The best free blogging platforms let you share your work online without spending a penny. Some website builders have free tiers that cover everything you need to run a blog; others, like Medium and Substack, are free by design. Our reviewers have built test sites on each platform to assess ease of use, design quality and features.
Wix Classic is our top overall pick: it's intuitive, generously featured and free to get started. We've also added Medium to the list this time as the go-to option for writers who want to reach an existing audience of millions without any technical setup. Weebly has been removed: it's no longer actively developed and its mobile app was shut down at the end of 2025. If you're new to blogging, see our guide to how to start a blog.
The best free blogging platforms in full
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Best overall
30-second review: If you're looking to launch a blog quickly, easily and for free, I think Wix is your best bet. Specifically the free tier of Wix Classic, which we recently re-reviewed to see if it's still one of the best website builders and blogging platforms around. And while sticking at the free level means you need to use a Wix URL, it's still a hugely capable and intuitive website-builder and blogging platform that gets my vote for most users.
Pricing: The free plan is, unsurprisingly, somewhat limited – however for bloggers, a lot of its limitations aren't too compromising. For instance, you only get 500MB of storage, which wouldn't be enough for a serious photography or art portfolio, but will do quite nicely for a text-based blog. You also have to use a Wix-based subdomain name (i.e. a URL like 'username.wixsite.com/websiteaddress') and put up with ads for Wix on your blog – these have always been part of the deal, and in my view are pretty reasonable asks for getting a free, functioning blog in return.
More serious perhaps is the limit of bandwidth to 1GB, which is fine for a personal blog, but will quickly be hit if any of your posts get major traction. But at that point, it'll probably be time to start thinking about paying for proper hosting anyway. Wix is the ideal starting point for blogging, and I can give its latest version my wholehearted recommendation.
Design and features: One of the reasons that Wix attracts so many users of all different stripes is the sheer number of customisable templates it offers, giving users an intuitive interface without resulting in every website looking the same. Last time I looked at the platform, I was impressed by the fact that it offered over 900 templates – in the more recent review, I was impressed to learn that there are more than 2,000 templates now at users' fingertips. That is way, way more than rivals, and they're also highly adaptable. Tom, our reviewer, chose a photography theme for a Wix blog, and was able to customise it to his liking without losing that professional feel. Ideal!
Read more: Wix review
Wix's drag-and-drop editor is pretty straightforward to pick up, and works well in practice. I'd argue that it represents the perfect middle ground between rigid structure and chaotic freedom.
The best blogging platform for writers
30-second review: Medium is unlike any other platform on this list. You're not building a website here; you're publishing on an established network with a vast, engaged readership. For writers, especially those just starting out, that's a potentially powerful proposition. You sign up, write and publish, and your work immediately has a chance of being read, shared and discovered, without a single line of code or any fiddling with themes. It's completely free as long as your posts are public, and the Partner Program means there's even a path to earning from your writing once you build an audience.
What you get for free: Publishing on Medium is free. You create a profile at medium.com/@yourname and post as often as you like, with no hosting costs, no domain registration and no ads to manage. The only point at which Medium takes a cut is through the Partner Program, where your earnings from reader engagement come with a 5% platform fee. That compares very favourably with Substack's 10%, and you only pay it once you're actually earning.
Design and features: If bespoke design is important to you, Medium isn't the right platform: every post looks broadly the same, with minimal customisation options. What you get instead is a clean, distraction-free editor that lets you focus entirely on writing. You can embed images, video and other web content, and the interface is fast and reliable even on a mobile connection. The built-in audience is the real selling point: Medium's algorithm surfaces your work to readers with related interests, which means new writers have a realistic chance of getting their first few hundred readers without building a social following from scratch. The trade-off is that you don't own your audience, and Medium controls how your content is distributed.
Medium is an established and respected platform for writers to use, and it's a great way to share your work in a way that people actually might read it.
The best for newsletters
30-second review: Substack is primarily a platform for anyone who wants to build an audience for their newsletter and monetise it. All the content you create for your newsletters becomes part of your blog, which you then use to grow traffic, increase your subscriber base and charge for your content. It effectively works as a free blogging platform, more and more artists and designers are using it, and it can become a way of generating revenue.
What you get for free: Substack is free as long as you make your posts/emails free for everyone to read. Only once you start charging people for subscriptions will Substack take a cut.
Design and features: If you want to design a blog that looks unique, this isn't the best choice. Since Substack's main focus is on emails, the ability to give your blog pages a unique look and feel is very limited. However, you will get a basic CMS (content management system) with text formatting tools and the ability to embed images, video and other web content.
When we used Substack to set up a newsletter/blog for our review, we found it to be one of the easiest interfaces we'd ever used. We particularly liked the version history feature, which lets you easily access past versions of your post, and the fact that the lightweight interface kept working even during periods of low mobile connectivity.
See our full Substack review for more details.
If you want to write and distribute newsletters, then Substack is the platform to go to. You own your content and you don't have to pay anything until you start charging readers.
The best for professionals
30-second review: With the options mentioned so far, you only get limited control over how your blog posts look. As a creative, you're probably used to having more control over your work. We think the best free blogging platform for fine tuning your design is WordPress.org (not to be confused with WordPress.com, below).
What you get for free: Wordpress.org is free and open source, so you pay nothing at all to create your blog. However, bear in mind that you will still need to pay for web hosting and a domain name to get your blog online.
Design and features: Wordpress.org is an open-source site-building application that is totally free to use, and what you can do with it is basically unlimited. The pay-off is that it takes a bit more work to learn the system. But if you're planning to earn all or part of your living from blogging, it's worth taking the time to master it.
When we reviewed it, we found that WordPress.org's software takes some time to understand, and getting the results you want may require learning at least some web design skills.
This isn't, then, the best choice of free blogging platform if you want to build a blog in a day. Considering that you will have to sort out hosting and there is no dedicated customer support, that may be a step too far for some. However, A huge ecosystem of developers has grown up around Wordpress.org, meaning there are plug-ins, themes and add-ons available that do just about anything.
If you take the time to get to grips with it, you'll be rewarded with an unprecedented degree of control over your site. You get to choose your domain name. Plus, any ads that appear on your blog will be ones that you've chosen to put there.
Read more: WordPress.org review. Also check out our guides to the best free WordPress themes and best WordPress plugins.
Wordpress.org may be confusing for novices, but running a website on it is a lot cheaper than using the likes of Wix or Weebly, and it offers infinite flexibility, too.
The best for easy WordPress
30-second review: Despite their similar names, WordPress.org above and WordPress.com are quite different. The former offers a powerful web design platform but has a big learning curve and you have to pay for hosting and a domain name. In contrast, WordPress.com is an all-in-one solution, which includes hosting and a domain, and it's much easier to use.
What you get for free: With the free plan you get free hosting, 1GB of space and a branded domain name ending in .wordpress.com. You won't, however, have much ability to customise your site's look and feel, and your blog will have third-party ads. You'll have to pay for at least the Start plan at $4/£3 a month to get rid of the ads and use your own domain name.
Design and features: We find WordPress.com to be a better choice if you don't want to spend a lot of time reading documentation and developing web design skills. When we reviewed WordPress.com, we found it offered a good selection of themes for all different kinds of blogs, and it was much easier to set up and use than WordPress.org. On the downside, we also found the interface noticeably more complex than other free blog sites such as Wix, Weebly and Squarespace.
Read more: WordPress.com review.
WordPress.com offers a simple website editor paired with the undeniable power of the WordPress platform. It's much easier than the .org version, too.
The best for coders
30-second review: So far, we've focused on platforms where you can build a blog without knowing code. But if you are a coder, Joomla is the best free blogging platform for you
What you get for free: Joomla is similar to WordPress.org (number 4 on our list) in that it's free, open-source software for website building, but you'll need to pay for a domain name and hosting. If you don't want to pay for hosting, Joomla has an arrangement with SiteGround for the launch.joomla.org service, which offers Joomla's basic features along with free hosting. This free option isn't much use if you want an advanced website from the get-go, but it's a great way to get started, as any blog you develop here can be upgraded later into a full-fledged site with your own hosting.
Design and features: Joomla saves you from having to build your site from scratch, but still lets you add code to customise it. It has hundreds of templates to use and customise, and lots of extensions for adding extra features and getting your blog looking the way you want it. It doesn't have as many themes and add-ons as WordPress.org, but we think Joomla is a bit better if you're able to code and want to create a larger, more complex site. If you foresee your blog growing into something bigger that you could potentially make money from, this is probably a more scalable solution.
When we reviewed Joomla, we found it offered some excellent out-of-the-box tools, as well as a good range of extensions, and overall impressive flexibility in how your blog looks and feels. However, we didn't feel it was suitable for anyone without technical or coding skills.
Read more: Joomla review.
Joomla is free and open-source and offers great design flexibility. Beginners might be intimidated by its steep learning curve, though.
FAQs
How can I start blogging for free?
The best way to start is with a notepad and pen. Work out what content you want to put on your site when it launches, and how you plan to update it in the future. Then figure out what your design requirements might be. For a quick and easy site, we recommend Wix, but for something more refined the people’s favourite is Wordpress.org, which does require more knowledge and more work. (Over a billion sites have been created using this platform.)
Be aware that the free site option on some of the platforms we’ve written about is a little hidden away. Some will send you in the direction of a paid-for option. Try Googling the name of the platform with the words ‘free site’ and you’ll find they do indeed support free blog sites.
What’s the best free blog site platform?
See above for more detailed outlines of the best free blog platforms. In a nutshell, it depends on what you want. For something fast and intuitive we recommend Wix, followed by Weebly, which take care of build, hosting and a domain. For a more crafted look and feel, and more complex content, Wordpress.org is open-source software. You can use it for free but you will have to arrange your own hosting and domain name. See our guide to how to make an artist website for more tips.
Do I need to buy web hosting and a domain name?
No. However, if you want your site to appear credible and professional, having your own domain name, web and email hosting is probably a good idea. That way you can keep your URL and email address in line with the name of your practice, business and/or brand.
How often should I blog?
That’s entirely up to you. You may want to use a free blog platform just to maintain a static presence that presents your work and services to potential clients. If you want to grow interest in what you do and what you have to say, adding content daily, weekly or monthly is a good idea. This could be in the form of new work, case studies or your thoughts on whatever’s going on in your industry and how it affects you and others. Regular thought leadership pieces are good for your site’s SEO (search engine optimisation).
How do I promote my blog?
When you launch your site and whenever you update it, share the link on whichever social media platforms you use – LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, X and so on. Don’t forget to add the URL to your email signature so that anyone you contact can check out your site. Indexing your site with Google is highly recommended.
Can I make money from my blog site?
For many creatives, the purpose of a blog site will be to show their work, demonstrate their skills and market their services, so hopefully it will be a money maker in that respect.
If you are creating as blog in order to build traffic based on interest in your content, there are several ways you can start earning money. For example, you can join affiliate and associate programs run by seller sites like Amazon. Every sale generates a micropayment. Many other sites have affiliate programs – have a look at what’s available in your area of expertise. You can also sell advertising and there are plugins available for the free blogging platforms detailed above that will help you manage this.
Finally, you might be able to earn money through subscriptions to your content stream. If you think this is viable then see Substack, above.
Be warned – in our experience earning money by blogging is difficult unless you have the very best content in your category.
If I build a site but want to change platform, can I take it with me?
In theory, yes. In practice… it’s very tricky. You can export the content of your site in a databased. However, that database takes a different form depending on the platform you use and importing it to another platform will have mixed results. That’s why it’s a good idea to choose carefully and work with a platform you like for the long term. If your site only consists of a few pages, however, it won’t take long to copy and paste the content across while building a new site on another platform.
Do I need to worry about security?
The platforms featured in our guide all boast security features, however as your site grows in popularity equally the threat of cyberattack increases – from hackers trying to access the CMS to spam bombardment of your comments to spam directed at your own email account. Again, you’ll be able to find plugins to protect your site such as firewalls, spam blockers and alternative login methods. However, the first step in protecting your site is to set tough passwords and change them whenever you suspect a threat.
