Being in the blogging industry for a while has given me a lot of exposure to experimenting with different blogging platforms.
And while I was just starting out, I focused solely on free blogging platforms to gain hands-on experience with different themes, designs, and various tools.
That phase taught me a lot. Free platforms like WordPress.com, Blogger, and Medium were my go-to choices. However, in addition to these, I have tried a few platforms that are tailored to specific needs with unique features.
In this post, I am going to share a list of 13 free blogging sites to start your blog in easy steps. Each of these platforms has its own style and strengths, so you can quickly figure out what works best for your needs.
Let’s get straight into it.
13 Free Blogging Sites to Launch a Blog Instantly in 2025
Sr. No. | Platform | Free Plan Available | Ease of Use | Best For |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | WordPress | Yes | Moderate | Bloggers wanting flexibility |
2. | Blogger | Yes | Easy | Beginners, casual bloggers |
3. | LiveJournal | Yes | Easy | Personal journals, niche users |
4. | Tumblr | Yes | Very Easy | Microblogging, visual content |
5. | Weebly | Yes | Easy | Visual blogs, business sites |
6. | Penzu | Yes | Very Easy | Private journaling |
7. | Squarespace | Free trial | Easy | Portfolio/blog integration |
8. | Yola | Yes | Easy | Simple personal sites |
9. | Edublogs | Yes | Moderate | Teachers, students, and schools |
10. | Wix | Yes | Easy | Creatives, beginners |
11. | Medium | Yes | Very Easy | Writers, readers, and thought leaders |
12. | Ghost | Free trial | Moderate | Tech-savvy bloggers, publishers |
13. | Jimdo | Yes | Easy | Beginners, small business owners |
Here’s a comprehensive list of free blogging platforms to start your blog. This list is NOT in any particular order, as each platform has its own strengths and weaknesses.
1. WordPress
Category | Details |
---|---|
Platform Type | Managed website builder and hosting platform |
Hosting | Fully managed WordPress hosting with global CDN |
Security | Built-in firewalls, DDoS protection, SSL, and encryption |
Themes & Design | 350+ free themes; premium themes available; custom themes installable on Business & Commerce plans |
WordPress is one of the most reliable and widely used free blogging platforms. You can use WordPress for creating personal blog sites, professional blogs, and blogs of any type.
Over 43.5% of the websites worldwide are hosted on the WordPress content management system. WordPress powers 61.6% of all websites that use a known content management system.
You can use WordPress blogging software on your custom domain by downloading it from the WordPress.org website and uploading it on your purchased web space.
Limitations of using WordPress for creating your first free blog site:
- You will just get a subdomain with them
- You cannot install themes or plugins that are not in WordPress’s official directory. You can access the WordPress free themes and plugins directory from here and here.
But you can get free from these and many more limitations if you go on to start a blog of your own. By using a self-hosted blog, it’s not only easy to manage your sites, but you can also make money blogging if you put some bucks into SEO, content writing, or design.
Key Features:
- Has advanced design and editing tools that make your site look professional.
- Offers easy post creation and editing options.
- You get access to hundreds of free plugins and themes.
- Easy monetization tools that accept payments.
- Offers you support from an expert team.
- You can integrate various marketing and analytics tools easily.
Pros of WordPress:
- I believe WordPress is more flexible and customizable than any other site available. You can build almost any type of website, whether it’s a blog or an online store.
- No coding and tech knowledge needed. WordPress has thousands of free themes to choose from, along with page builders.
- You can easily optimise your site for not just Google but for any search engine.
Cons of WordPress:
- For beginners, it may look complex at first. It may take some time to become accustomed to the dashboard and settings.
- You will have to update WordPress, themes, and plugins yourself.
- Additionally, installing multiple plugins may cause your site to run slowly. So I always suggest using only what you really need.
Who is WordPress for?
Firstly, I have been using WordPress for many years now, and I can say it is the best decision I have made. I would say go with this option without a doubt. Whatever your niche will be, WordPress has a solution for everything.
Specifically, if you are a blogger, agency owner, or even if you are handling a huge business, WordPress will fulfill all your needs. My experience with WordPress has always been excellent. What I like most about it is that it provides full control over your design, content, and everything. You can start simple and add more tools as you go.
Yes, it takes a bit of effort in the beginning to settle, but eventually you will get so adapted to it that you will not think of any other site.
2. Blogger
Category | Details |
---|---|
Platform Type | Free, cloud-hosted blogging platform |
Hosting | Free hosting on Google’s servers with a blogspot.com subdomain |
Security | Free SSL certificates, secure HTTPS connections |
Themes & Design | Limited selection of templates; basic customization via HTML/CSS; simple layout options |
One of the most preferred and widely used free blogging platforms is Blogger. When it comes to free blogging platforms, Blogger is the one you can’t miss out.
If you are searching for a free and reliable blogging platform, Blogger is the perfect choice for you. It is a beginner-friendly platform that’s easy to use, secure and reliable. You can use this platform to monetize with Google AdSense!
Key Features:
- Google itself hosts it. So, no need for any other hosting.
- You get an easy integration with Google services like AdSense and Google Analytics.
- Free blogspot domain or custom domain.
- Choose from a variety of themes and customization options.
- Offers a responsive design suitable for both mobile devices and desktops.
- Provides you with multi-language support.
- It comes with Google’s security and automatic backups.
Pros of Blogger:
- You can use the blogging platform from the Blogger.com website on your custom domain, even by mapping it.
- The majority of bloggers still use the Blogger platform to start their own websites or blogs, not only because it’s free but also because it offers great functionality.
- Getting AdSense approval is really faster when you use Blogger, as both Blogger and AdSense are controlled and managed by Google.
- The Blogger platform’s themes look beautiful, plain, and simple.
- You can easily create blog posts, add images and videos to them, and even monetize your blog with most monetization programs available on the Internet, such as Google AdSense and Amazon.
- You can customize your blog design to a great extent. There are thousands of free templates available on the Blogger platform, and you can design your blog anyway you like. You can create pages, multi-user blogs, and private blogs, and Blogger.com is currently available in 41 languages.
Cons Of Blogger:
- The only limitation of using the Blogger blogging platform is that you will have no control over your site as Google own it and with free blog, you won’t get a unique domain name (besides just a sub-domain)
Who is Blogger For?
This is my second choice for anyone new to blogging who wants to dip their toes in.
No technical stuff, no charges for hosting! I have used Blogger many times, and I can still rely on it for my blogs today. The best thing about this site is that it is incredibly user-friendly. Just like opening a social media account, you can start your blog within minutes.
Although you don’t get many advanced features like WordPress, you can expect a more straightforward process with no design or plugin hassle.
I recommend this platform specifically to new writers or freelancers looking to build their portfolios. Alternatively, it’s also beneficial if you simply want to create a personal blog as a hobby.
3. LiveJournal
Category | Details |
---|---|
Platform Type | Blogging + social networking |
Hosting | Fully hosted platform |
Security | Privacy settings for each post |
Themes & Design | Customizable layouts and themes |
LiveJournal offers both free and paid versions. To remove ads from your blog, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
With LiveJournal, you get features like multi-author blogs, polls, calendars, commenting, and a variety of social media integrations, setting it apart from other free blogging platforms.
Currently, over 10 million users have chosen LiveJournal to create their blogs.
You can also blog in several languages, including Dutch, French, German, and English so if you are not good at English and want to try these languages, you will feel lucky using LiveJournal’s free blogging site.
Key Features:
- Offers customizable and creative journal templates.
- It features a “friends list” that allows you to follow other users and view a feed of their posts.
- It offers granular privacy controls for posts, allowing users to select from options such as public, friends-only, or private.
- Built-in commenting, likes, reblogs, and polls to gain engagement on your work.
- You can integrate multimedia, like photos, videos, and Spotify tracks.
- Offers a publish scheduling option.
Pros of LiveJournal
- LiveJournal is considered one of the best free lists of blog sites because of its wide range of useful features
- It has the biggest community of people where you can literally find information about any topic or ask questions.
- A wide range of languages to start a free blog
- It offers you an easy-to-use, user-friendly interface, so if you’re looking for the best list of blog sites with easy access, LiveJournal is definitely a great choice for you.
- The lesser-known fact about using LiveJournal is that you can blog anonymously using this blogging platform. If you want to keep things private or don’t want to share access to some of your stuff online, this is the best blog list site for you.
Cons of LiveJournal
- Most people are not aware of the fact that LiveJournal is a Russian social networking service (In Russia, LiveJournal makes up the MAJORITY share of the blogosphere, hosting over 80 of the top 100 Russian blogs, it’s as popular as WordPress, but in Russia). Although it’s not a big con, you’ll mostly find Russian-related content, communities, news, and so on
Who is LiveJournal For?
LiveJournal is a combination of social media and blogging. So, if you’d like to share your thoughts and creative knowledge, LiveJournal can be a great choice.
This is a creative blogging platform where you can build a connection with your readers. This platform is very popular among artists, personal bloggers, and writers.
If you are not into long-form blogging but want to share something knowledgeable and engaging, choose no other than LiveJournal.
4. Tumblr
Category | Details |
---|---|
Platform Type | Microblogging and social network |
Hosting | Free hosting with tumblr.com subdomain |
Security | SSL secured, with content moderation |
Themes & Design | Basic themes with HTML customization |
Tumblr is a microblogging platform similar to Twitter and Facebook. If you’re looking for a free blogging site that combines blogging with social networking, Tumblr is for you. It helps you post text, images, videos, and more.
Use Tumblr to create a free blog if your site is more visually oriented.
Tumblr gives you everything to make your images look visually appealing, and you can show pictures, videos, and music in any way you want.
From the list of free blogging sites mentioned on this page, Tumblr is one of the finest platforms for creating a clutter-free, mostly content-oriented site.
Key Features:
- Solely focus on microblogging.
- You get an easy and sassy interface with multiple post formats.
- You can schedule the post and also add it to the queue to publish it at a later time.
- Offers hundreds of customizable themes.
- Allows you to use tags to categorize your posts.
- It has integration with Facebook and Twitter.
Pros of Tumblr:
- Great for creative people like artists, photographers, and meme lovers.
- Perfect if you’re just starting out and want an easy blog with people already there to see your posts.
Cons of Tumblr
- Not the best if you want to write long, detailed blog posts.
- Harder to make money from your blog compared to other sites like WordPress.
- Feels more casual and not super professional.
Who is Tumblr For?
Being straightforward, Tumblr is ideal for creative individuals seeking to share their thoughts and connect with like-minded people. It is not a typical blogging platform where you can optimise your post. Instead, it is a social media-like microblogging site to share your ideas and thoughts in a visual format.
It is especially popular with Gen Z and millennials for sharing their skills.
I highly recommend this site to creative individuals, artists, writers, and bloggers who want to share their insights through visual stories. Here you can build your aesthetic and even interact with other creative minds on the platform.
Read: Plan your Tumblr content schedule with insights on the Best time to post on Tumblr in 2025
5. Weebly
Category | Details |
---|---|
Platform Type | Drag-and-drop website builder with integrated hosting |
Hosting | Free hosting with unlimited storage; no forced ads on the free plan |
Security | Free SSL certificates, DDoS protection, and 24/7 support |
Themes & Design | Offers a selection of responsive themes; customization through a drag-and-drop editor and limited HTML/CSS editing |
Weebly.com is a California-based company that was started in 2006 and was named one of the Best 50 Websites by The Times in 2007.
Weebly is a popular free blogging platform. Many people use it to create their free blogs because of its versatility.
They are currently hosting over 50 million websites worldwide.
Unlike other web hosts in the industry, you can publish your content on a Weebly subdomain or on your custom domain. You will not be charged anything for domain mapping.
You can also drag and drop items to create menus, pages, categories, etc. Using Weebly to create free blogs is fun, and you won’t find it hard to maintain your blogs.
Key Features:
- Features an actual drag-and-drop interface to create and arrange everything.
- Offers custom and responsive themes.
- Advanced Blog Management and Customization
- Allows you to extend the site’s functionality with apps and integrations.
- Powerful SEO tools to get noticed by search engines.
- You can easily customize your domain and make it a brand..
- You get third-party integrations for your site, blog, or store.
Pros of Weebly
- Speed and ease of use are the reasons why most people go for Weebly. Simply put, what you can do on WordPress in 5 hours, you can do on Weebly in 5 minutes.
- From commerce, communication, and marketing to social media, you can find a ton of useful apps for almost any topic you want
- Weebly provides SSL certificates even with the free plan
- It also provides you with 500 MB of storage, which is mostly enough for personal blogs.
Cons of Weebly
- Limited storage space, so you can’t really start a professional blog with their free plan, and you’ll have to upgrade to their premium plans to get unlimited storage
- It displays ads on free plans, which can be annoying if you want to provide a clutter-free experience to your website users
Who is Weebly For?
Weebly is ideal for business owners, bloggers, and creative professionals who want to expand their online presence and showcase their work. Even if you have never built a site before, you can get started within minutes with its drag-and-drop features.
Additionally, Weebly works well for e-commerce stores. I recommend this to someone who wants to learn how to set up and handle an online store. It is also ideal for individuals who wish to sell products online.
Another great thing about this site is that it has responsive themes. So, you do not really need to take care of tech and coding stuff.
6. Penzu
Category | Details |
---|---|
Platform Type | Private online journaling platform |
Hosting | Cloud-based with real-time sync |
Security | Password protection: Pro includes 256-bit AES encryption |
Themes & Design | Basic customization, more options with the Pro version |
Want to write your blogging/IM/Life or Personal thoughts privately online?
Try Penzu. This free blogging site allows you to post various journals on your blogs.
You can upload unlimited images as it provides unlimited storage to its users.
Using the Penzu blogging platform, you can create three types of journals: Daily Diaries (where the public can read your content), Expressive Journals (which are private), and Travel Journals (which are specially designed for travelers).
Key Features:
- 100% private and secure journaling.
- There is no limit on the number of journal entries, even in the free version.
- You can personalise your diary with custom covers, backgrounds, and themes to match your style.
- You can organize your entries with tags and use advanced search to find past entries.
- Allows you to add images to your entries, capturing memories visually.
- It offers automatic date stamping.
Pros of Penzu
- Penzu is used by over 2 million people worldwide and lets you write with peace and provides easy to use journals to store your writing using their apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android phones & tablets.
- It is focused on giving you 100% privacy, and all your entries are totally private by default
- Offers you military-grade 256-bit AES encryption so you can encrypt your data
Cons of Penzu
- The only limitation is that the free plan doesn’t let you create multiple journals, add security, reminders, and journal customization, and so on, which actually costs you Pro plan at $19.99 per year.
Who is Penzu For?
Penzu is made for anyone who wants a truly private and secure space to write their thoughts, feelings, or memories. I always recommend Penzu to people who treat journaling as a personal habit.
I use Penzu to record my personal growth, set my goals, and take notes on ideas I want to work on.
I would rather not mention this site as a core blogging platform, but yes, it definitely works best for tracking your growth, representing your thoughts, or even writing down your life experiences.
So if you love the idea of customizing your journal and want to work on your goals, Penzu is a fantastic choice. It is simple, secure, and built for honest, personal reflection.
7. Squarespace
Category | Details |
---|---|
Platform Type | All-in-one website builder and hosting |
Hosting | Cloud hosting with a free domain on annual plans |
Security | Free SSL, DDoS protection, and privacy compliance |
Themes & Design | Sleek, responsive templates with visual customization |
Squarespace is one of the easiest ways to create a free website; Squarespace is a great website builder that has almost everything you are looking for.
It is the most effective blogging platform for photographers, online retail store owners, bloggers, and musicians.
It will make your site look awesome, and their templates make it stand out from other blogs easily.
Key Features:
- Various types of templates and design options are available to create a blog that represents a brand.
- Comes with an AI feature to shape your content into a perfect post.
- Offers a wide range of professionally designed, mobile-friendly templates.
- It has advanced image editing.
- Offers seamless SEO and marketing tools.
- You can monetize your blog by adding a paywall.
- Sell premium content through your blog with the help of special tools.
- Get expert customer care.
Pros of Squarespace
- It gives you access to easy-to-use pre-built website templates to make your design look appealing
- It has a drag-and-drop builder that you can use to easily create pages, make changes and customize your site’s look however you want
- From websites to online stores to marketing tools, you can literally find everything on this amazing free blogging site to create any kind of site.
- One of the primary reasons to consider the Squarespace blogging platform is that it allows you to install multiple templates onto a single website. (which is often known as template switching and is not possible in most of the other free blogging sites provided in the list)
- Gives you free access to Google Fonts so you don’t have to use any additional plugins or code to use any type of font you want from the Google Fonts section.
- Access to CDN (all the images you embed within your site will be hosted with a global content delivery network (CDN) that reduce load times of your site.
Cons of Squarespace
- Its pricing plans start at $12 per month (billed annually)
Who is Squarespace For?
I recommend Squarespace to creative professionals, including writers, designers, artists, and photographers. Its templates make portfolios and galleries look truly amazing.
And since it also features built-in eCommerce and scheduling tools, it is a wise choice for small business owners and online sellers.
I initially used Squarespace because I loved the decent themes and designs they offer. Not just for blogging, but if you own any service or sell a product, it has fantastic features to make it look like a brand.
If you need something that does not eat much of your time and is easy to maintain, Squarespace can be a great partner to go with.
8. Yola
Category | Details |
---|---|
Platform Type | Drag-and-drop website builder with integrated hosting |
Ideal For | Small businesses and beginners |
Ease of Use | Simple WYSIWYG editor, no coding needed |
Hosting | Free hosting with optional paid upgrades |
Security | Free SSL certificates, DDoS protection, and 24/7 support |
Themes & Design | Responsive templates, limited customization |
Over 12 million people are using Yola, which makes it one of the best free blogging platforms in the world.
Yola is also available in 6 languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Key Features:
- AI website builders for personalised site layouts and content based on your needs.
- Offers ready-to-use 100+ blocks.
- You can change templates at any time without losing your existing content or customizations.
- Responsive web design.
- Has e-commerce integration.
- Use a free Yola subdomain, connect, or buy your own custom domain.
- Get advanced SEO tools and settings.
Pros of Yola
- You’ll get access to an extremely easy-to-use website builder where you can easily add features, styling, and content to your site using their drag-and-drop widgets that you can use to customize however you want.
- Access to a wide range of templates, Password protection, and you’ll also get access to a ton of social sharing icons.
- Yola is it’s entirely search engine friendly, so you can get better benefits out of the box in terms of getting more organic traffic from Google.
- Google map integration, Video backgrounds, Tumblr blog application, Site statistics.
- Yola is currently available in 6 languages.
- The most significant benefit of using Yola premium packages is that they provide web hosting with unlimited bandwidth. (so you don’t have to worry about paying anything extra to hosting, no matter how many visitors you get to your site)
Cons of Yola
- The most significant limitation of using the Yola free option to create a free blog is that you get only 3 Pages, 1 GB bandwidth, 1 GB storage, and a Yola subdomain.
- You don’t get any access to support, and you can’t create unlimited pages on your own with a free plan.
Who is Yola For?
If you want to focus on your business instead of getting lost in technical details, Yola is a smart pick.
Yola is an all-rounder. Its themes are designed for various industries, so you can find one that perfectly fits your business. Other than blogging, Yola is also a great option if you want to sell products online.
What else do you need when you get perfect themes, AI features, marketing and SEO tools, and eCommence tools all in one platform?
My point is that Yola is a perfect option for anyone who wants to blog, build a portfolio, sell online products, or even run an online business.
9. Edublogs
Category | Details |
---|---|
Platform Type | WordPress-based educational blogging platform |
Hosting | Cloud-based hosting with reliable performance and automatic backups |
Security | Strong privacy controls for students, password protection, and safe sharing |
Themes & Design | Offers education-focused, responsive themes with basic customization options |
As the name suggests, Edublogs is the perfect blogging platform for education-related blogs.
If you are a college student or a professor and want to create a site for free, this is the perfect choice from the above list of free sites.
On this free blogging site, you can create blogs as a student, a teacher, or an institution.
Currently, they host more than five million education blogs on their free blog hosting. You can learn more in detail about why you should choose Edublogs to create your first education blog here.
Key Features:
- It is WordPress-powered with added education-specific tools and plugins.
- Offers class management tools to create and moderate student blogs from a single dashboard.
- It has advanced content filters, privacy controls, and moderation options.
- It is an ad-free experience for both teachers and students.
- You get over 250 themes to choose from.
- You can integrate engaging media to make your blog stand out.
- It includes the “My class” feature, where you can manage all student blogs, set permissions, and monitor activity through a central tool.
- A batch blog creation system.
Pros of Edublogs
- The biggest reason to use this blog site list is it gives you access to a ton of features, themes, and plugins that are meant just for education where you can write posts and create pages with ease
- Access to plugins & advanced features including forms, social sharing, maps, fonts, tables, and more
- Full privacy options to choose who can see the site and password-protect pages (you can protect your pages or content if you want to)
- Files & media upload options, where you can easily upload videos, photos, files, and podcasts
- Ad-free, even with the free plan
- You can customize the look of your site however you want (change themes, backgrounds, logos, and more)
- You’ll also get access to 250+ premium themes, which are available for free with even the free plan.
Cons of Edublogs
- The biggest limitation of Edublogs (free plan) is that you can’t let search engines crawl your site. That means, you can only publish content and promote your blog links on social sites to get visitors (not from search engines). However, with the Pro plan, which costs $7.95 per month or $39.95 per year, you can get rid of that limitation.
- Storage space is very much limited where you’ll get access to only 1 GB. (with free plan)
Who is Edublogs for?
No doubt, Edublogs is specifically made for people from an educational background.
To be specific, if you are an educator, teacher, or educational writer, do not go anywhere but here. I also recommend this one to students to help them improve their essay writing, blog posts, and overall writing skills.
With this platform, you can easily create class blogs, manage student portfolios, or promote reflective writing. The class management tools, like easy user setup and content oversight, save you hours.
10. Wix
Category | Details |
---|---|
Platform Type | Cloud-based website builder with drag-and-drop functionality. |
Hosting | Free hosting with optional premium plans offering additional features. |
Security | SSL certificates, secure payment options, and regular backups. |
Themes & Design | Over 500 professionally designed templates; extensive customization options. |
Wix.com is one of the best free platforms that you can use to build gorgeous-looking sites. Well, to create an interactive website, you don’t need to code.
Wix is a good website builder that creates beautiful, stunning websites. These websites are designed by non-professional web designers.
One Wix specialty is that it has built specific tools to help musicians and hotels grow their businesses that are not offered by other website builders.
It reported that 243 million registered users, with about 65,000 new users joining every day. This clearly says that Wix users are happy with the website builder and its services.
Key Features:
- Offers 900+ Customizable Templates.
- Great drag-and-drop interface.
- You can use artificial design intelligence to create a personalised website.
- Hundreds of third-party apps for e-commerce and marketing.
- Integrated scheduling and payment options.
- AI Personalization & Automation.
Pros of Wix:
- It offers over 510 professional templates that are all updated to match today’s design trends.
- It features an innovative drag-and-drop website builder that allows you to create websites easily without needing to know how to code.
- They have support buttons everywhere and phone support.
- It offers a unique mobile editor, allowing you to edit the mobile version of your site separately from the desktop version.
- With the Wix app market, you can add functions to your website, such as live chat (for customer service), newsletter/email marketing, testimonials, reservation/booking/scheduling tools, contests, pricing tables, etc.
- Wix covers all the basic SEO settings.
Cons of Wix:
- One drawback is that once you’ve picked a template to use, you can’t switch to another template without re-inserting your content.
- If you use Wix’s free website builder, it includes advertisement logos on the side and at the bottom of the website after publishing. To remove the advertisements, you must upgrade to at least their “Combo” premium package.
- It’s not designed to manage complex e-commerce needs.
Although it offers a free blogging platform, it also has 5 different levels of premium packages that you can choose according to your website’s needs.
Who is Wix For?
Go with Wix if you’re looking for a professional and unique web design without the hassle of coding. Wix is definitely for small businesses, new bloggers, freelancers, and creative professionals.
There are hundreds of templates here, so even if you want to run an online shop, start a blog, or build your portfolio, Wix is a great choice to try.
11. Medium
Category | Details |
---|---|
Platform Type | Hosted online publishing platform |
Hosting | Fully managed hosting; no need for separate hosting services |
Security | Medium handles all security aspects, including updates and backups |
Themes & Design | Clean, distraction-free design with limited customization options |
Medium.com is a fast-growing free blogging platform that allows anyone to create stories and have their own personal space on the web.
You can contribute your content by creating a free account with either an email address or a Twitter account.
Key Features:
- Clean and minimalist writing interface.
- Built-in social features like follow, react, comment, and share options.
- Allows you to submit your stories to popular publications.
- Earn money based on member engagement.
- Easy publishing process. No need for design or plugins.
- You can build your custom profile.
- You can co-author articles or invite editors to review and suggest changes before publishing.
- Allows easy import of stories from other platforms or blogs to Medium.
Pros of Medium:
- Your content is served by highly secure Medium servers, and your private information is kept secure using industry-standard security measures.
- Your posts reach an entirely different audience than your typical target audience.
Cons of Medium:
- You do not own Medium. It is owned by ‘A Medium Corporation’, and they can decide to shut it down, announce new pricing plans, or cancel your account at anytime.
- Your publication’s appearance is limited to the choices available in Medium. Similarly, you cannot choose your own design and layout for your website.
- Setting up redirects from Medium to WordPress is nearly impossible.
- You don’t have full control over the user experience.
Who is Medium For?
I have used Medium for free blogging myself. It is an ideal choice if you want to focus solely on writing and connecting with readers.
Medium is incredibly easy to get started with. Simply signing up is all it takes. So, no worries, even if you are just starting out or a blogging expert.
My posts could reach people I would never find on my own. In addition to this, the tagging system helps connect your articles to interested readers.
However, if you want deep customization or your own domain, you might outgrow it later. However, for new bloggers seeking simplicity and exposure, Medium is a great fit.
12. Ghost
Category | Details |
---|---|
Platform Type | Open-source CMS for publishing |
Hosting | Self-host or paid managed hosting |
Security | SSL and regular updates |
Themes & Design | Customizable themes; developer-friendly |
Looking for a powerful, minimalist blogging platform that is primarily focused on speed and monetization? Try Ghost!
Ghost.org is one of the simplest yet free blogging platforms that you can use to quickly build great-looking blogs.
If you are looking for a better version of WordPress with an emphasis on blogging and nothing else, then Ghost is for you.
It has beautiful and elegant template themes. Ghost does not power a wide array of websites, but it is purely a blogging platform.
Key Features:
- Fully open-source and independent platform.
- Launch a custom website with hundreds of themes.
- Professional and advanced publishing tools.
- Allows you to segment your audience and send different newsletters based on preferences.
- Native tools to turn readers into free or paid members.
- Built-in analytics to track audience engagement.
Pros of Ghost:
- It is effortless and flexible to use for beginners.
- It provides a very flexible user interface. There is a separate screen for content creation and preview, which means whatever you type on the content creation page will also be reflected on the preview page of your blog.
- Ghost dashboard has the most attractive and feature-rich pages on the back end compared to WordPress.
Cons of Ghost:
- You don’t get feedback from real users as Ghost is a newly launched blogging platform.
- It is in its beta-testing phase and still needs some real users to try its platform.
- It doesn’t provide plugins like the WordPress blogging platform. However, it offers SEO settings and social sharing features in the core, so you do not need external plugins.
- Ghost does not offer a free hosted plan (has a 14-day trial). However, you are not limited in the hosted version in any manner.
Who is Ghost For?
Based on my experience with this platform, it is ideal for anyone who wants complete control over their content and brand.
I loved how easy it was to design my site exactly the way I wanted. I experienced no hassle, such as compromises, distractions from editors, or unnecessary features.
So, Who is Ghost for? Considering its seamless interface and features, it is specifically designed for creative bloggers, journalists, and anyone looking to build a membership site.
Plus, you get to own your data, your audience, and your revenue, i.e, no middlemen taking a cut. So, yes, for creative bloggers and writers, it is a perfect room to grow.
13. Jimdo
Category | Details |
---|---|
Platform Type | Website builder with blogging |
Hosting | Free hosting with a Jimdo subdomain |
Security | Basic security, SSL included |
Themes & Design | Limited templates, customizable |
Are you looking for a hassle-free yet free blogging platform? Try Jimdo.com once, and you’ll be surprised by its features.
If you want to build an online shop without too much hassle, then Jimdo fits your needs. Jimdo.com is a beginner-friendly website builder that includes a ton of useful features. It offers AI-powered design tools but has limited customization compared to other platforms.
If you don’t want to pay thousands of dollars for a custom-built website or if you don’t know how to code, Jimdo is a very good website builder for you.
Key Features:
- An AI-powered website builder that helps create a personalised website draft based on your answers.
- Get a drag-and-drop editor to customise your site easily.
- A variety of customizable templates.
- Custom Domain & GDPR Compliance.
- Automated SEO features like XML sitemaps, clean URLs, 404 pages, and keyword tips.
- Online Store & Booking Tools.
- Automatically sync your business info across multiple platforms.
Pros of Jimdo:
- It’s a free platform that provides you with enough tools to build a very functional website. So, you need not upgrade to the paid platform.
- If you know how to code, then you will have tremendous design freedom.
- It is ideal for small to medium-sized businesses.
- You see on screen when you are editing the website, so no need to flip back and forth between editing mode and published mode.
- Jimdo web pages are automatically optimized by the search engine.
Cons of Jimdo:
- Due to some template restrictions, it is not always easy to change things. The good news is that you can test all of their templates in the Jimdo Free version.
- It is not the best choice for US sellers as no credit card gateway is available.
- Compared to other drag-and-drop website builders, it doesn’t give you as many options to edit the design or style of your website.
Who is Jimdo For?
This is a simple yet fantastic platform to grow your blog. I appreciated how the AI-powered builder handled most of the design work. All you need to do is answer a few questions, and your site takes shape almost instantly.
Additionally, the built-in SEO features and GDPR compliance provided me with peace of mind. The templates look clean and professional. The e-commerce options are simple yet effective, making them perfect for selling a few products or services.
In my opinion, Jimdo is ideal for you if you’re a freelancer, business owner, or someone looking to start a simple online shop.
Final Thoughts
When choosing a free blogging platform, consider THREE things: your blogging goals, customization needs, and monetization plans.
Platforms like WordPress.com and Blogger offer simplicity, while Medium and Squarespace focus on content visibility.
As I mentioned in this post, there are a lot of free blog writing sites available out there. Choosing a free blogging site is not an easy task, and you can’t try them all at once. So first know your blogging needs, and choose your blogging platform according to that.
If you are a beginner and searching for ways to make money from blogs, I strongly recommend trying either Blogger or WordPress from the list of free blogging sites mentioned above. What is the best free blogging site you would recommend to a newbie?
FAQs
Here are a few questions about a list of free blogging platforms that might be useful for you before creating free sites in 2025.
If you are exclusively looking for the best free blog hosting sites, consider Wix, Weebly, and 000webhost.
You can use free blogging platforms to make money by selling affiliate products, through display ads, selling your products and services, etc.
All you need to get started with this list of free blog sites is your email address. A few free blogging platforms also allow you to sign up for free on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
If you’re looking for the best free blogging platforms in India, go for WordPress or Blogger. They are widely popular in India in terms of usage, affordability, and features.
Veerrry good list of blog platform providers. I saw today many other similar pages, but yours collects indeed the best platforms for blogers. IMHO own hosted (f.i. on a cheap hosting) blog, installed on wordpress or something like that, would be always better choice – there are so much more options, you can use or not, but they are there 😉 But of course, for beginners it could be to difficult, then the better option is a free blog platform like the platforms on your list. Thank you!
If you’re on WordPress, you can find so many cheap yet reliable hosting services like Bluehost (instead of going for unknown and less popular hosting choices) as they also provide you free domain name. If you want more info: you can check out this post: https://bloggerspassion.com/how-to-start-a-blog/
LiveJournal is nofollow. And SquareSpace is trial only. Try Zoho or SnackWebsites.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s nofollow or not as we’re only talking about the free blogging sites. Thanks so much for your other suggestions as well!
Hi Anil,
I am starter blogger person and i follow you last six month your all post and read very careful so you all post useful for me. and i am asking one question can you advise me best theme for starter blogger.
First of all, thanks so much for following me for so long time and I’m really glad to know that you’re reading our blog posts, hopefully you’re learning new things. For starting bloggers, there are so many options out there, I suggest you to check out Elegant themes once.
Hi Anil!
Would you mind if I ask you what theme are you using for this blog? I liked it very much and would want a similar one (using same will not be good).
I hope you will be able to answer this.
Thnks!
Dhakkanz
Dhakkanz, its a custom build theme which is designed by designer.
Hi. I use Weebly. I find it unreliable for uploading and posting photos. I use it mainly for posting photos for family to follow my comings and goings. I crashes a lot, especially from my phone. Also, it can not be posted to from my iPad. Most annoying.
If you’re using a site only for uploading pics, I think you should better check out Tumblr as most people I see post a ton of photos and it’s also a great platform that offers you a ton of options for storage. So go give it a try if you’re not happy with Weebly.
Blog.com is a piece of crap, it never works right and the server is down a lot, it runs slow. Especialy in the last 10 days, it has been horrible.
You can only know a blog by actually trying it, don’t tell people how great it if you haven’t used on a daily basis like i have.
Shams, we recently updated this post and added 5 more free blog creation sites into this list. I hope this will help you. Please let us know in case we are missing any popular free blogging platform here.
Blogdotcom is no more active now and thousands of people who’re using their platform lost their content and sites.
ucoz.com is the site which lets you control the way your site works. You can add css, scripts, html, pages, entries, multiple users, multiple subdomains. It provides the option of search through tags, common search. Moreover own themes can be added with full style sheet control.
Heard a lot of good things about Ucoz, thank you for your suggestion, will definitely check it out and include it as well in the future. I guess it’s already offering easy to use drag-and-drop website builder with an intuitive interface designed for businesses. Keep sharing more information.
Hi Anil,
Free blogging is always an issue for beginners. They think about blogging with WordPress.org or WordPress.com. Self-hosted version of WordPress is a useful one but many bloggers go for free one because for them starting with some cost matters a lot.
Blogspot and WordPress.com are the leading websites which provide opportunity to blog free of cost.
You have listed some great websites to use by newbies.
Great post indeed.:)
Have a nice week ahead.
~Ravi
Hi Ravi, as you said, free blogging sites are definitely an issue for anyone including beginners as they don’t provide you much control, features, security, storage and so on but the only reason to consider them is when you’re starting out, it’s always better to start for free (unless you’re ready to spend some money on things like hosting, design etc). Thanks for the comment.
WordPress.com is the best site for creating blog as wordpress provides various themes and plugins to use .
But I think blogger.com is the anathor great site for begginers.
Blogger.com and wordpress are two most popular blogging sites also tumbler is popular but it didnt provide options like wordpress
WordPress.com doesn’t provide you plugins WordPress.org provides you all the plugins. The major difference between both of them is WordPress.com is completely free to use whereas the latter one requires hosting, domain etc. You can check this post if you’re curious: https://bloggerspassion.com/blogger-vs-wordpress/
I have only tried 3 out of that list, Blogger, LiveJournal & WordPress. I then discovered the wonderfulness of self-hosting my own WordPress blog and have never even contemplated looking anywhere else. 🙂
That’s what I think about WordPress too. Once you’ve realised the importance of using WordPress.org, you’ll never go back to any other blogging platform. It’s just like becoming an Apple fanboy, once you’re addicted to Apple products, you’ll never go back to something else.