Looking for free blogging sites to help you get started sharing your writing with the world? Whether you just want to share updates with your family and friends or want to start a blog and build a larger audience, we’ve rounded up 10 great sites where you can start a blog for free.
We’ll also try to guide you to the specific platform that’s best for you so you can easily create a blog for free. Here’s what you need to know:
The Best Free Blogging Sites to Consider in 2023
Here are the best free blogging sites you can use to start your own blog today:
1. Wix (www.wix.com)
Sponsored Wix is a Free website building tool that can be fully managed from the front-end. The main feature of this platform is that it comes with drag and drop options, so you don’t have to manage anything in the back-end. The design is very intuitive and modern, which can be used by both beginners and advanced users.
The great thing about Wix is that it comes with free hosting included, so all you have to do is organize your layouts, choose a template, and you’re good to go. It provides a good collection of free and premium themes and templates for different purposes, including blogging.
To start a Wix blog, simply sign up and choose – you can let Wix ADI create a site for you based on a questionnaire or create your blog yourself, including selecting a template and arranging layouts via the WYSIWYG editor. If you choose the second option, all you need to do is find a beautiful template and start customizing everything on the front-end, in a live preview mode.
You can add multiple elements to your pages , from multimedia widgets to backgrounds, menus, typography, forms, video frames, etc. When you think the site is ready, click Publish and start posting your stories to the blog. After publishing, you can come back at any time to edit the content blocks.
👉 Read more about the differences between Wix and WordPress and see some great Wix website examples.
2. WordPress (www.wordpress.org)
WordPress.org is the king of free blogging sites. It’s a free platform, but then you have to build the site mostly yourself. You must also host the software yourself. While you can find free WordPress hosting, a better long-term strategy is to pay a moderate amount for solid WordPress hosting.
This is where Bluehost comes in. Not only is it very affordable (the basic plan starts at just $2.75 per month when you sign up for three years), but it also offers strong features, including a free domain name, 50 GB of disk space, no bandwidth metered, free SSL and 100MB of email storage per account. Right now, Bluehost is the cheapest responsive WordPress hosting you can find.
Because you host the WordPress software yourself, you have full control over how your site looks and functions, as well as how you make money with your site. But the other side of the coin is that the setup process is a bit more hands-on.
This is what the WordPress interface looks like when creating a new post:
On the opposite side is WordPress.com, which is the flip side of WordPress – A platform is mostly used for personal blogs because it’s easy to set up and free (if you’re okay with not having a custom domain name). However, you’re also pretty limited in how you can customize the site.
And especially if your plan is to monetize your blog in some way, the free version of WordPress.com will prevent you from doing so. .
With this in mind, we recommend you start with Bluehost. There is a 30-day money-back guarantee; in case you change your mind with the whole blogging experiment, just ask for a refund.
👉 Read this to learn more about the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
3. LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com)
You probably didn’t expect this. LinkedIn is not the first choice for most people when considering which of the free blogging sites to choose. Having said that, it really deserves some attention!
Two main reasons for this: easy-to-use tools and pre-existing audience.
About that second thing, the audience, the good thing about The LinkedIn user base is that it is highly focused users, professionals, and business owners. In fact, it is reported that more than 30 million companies are active on LinkedIn. And they are not there just because. Other data indicates that 94% of B2B marketers use the platform as one of their top primary sources.
In short, LinkedIn just works as a platform where you can get exposure, and this makes it one of the best free blogging sites around.
From a point of view Technically speaking, posting on LinkedIn is easy. Simply go to your LinkedIn feed and use the “Start a Post” widget at the top of the page. To turn your status into a full post, click “Write a LinkedIn Article” to open the full screen editing window.
This is where you can find all the editing tools you’re used to. – to format text, add images and more.
If you want to learn more about how blogging works on LinkedIn, read this detailed guide.
4. Weebly (www.weebly.com)
Weebly is another website builder that you can use not only for blogging, but also for selling products or showcasing your portfolio. It is somewhat similar to Wix in that it provides a WYSIWYG editor with drag and drop elements. If you want to add a certain button, you can simply drag it onto the page and customize it. The same goes for photo galleries, slideshows, and any other media elements.
Weebly provides sidebars, media boxes, forms, ad slots, social media icons, newsletter subscription, and many more. further. Additionally, the platform comes with built-in analytics and allows you to use your own custom domain (which you have to pay for).
In the free plan, you get five custom pages, a Weebly subdomain, 500MB storage, and advertising spaces.
5. Medium (www.medium.com)
Medium is a multi-purpose, multi-topic platform where anyone with an account can post. Unlike most other free blogging sites, the great advantage of Medium is that your articles will be exposed to a wide audience as the platform is visited by 60 million readers(*) per month (and the number is increasing every year).
It is very easy to use: you practically only have to register and start writing. But the downside is that all your content is on Medium. Meaning, you’re not actually building your own “space” like you would with WordPress. Read this post to learn more about the differences between WordPress and Medium.
6. Ghost (www.ghost.org)
This is another blogging platform similar to WordPress. While the Ghost software is free to download, it needs paid hosting for fuel. DigitalOcean is a great Ghost compatible service – it’s inexpensive and comes with a ton of good features to get you started.
The downside is that installing Ghost isn’t as straightforward as WordPress, and you may have to getting your hands dirty with some server work, depending on the host you choose for your blog.
Creating a post on Ghost is easy once you set up your website. The editor is simple and minimalist and offers a live preview of your text on the right side of the screen. On the front end, you get a medium environment, so that’s nice. Near the editor screen, there is a sidebar with settings, where you can choose your preferences.
7. Blogger (www.blogger.com)
Blogger is one of the oldest free blogging sites, though its popularity has declined in recent years.
It’s a solid solution for blogging personal, but it is not the best resource for professional use. It works just like the other hosted platforms – you must first create an account in order to use it. After creating it (which is simple), you have to choose one of the default themes and you can start writing your thoughts. This platform has an interface similar to a Google profile, and the editor resembles a Word page.
Blogger offers a large number of themes to choose from, each with different skins, advanced color filtering, and various minimalist gadgets (also known as widgets). But nothing too fancy and no advanced design customization. In general, Blogger has simple appearance options, so the focus stays more on the writing part. A good part of this site is that it comes with ad space that you can place within your content pieces.
8. Tumblr (www.tumblr.com)
Tumblr is one of the original free blogs web sites. It is only slightly “softer” than the others on the list. Unlike the rest of the platforms that are mostly created for editorial purposes, this one here is more oriented towards multimedia or social media-like content. Tumblr’s interface is more fun, and it’s easy to get started: you can simply sign up, and then you can start posting.
Just like a regular blogging platform, it provides multiple post formats for different types of content. .The thing about Tumblr is that it is purely for personal use and would not be a great solution if you have business oriented plans. It’s simple, offers basic customization options, and like I said before, has more of a social media vibe.
Although it’s not designed for business, it allows you to display ads on your page, use affiliate links and integrate your blog with Google Analytics.
9. Joomla (www.joomla.org)
Joomla is similar to WordPress.org but not as obvious when considering the free blogging sites available. Like WordPress, the software is free but requires hosting and a domain. As in the case of WordPress, we recommend Bluehost because it is very cheap and reliable (and includes a free domain).
Overall, Joomla has a flexible interface that can be used not only for blogs but also for websites. more complex (you can choose from a variety of templates and extensions to add custom features).
When it comes to ease of use, the platform provides an old-school editor, which somehow looks like Microsoft Word. It allows you to choose the font, color, size, emoticons, tables, or background. I mean, the tools in the menu make you feel like you’re in a Word window.
Joomla’s editor has tabs. The first tab is the classic text message window, then you need to switch tabs to select post categories, tags, date, meta description, keywords, etc.
10. Jimdo (www.jimdo.com)
Jimdo is more than just one example of free blogging sites. However, in its free version, blogs are the most recommended, given the basic features of Jimdo. So you can quickly build a website with Jimdo by reviewing a few elements (take a basic quiz about the purpose of your site). After checking these options, your site is automatically created based on your selections. The downside of Jimdo is that you can’t have a custom domain (at least not for free), and you can’t remove ads unless you upgrade.
One important thing about Jimdo, though, is that it’s a page builder – create blog posts directly through the front-end and not through an editor (like other blogs do). This means you have to go to each content box on a live page and edit it on the spot, without being redirected to another page. The footer and logo can be edited in the same way. When it comes to the content elements, you have a few options: plain text, text with image, photo gallery, columns, buttons, etc.
Through the left sidebar, you can make more settings, such as adding the date, title, category, status (published or draft), summary, and post image preview. In short, your article will be built entirely from many individual elements that you will edit separately. Text, image, button… you decide the order.
How to create a blog (in 6 easy steps)
- ✅ Choose a descriptive name for your blog. Use the domain wheel to find the perfect domain name for your blog.
- ✅ Buy a domain and get hosting for your blog. We recommend buying hosting from Bluehost (starting at $2.75/mo) and get your domain name free.
- ✅ Install WordPress. You can install WordPress through the Bluehost interface with a few clicks.
- ✅ Find the perfect WordPress theme or template. Customize your blog design to match your taste.
- ✅ Get some must-have WordPress plugins and plugins. Give your blog more features like social sharing and image optimization.
- ✅ Launch your blog and start sharing your voice with the world. Begins to writing, sharing and interacting with your followers on your favorite topic.
H There is a video walkthrough of the steps required to start your own blog on WordPress. You can treat it as a summary of what has been said above.
Ready to start a blog with these free blogging sites?
*This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and then purchase the product, we will receive a small fee. Don’t worry though, you’ll still pay the standard amount, so there’s no cost to you.
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