Are you planning to start your own blog but struggling to choose the right blogging platform for you? We wouldn’t be surprised, with the number of options available – it’s definitely overwhelming.
In this article, we’ll help you choose the best blogging platform for you by taking a close look at all of the options available...
1. The WordPress.org Blogging Platform
In this post, we’re referring to the WordPress.org blogging platform, not the WordPress.com service which is geared towards very simple websites. Learn more about the difference.
A big part of what makes WordPress.org the world's most popular blogging platform and content management system available is the fact that it is open-source and theoretically also completely free to use – though pricing is something we'll cover in detail later.
We wouldn't be using WordPress as our content management system of choice for this blog (yes, the Serverwise blog you're reading right now) if we didn't think it was the best out there...
WordPress originally started its journey as a simple blogging system back in 2003, but it has since evolved to become an incredibly powerful platform that can be used to build almost anything, from simple hairdresser booking websites all the way to real estate agency listing websites & social networks...
WordPress: How Much Does It Really Cost?
It's important to note that while WordPress as a content management system is completely free to download and use, there are other costs associated with running a blog powered by WordPress. One such cost is the yearly domain registration fee as well as a reliable web host...
On top of this, when building your website you may find that the functionality or appearance you're aiming for is only achievable with the help of premium (paid) themes & plugins.
Domain Name Registration
Obviously, your website requires a domain name which is something that you'll need to register separately when building a blog with WordPress. On average domains can cost around $11.99 per year and some can be more expensive (especially if you're buying one that is already owned by someone else).
Hosting Costs
Obviously, when it comes to hosting, we're biased but SSD Nodes offers powerful VPS hosting at a fraction of the cost of other hosting providers...
This and your domain name registration fees really can't be avoided and using a reliable host is an essential part of running a successful blog...
The Overall Experience
Overall, WordPress is extremely easy to work with. That being said, it is slightly more complicated to work with than Squarespace, Medium, and Ghost but the benefits of that are that it's also far more advanced and capable in terms of functionality, performance, and appearance...
Themes & Designs
There are over 7000 themes available just in the WordPress official theme repository. These are themes that are freely available but there are a number of other paid themes (usually more reliable than the free themes) that you can buy that also come with support from the developers...
Here are some trusted theme vendors that we can whole-heartedly recommend:
- GeneratePress
- WP Page Builder Framework
- Astra
- MyThemeShop
- Elementor Hello
It's important to highlight that not all themes are free of charge, though there are a number of reasons a paid theme might be the right choice for you such as – better support, easier customization, and more reliable development just to name a few. Simply put, when your website generates income, paying a little bit extra just for some peace of mind is well worth it...
Functionality & Integrations
In general, as of right now Wordpress is without a doubt the most powerful blogging platform and content management system – it is the most reliable and trusted by some of the largest sites in the world for exactly this reason.
This is especially true if you want to keep your options open to be able to sell any form of physical or digital products at some point. So if growth, customizability, and planning for the future are what you're looking for then WordPress is the obvious choice...
Data Ownership
WordPress is open-source. You are the sole owner of what you create. You're free to switch hosts & migrate, change themes & redesign or remove everything whenever you want...
Some blogging platforms we'll be covering later on in this article – Medium, Squarespace, and Blogger in particular – are closed platforms that control your content and make it difficult to migrate the content. Thankfully, this is not the case with WordPress and one of the reasons we love it and rely on it for our own website. You aren't bound to set terms of conditions or terms of service that could change and put your entire business at risk without warning.
2. The Medium Blogging Platform
From the perspective of a marketer, Medium is definitely the easy choice for people starting out. Building an audience is often easier and you don't have to spend much time designing anything or setting things up – but do you really want to build your audience on a platform you don't own or have any control over?
I completely understand the allure to use a platform like Medium and I read articles on there from time to time. After all, it is a great place for your work but it has flaws that stop me from ever using. Notably, some popular Medium publications started migrating to other open-source content management systems when they felt threatened that the company was putting too much of a focus on using paywalls for the purpose of monetization – so that even their articles wouldn't remain free to read regardless of whether they wanted them to be...
In addition to this they also still haven't added the ability to set a canonical URL to your own website which means that you shouldn't republish content on Medium if you've already shared it on your own website.
Nonetheless, Medium as a blogging platform can't be overlooked since it's definitely among the best available – so, let's take a closer look at how it stacks up...
Medium: Pricing
Publishing your content on Medium is completely free. You do not have to be a paying member to write articles and you can even get paid if you start to build up some readership on the platform.
Writers can even earn money by enrolling in the Medium Partner Program, which is free and open to the public. If you want to start writing solely to generate revenue off of writing (i.e. with no other real business model), Medium could be a good place to start and tap into an existing network to grow an audience of your own.
There is a cost to this, however, which is that – even if you don't want to earn money from your content – Medium may choose to put your content behind a paywall limiting its access to the public which is something that you may not want if you want your content to be freely available.
The nature of the platform
by subscribing to our newsletter.
