Starting a blog can be an incredibly rewarding way to build an audience, share your passion, make money online, or grow your business. But with so many blogging platforms out there, how do you choose the right one?
In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll compare the top blogging platforms in 2024 to help you decide.
An Updated Look at Leading Blogging Platforms
The blogging world is constantly evolving. While WordPress retains its crown with over 60% market share, up-and-comers like Ghost and Medium continue to gain traction.
Here‘s a quick overview of major players in 2024:
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WordPress – The world‘s most popular blogging platform, powering over 455 million websites. Offers unparalleled customization via plugins and themes.
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Ghost – A modern, developer-centric alternative focused purely on blogging. Used by companies like Apple and SkyNews.
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Squarespace – An all-in-one content management system with beautiful templates for blogs, stores, and more.
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Wix – Another popular all-in-one platform with 500+ designer templates and built-in SEO.
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Medium – A free publishing site with an existing readership of over 30 million monthly visitors.
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Blogger – Google‘s free blogging tool, best suited for casual hobby bloggers.
Niche competitors like Tumblr, Weebly, and Svbtle also retain loyal user bases.
Below we‘ll explore the strengths and weaknesses of these platforms in more detail.
Choosing the Right Blogging Platform
All blogging software is not created equal. As you evaluate options, keep the following in mind:
Ownership and Control
Do you control your data and content, or does the platform? WordPress gives you full ownership, while sites like Medium and Blogger can limit what you can do or change policies unexpectedly.
Customization
How much can you modify site design and functionality? WordPress and Ghost support plugins and themes for advanced customizations, while tools like Wix and Squarespace focus more on premade templates.
Ease of Use
Some blogging platforms like Medium and Blogger allow you to simply sign up and start writing right away. Others like WordPress have a steeper learning curve but provide more flexibility.
Built-in Audience
Platforms like Medium and Tumblr give you instant access to existing readers. However, you don‘t own the relationship with your audience.
SEO Capabilities
WordPress gives you fine-grained control over SEO settings with plugins like Yoast SEO. Other platforms may handle SEO for you but don‘t allow much customization.
Monetization Options
If you hope to earn money from your blog through advertising, affiliates, email marketing, or other methods, some platforms provide more monetization support. Once again, WordPress leads here.
Keep these factors in mind as we explore the top blogging platforms of 2023.
#1 Best Blogging Platform: WordPress
WordPress dominates the market with good reason – its open source nature, vast library of plugins and themes, SEO capabilities, and flexibility make it a versatile, scalable platform perfect for all types of blogging projects.
The self-hosted WordPress.org allows for endless customization but requires a separate web host. WordPress.com offers free, limited blogs on the WordPress.com domain, but Premium plans unlock more features.
For most bloggers, the ideal setup is:
- WordPress.org blogging software
- Reliable managed hosting like Bluehost or SiteGround
- Your own custom domain name
This gives you ownership over your blog while handling hosting, updates, and security for you behind the scenes.
Key WordPress Benefits:
- Open source platform with largest library of plugins and themes
- Robust SEO functionality out of the box
- Ability to fully monetize blogs through ads, affiliates, products, memberships, and more
- Scalability to grow from hobby blog to media empire
- Strong ecosystem of developers, support resources, and prebuilt tools
Ease of use lags behind simpler platforms like Squarespace or Blogger, but WordPress still remains relatively user-friendly, especially with a quality theme.
There‘s a reason over 60% of all blogs run on WordPress – it offers unparalleled power and customizability for bloggers of all levels.
"With great power comes great responsibility"
#2 Best Blogging Platform: Ghost
The developers behind Ghost felt that WordPress was becoming too bloated, so they built a platform focused specifically on publishing.
Used by companies like SkyNews, Apple, and DuckDuckGo, Ghost offers:
- A distraction-free writing environment
- Subscriber management and email newsletter tools
- Membership payments options
- Detailed analytics on readership and income
- Custom themes, plugins, and integrations
As a newer platform, their theme and plugin ecosystem can‘t yet match WordPress. But their core blogging functionality performs admirably while keeping clutter to a minimum.
For developers, designers, bloggers, and publishers needing a lean, nimble platform purpose-built for modern web needs, Ghost is a superb choice that can easily scale.
And with over 9 million downloads to date, they continue gaining converts from WordPress expats. The future looks bright for Ghost.
#3 Best Blogging Platform: Squarespace
For bloggers who value simplicity and beautiful design over customizability, Squarespace should be strongly considered.
Their all-in-one content management system allows anyone to:
- Choose from a gallery of award-winning templates
- Drag and drop modules for blogs, galleries, stores, or more
- Let Squarespace handle security, updates, and SEO optimizations
- Integrate email marketing, analytics, and member areas
- Showcase visual content through large imagery and video
Compared to WordPress or Ghost, options for modifying themes, design, plugins, and settings feel more limited. But for many bloggers, the trade-off means never having to mess with code or get stuck configuring complex software.
For bloggers and online store owners wanting an easy-to-use platform with elegant design, Squarespace remains a wise choice.
When Simplicity Trumps Customization
Most bloggers should choose the power and customizability of WordPress over other options. But platforms like Squarespace, Wix, and Weebly have their place too.
These simplified tools work well for:
- Complete beginners overwhelmed by learning WordPress
- Bloggers wanting easy-to-use software that "just works"
- Anyone valuing visual design over complex functionality
- Small business owners needing a basic blog alongside other site pages
The lack of flexibility becomes limitation over time. But for some, it‘s a reasonable compromise.
Medium: Building an Audience vs Building a Business
Medium confuses some bloggers. It looks like a blogging platform but works much differently than traditional sites you install and own yourself.
Purchased by Twitter co-founder Ev Williams in 2012, Medium aimed to evolve digital publishing through community-based interaction, distribution, and revenue sharing.
In practice, it functions more as a fusion of blogging platform, social network, and publisher:
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Blogging Platform: Anyone can sign up for free, then start publishing posts to their Medium profile. Their editor simplifies writing rich content.
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Social Network: Readers follow you as a creator then recommend, highlight, and comment on posts. Your work reaches their followers leading to viral potential.
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Publisher: For posts that perform well, Medium shares advertising and subscription earnings with authors through their Partner Program.
With an existing readership over 30 million monthly visitors strong, new writers gain instant exposure. But as a closed ecosystem, you don‘t truly own your audience or have monetization options found on sites you control.
For many, Medium strikes the right balance between amplification opportunities and creative control. Just know what you sign up for as limitations exist by design.
The Right Blogging Platform For You
Here are our top blogging platform recommendations based on your goals:
- Professional bloggers: Self-hosted WordPress
- Hobby bloggers: WordPress.com or Blogger
- Writers/publishers: Ghost or Medium
- Small business owners: Squarespace or Wix
- Beginners: WordPress.com or Medium
We hope this guide helps you decide on the best blogging platform for your specific needs. No option is one-size-fits-all, but keeping your goals and priorities in mind helps narrow the choice.
The future looks bright for first-time bloggers. While WordPress leads the pack, strong alternatives like Ghost and Squarespace innovate web publishing in exciting ways.
Choose what fits you best, then start sharing your passion with the world. Your unique stories and viewpoints deserve to be heard!
