexible and serve a wider audience same as WordPress or Joomla. It is capable of accommodating forums, blogs, news platforms, networking websites, business websites, etc. 

Like its other CMS counterparts, Drupal is also very expandable by adding additional modules and extension programs to the main CMS platform.

Drupal Pros:

• Additional functionality can be added by using modules. 
• Drupal is an excellent choice if you publish different types of content. 
• Advanced user permission system for managing who can edit what on your website.
• Multilingual capabilities. 
• The ability to design a solid website with its stable builder platform.

Drupal Cons: 

• Users may face a significant drawback with its security features and concerns. 
• It comes with a very steep learning curve and is not suitable for non-technical users. 
• Hard to customize the platform. 
• Not a very scalable platform. 

Wrap It Up, 

Once you’ve set your mark on your blogging subject, objectives, and requirements. You can pick and choose any one of these best blogging platforms that provide all the capability and flexibility you require.

For better outreach, the platform you choose must include SEO features, expandability, quality, extensions, social media integration, customizability, etc. This will ensure that your blogs reach their full potential and growth. 

And as mentioned if you don’t wish to go through the hassle of creating an entire website, you simply opt for any popular blogging platform such as Tumblr. That basically eliminates the need for page creation and hosting costs.

We hope that you’ve found this piece of content on the best blogging platforms helpful and insightful. And hope any of these platforms can be used to boost your blogging endeavors in the future.