Blogging, as an online activity, has witnessed a tremendous surge in the past few years, and it still holds a bright outlook for the future. If you’re looking for the best blogging platforms 2015 had to offer, it’s worth considering how much the landscape has changed since then. Blogging has put power into the hands of online users to publish their skills, expertise, and thoughts on the web. Although the rise of social media has seen blogging fall a bit out of fashion, it still remains an essential part of online communication and manages to engage and educate the online masses.
While online blogging is still considered technically demanding, it doesn’t require abundant technical skills. The presence of multiple online blogging platforms has made the act an easy and undemanding one. You would need only basic operating skills and little to no cash to get started on your blogging and online publishing journey. Here, we will cover the best blogging platforms and compare WordPress, Blogspot, Tumblr, Quora, and Medium to help you decide which one is right for you.
The Rise of Blogging Platforms
The screenshot below sheds some light on the rise in the popularity of online blogging platforms over time. From what is seen below, Tumblr quickly picked up pace in 2009 and has never looked back, beating WordPress and Blogger by a fair margin. After Tumblr was sold to Yahoo for $1.1 Billion to Yahoo, the network has seen some ups and downs, but still owns a fair share of the market.
This rise in Blogging platforms has been largely due to the trust and dependence of online readers on their fellow online counterparts with some experience and knowledge on the subject. 81% of customers in the US trust the advice and information from blogs, which simply underscores how valued blogs are among internet users.
Now that we’ve established the impetus of blogging in the internet age, below we will be taking a look at the Top 5 Best Blogging platforms to get started in 2015.
WordPress
WordPress is arguably one of the most popular online blogging platforms, first released in 2003. Powering more than 60 Million online websites, 23.3% of the top 10 million blogs are powered by WordPress. WordPress.org offers a free script that can be installed on your web server, although most web hosting providers pre-install a version of WordPress. For others who prefer it clean and simple, but with fewer customization options, they could opt for WordPress.com. This is a clean, free, web-based network. With a plethora of developers and designers readily available for this service, the WordPress community is one of the largest ones for your online blogging requirements.
Tons of features come with its original installation, and it can be customized to personal requirements using available plugins, themes, widgets, and more. WordPress offers a powerful, scalable solution ranging from a single-person blog to a major media outlet. WordPress is best suited for both individual bloggers and professional mainstream media publications with hundreds of authors and thousands of blog posts. Everyone, including internet marketers, social media gurus, small businesses, and individuals who require an online presence, can make the most of this free service.
WordPress.org requires you to have some basic understanding of how the web servers and the installation process work. Although you can set one up in under 5 minutes, a WordPress.org self-hosted blog demands some technical skill, requiring uploading of files to a web server using FTP and such. WordPress.com doesn’t require much technical skill from you, and you can get started right away with a simple registration.
Pros
- Completely customizable
- Scalable (up to a certain extent)
- Huge community support
- Tons of Plugins and Themes
Cons
- Becomes highly complicated once scaled
WordPress is best suited for
- Individual bloggers
- Publishers
- Businesses
- Sophisticated websites
Blogspot
Blogger, formerly Blogpost, is Google’s own publishing platform, bought from Pyra Labs back in 2003. One of the earliest blogging platforms, Blogger, only requires your Google account credentials to get started on your free online blog. You can start your online blog on Blogger for free, even without a domain name, by hosting on their free (.blogspot.com) domain. The simplicity of the setup and the network’s scalability make Blogspot consistently rank at the top among online blogging platforms. With easy integration of AdSense into your Blogspot account, you can quickly get started on generating some side income through your writings.
Blogger is best suited for individual and lifestyle bloggers, though it should work well enough for other online bloggers as well. Many authors use Blogspot for their online presence, and it is justified. This platform requires no prior coding knowledge, and its drag-and-drop functionality lets you customize your blog however you like, without messing with the code. Blogspot blogs are mainly focused on individuals, and they can’t be treated as business entities, meaning you can’t sell or resell them legally on the web.
Although a little popular in this era, it is still preferred by users for its hardwired cool features of Google and its products like AdSense and Analytics.
Pros
- Easy to get started
- Plain interface
- Hardwired with Google AdSense and Analytics
Cons
- Not suited for full-fledged websites
- Everything owned by Google
- Can’t sell or resell the blog
Blogspot is best suited for
- Individual bloggers
- Authors
- First-time online publishers
Tumblr
Recently sold by David Karp to Yahoo for $1.1 billion, Tumblr is a widely popular online blogging platform that appeals to the younger audience. Powering over 220 million blogs and over 100 billion blog posts, Tumblr takes less than a minute to let you get started on your online blogging journey. Tumblr is a fusion between a full-fledged blog and Twitter. Tumblr is more about micro-blogging, the blogging of short-form and frequent updates, multiple times a day.
Tumblr is well-suited to online users who aren’t looking for a long-term commitment to the time-consuming blogging industry. The youth are widely popular on Tumblr, and this network is best suited for them. Tumblr is a must-have weapon in your blogging arsenal if you cater to the younger generations. Combined with notes and favorites, Tumblr is a powerful microblogging platform that will help you get started in a few minutes. With a strong social following and a decent mobile app to accompany it, Tumblr is a great free tool to get started on micro-blogging and see for yourselves if blogging is for you.
Pros
- Micro-blogging fusion of Twitter and a full-fledged blog
- Simple interface and easy to get started
Cons
- Owned by Yahoo, ads might be on their way
- Not good for long article blogging
Tumblr is best suited for
- Young bloggers
- Micro-bloggers
- Image and short-text centered writers or bloggers.
Medium
Medium is a fairly new blogging platform, started in 2012 by Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams. Medium.com is a social journalism platform that doesn’t offer much customization. The platform provides a full-featured WYSIWYG text editor for writing your content and posting it online. Posts can also be up-voted or favorited just like in Digg and Reddit. Cleanliness and minimalism are widely appreciated on the web these days, and less clutter and more readable content are what Blogs are quickly morphing into to catch the attention of their readers. Medium.com is based on all of those features, enabling your readers to read your content on their beautiful, minimalistic platform.
The community interactions, built-in analytics, great SEO, and beautiful layout make Medium one of the most powerful online blogging platforms for you to make use of in 2015. Its lack of customization is the only drawback, rest all place this network among the top blogging platforms. Medium.com is a great platform for individual bloggers who want to get their content read by as many people as possible. With support for long-form articles, you can publish your content at Medium.com without any painful pop-ups, widgets, and advertisements.
You will need no technical skills to get started on Medium.com, and the registration will quickly take you to your editor for submitting a new post. If you are one of those bloggers who don’t prefer distractions to their readers, Medium.com is a great platform to try out your online blogging skills before self-hosting one.
Pros
- Clean and minimalistic interface
- Easy-to-read and write layout
- Great social community
- Potentially a very large audience
Cons
- No customizations
- Poor content discovery feature
Medium is best suited for
- As a secondary blog for Writers
- Freelance writers and authors
- Industry professionals
Quora
Quora is one of the most widely popular question and answer websites, and it started online user blogs back in January 2012. Quora is a popular website among industry professionals and knowledgeable and experienced people. This network is best suited for the above-mentioned people, who already possess some amount of authority in their respective industry. The average Quora writer witnesses over 30,000 monthly views, and this is a great platform to establish an online audience using your expertise and authority. With over 300,000 topics to choose from, you can get started on any one of your choice and make it discoverable by using tags.
Quora has a string of interesting questions and answers, and its vaguely qualified users have answers to all sorts of your questions. Quora’s blogging platform does not allow much customization, so it isn’t entirely your space on the web. You can use this network primarily for establishing or expanding your online presence and reach. Well-suited as a secondary blog, Quora is a free blogging platform mainly useful for influencers to increase their online presence.
Pros
- Strong and active community
- Interesting content
Cons
- Lack of customization
- Not suited for personal blogging
Quora, as a blogging platform, is best suited for
- Industry professionals
- People with some established authority
- As a secondary blog for influencers
Here we come to the end of a detailed comparison of the best blogging platforms in 2015. What do you make of these platforms? Do leave your comments below if any of your favorite platforms is left out.