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Top 10 blogging sites for 2020

A lot of people especially writing enthusiasts prefer to write a blog these

days instead of keeping a notebook. It’s easy, convenient and is not limited
to your study table.

You can easily practice your writing, correct, rewrite or publish them
whenever you want, create followers, establish your brand or use blogging
as a marketing tool to increase website traffic. It’s also a great way to
connect with like-minded people.

But, you need to know how to choose the site for building your blog.

There’s a wide choice of blogging platforms. The more choices we have,

the harder it becomes to find the right one.

Before choosing the right blogging platform for yourself, you need to
know about what to look for in a blogging platform.Hence, it will then
become easier for you to find out which one is best suited for your
requirements.
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Tips For finding best blogging platform

For making a decision, it is better to know what you are searching for.
Below mentioned are some criteria to judge a blogging platform:

➔Starter friendly– To start you need a blogging solution that is easy

to set up, manage and not so highly codified. They should also be
able to find support when you run into trouble.

➔Budget– It’s important that your blogging platform of choice fits

within your budget and worth what you also get for. Almost every
blog platform has a free option or a free trial period hence it becomes
important that a free offer is worth nothing if it doesn’t do what you
need.

➔Features and Flexibility – In-built features like social media plug-

ins or compatibility with third party apps can be handy ones which
could enhance the popularity of your blog. You might also want to
modify or overhaul the design, add features, or make other drastic
changes as over time your requirements for your site will change. A
good blogging platform should be compatible with that.

➔Consistency–It should take care of most of the activities and features

for you instead of you having to do everything by hand. If not then it
will become an ordeal for you to maintain your blog.

➔Monetization benefits– Most people start a blog or website to earn

money with it. If that is your objective as well, you better choose a
platform that enables you to do that in a way that works for you.

The scoring of the factors above will be different depending on your goals
and requirements. Here is a comparison of some of the best blogging
platforms out in the market.
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Best Blog Sites in 2020

1. WordPress.org

The self-hosting version of WordPress is the most popular blogging

platform in the world among all the best blog sites. Its influence and
penetration is around 30 percent of the entire market.

Pros:-

• It consists of thousands of mobile compatible themes that allow you

to switch the design of your blog as per your requirements.
• WordPress gives you full control over every function of your site.
• The WordPress directory has over 50,000 plugins which can be used
to add various functionalities and extensions to the site.
• The platform is highly responsive, search engine friendly and well-
aligned with social media.
• It provides full ownership of your content.
• Its large community and customer care gives lots of support options.
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Cons:-

• In spite of being beginner-friendly, running your WordPress website

does require some technical knowledge.
• You are responsible for site maintenance including backups, security,
and performance.
• However, you can use outsourcing option to WordPress hosting
providers.

Pricing:-

• WordPress is an open-source solution which means it’s free to use

although self-hosted variety requires you to find a hosting provider.
You also need a domain. This can cost you around 40-50$ per year.
• Also, you might end up spending money on many plugins and
themes that add more flexibility to your blog.

It is suitable for :-

• Freelancers
• Professional bloggers
• Business blog
• E-commerce websites

2. Wix.com
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Wix allows you to put together your web presence via drag and drop and
comes with blogging ability that you can add to your site.

Pros:-

• Quick and easy setup, includes top level hosting

• Easy to customize template
• You can achieve everything using the graphical interface without
knowing any coding skills.
• Variety of design options
• Every design built with HTML5
• Has an AI feature to automatically design your blog
• Lots of free stock images

Cons:-

• Not allowed to change your site template after choosing it

• Free account has some limitations
• The number of free apps is limited
• Doesn’t fully support e-commerce, even on paid plans
• The service charges for many things so costs are high
• Not allowed to move your site elsewhere and take your content with
you

Pricing:-

• Wix offers different subscription based packages. Their plans start at

$5 monthly for 1GB bandwidth and 500MB storage with the ability
to connect to a custom domain which you need to purchase on your
own.
• Higher plans add more bandwidth and storage, free domains, apps
with the ability to create an online store and remove the ads. The
highest plan of $25/month also comes with VIP support.

Perfect for:-
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• People who are new to website development

• Creative artists
• Businessmen who need a blog with a website

3. Joomla.com

It is another open-source content management system that you can use to

build all kinds of websites.

Pros:-

• Lots of extentions are available.

• Powerful and flexible blog platform. It is suitable for a website more
than a blog.
• Different kinds of professional website templates are available.

Cons:-

• Basic knowledge of HTML and CSS is a necessary.

• Highly technical processes.
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• The responsibility for security, backups, and performance is on you

along with the option to avail Joomla managed hosting.

Pricing:-

• Joomla is free to download and costs only incur for hosting and a
domain.

Suitable for:-

• Business websites
• Online stores
• IT professionals
• Technical personnel

4. WordPress.com

Most commonly used blog or website platform is wordpress.com. Free

version of it is available with basic features. For advanced feature we need
to pay.
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Pros:-
• Easy to set up – just create an account and follow the installation
wizard.
• Hosting is automated here.
• Site maintenance is comparitively easy.
• For paid plans we can get professional and dedicated support

Cons:-
• Free account has less features.
• Site domain name is a subdomain of wordpress in free version.
• It is possible to lose your site if you violate the terms and services of
the platform

Pricing:-
• Paid plans cost between $4 and $25 per month (billed annually).
Each tier increases the amount of storage space, features (including
monetization options) and support. With the Business plan, you can
install external plugins and themes and connect your site to Google
Analytics.

Perfect for:-
• Hobby bloggers
• Presentational websites

5. Medium.com
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Medium is a popular blog posting platform. Medium is favourite

publishing platform among the writers, bloggers, and journalists.Medium
is not only a blogposting platform but also it has some limited features of
social meadia sites. We can comment and like our competitors blogs

Pros:-
• For blog posting just need a sign up.
• User interface and writing experince is awsome.
• Content is more important than design structure.
• content embed from other services are available ( like twitter,
tumblur etc)

Cons:-
• All blogs are look like same, we can't customize designs.
• Very limited marketing features
• No way to transfer your audience from Medium to any other
platform
• Monetization options are absent
• Medium has control over your content

Pricing:-
• This blogging platform is absolutely free.

Perfect for:-
• Writers
• Hobby bloggers
• Content Markers
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6. Ghost.org

This is a publishing platform focused only on blogging. The idea was to

make a more streamlined and modern version of WordPress. As a
consequence, the platform is built on JavaScript. It’s also available for a
hosted or self-hosted version.

Pros:-
• Focus on writing and blogging.
• Clean, intuitive, streamlined user interface.
• Live preview of blog posts.
• High speed because it is built on JavaScript.
• The hosted version requires no setup.
• SEO and social media capabilities are built-in.
• Integrated function for Accelerated Mobile Pages.

Cons:-
• Not easy to customize.
• Limited configuration and customization options.
• The number of themes is narrow.
• Ghost’s self-hosted version is complicated to set up.
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Pricing:-
• The price for the hosted version depends on the number of websites
and the amount of traffic. For $29/month you get one blog and
50,000 monthly page views. This also includes SSL encryption.
• The most expensive plan is $249/month ($199/month paid annually).
Ghost has prioritized support, uptime guarantee, and other premium
features. All plans come with a custom domain.
• For the self-hosted version, you need to pay the usual hosting plus
the domain registration.

Perfect for:-
• Bloggers who are happy to experiment with the newest technical
solutions.

7. Squarespace.com

Squarespace is a drag-and-drop website builder which is aimed at small

business owners. It’s a great all-in-one solution for non-technical people
and offers hosting, domain registration, and the possibility for e-
commerce. It also has blogging capabilities which are the reason why it’s
among the best blog sites out there.
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Pros:-
• Simple to use and beginner-friendly
• Professional design templates are available
• SSL encryptionis built into the platform
• Ability to build an online store
• Free trial to test drive the platform
• Includes hosting and a custom domain
• 24/7 customer support

Cons:-
• Users are limited to the features that Squarespace offers
• Integrates only with a few third-party services and tools
• Personal plan is limited to 20 pages and two contributors
• Slightly overpowered if all you want is a blog
•
Pricing:-
• Squarespace is subscription-based. It comes with only two plans:
Personal and Business. One is $16/month and the other $26/month.
You get a discount and a free custom domain if you pay annually.
• Both plans come with unlimited pages, bandwidth, and storage. The
Business plan also has e-commerce, marketing features, and allows
you to customize your design through CSS and JavaScript. You can
use your domain name, which comes with extra costs. There is a 14-
day free trial to test the waters.

Perfect for:-
• Business owners
• Portfolio websites
• E-commerce
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8. Weebly.com

Weebly is another site builder with a modular approach and a web-based

interface. Pick a template and position your content as blocks in different
areas.

Pros:-
• Easy to use – everything is operated via drag-and-drop
• Comes with decent mobile apps to run your site on the go
• You can try out the service before committing financially
• Has a good reputation in terms of SEO, even integrates with Google
Analytics

Cons:-
• Limited integrated features and no possibility to add more
• The free plan only comes with 500MB of storage, Weebly branding,
and a subdomain
• Integrates with only a few third-party platforms
• Exporting your site is difficult
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Pricing:-
• You can start with a free account. After that, $5/month gets you a
custom domain. For advanced features like site stats, video
backgrounds, or membership options, you need to go for one of the
higher plans. Those come in at $12-$25/month. Weebly also has
separate plans for online stores that are slightly more pricey. All
plans are paid annually.

Perfect for:-
• Business owners who need blogging capability
• Online portfolios
• Bloggers without technical knowledge

9. Blogger.com

This free blog hosting service has been around for a long time. It was
founded in 1999 and acquired by Google in 2003. As a consequence, you
can sign up easily with your existing Google account.

Pros:-
• Free to use and the set up only takes minutes
• Hosting, maintenance, and other technicalities are taken care of
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• Integrates well with other Google apps (e.g., you can store your
images on Google Drive)
• Has a mobile app version with which you can manage your blog
while on the move
• Mobile-optimized templates
• Comes with tracking and anti-comment spam measures

Cons:-
• Limited to basic blogging tools and there is no way to add additional
features
• Design options are few
• Updates or new features are scarce
• Blogger displays advertisements on your blog

Pricing:-
• Blogger is completely free. The only cost you might incur is if you
want to use a custom domain. In that case, you have to acquire and
pay for it yourself.

Perfect for:-
• Hobby bloggers and personal blogging

10. Tumblr.com
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The final entry for the best blog sites is Tumblr. The service is a micro-
blogging platform optimized for short-form content. It also has a
community behind it and social network features. Think of it as a middle
ground between WordPress and Twitter.

Pros:-
• Free and very easy to set up and use
• Hosting is included (your blog is located on a tumblr.com
subdomain)
• Has integrated social features such as following, re-blogging and
sharing
• Easy to publish multimedia e.g. videos, GIFs, images and audio
• Many design opportunities and they are easy to change

Cons:-
• Limited features and no way to extend them
• It’s difficult to back up your Tumblr content and use it on other
platforms

Pricing:-
• The platform is free to use. Optional costs are for a custom domain
(which you can map to your Tumblr account) and third-party themes
and apps.

Perfect for:-
• Hobby bloggers
• Personal blogging
• Micro-blogs
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Best Blog Sites – What’s Your Pick?

When looking for the best blogging platform, you have many platforms to
consider. Each comes with its pros and cons. There are three varieties: self-
hosted blogging platforms, hosted blog sites, and website builders that also
have blogging capabilities.

The most suitable for you will depend on your needs, goals, choices and
preferences. Hence, if you are looking for a long term association with
your blog or website then you need to study all the factors before choosing
a platform or you might end up creating nothing more than a ‘content junk’
on the internet.