Choosing the best platform is important if you want to achieve a successful blog. How do you know which blogging platform is best? What should one search for?

When you are at the beginning, it is essential to look for a blogging platform that doesn’t need much experience and is comfortable to work with. With time, your blog will have its growth and at that moment there are some essential steps you need to do in order to grow your audience. In addition, these steps include updating the look of your site and adding more features. Therefore, it’s crucial that you opt for a pliable platform with space for its ongoing growth.

Moreover, opting for the best platform is important because if you depart with an inappropriate platform you will have a hard time switching to a different one.

Here are some of the best blogging platforms of 2019 to use and make money for both beginners and advanced bloggers:

1. WordPress

How famous and important is WordPress?

WordPress.org or WordPress.com?

Pros

• It is flexible, allowing you to run anything on it, from a make-up or fashion blog to an e-commerce store selling all kinds of products
• Has a vast range of customization tools, which means it is perfect for creating plugins and custom themes
• It’s reliable because it receives constant updates for its software and security
• Last, but not least WordPress is free and you only have to pay for servers and domain hosts.

Cons

• You must host it on your own server and it requires a long term investment in domains and hosting, if you’re planning to make money online
• There are times when customization needs some coding, which is a little inconvenient

If you wish to start a blog with a nice, professional design, WordPress offers the some of the best tools. However, there is a learning curve, but once you get used to it you’ll be reaching success.Last, but not least, just remember that in order to start making money using WordPress you need to invest a little in hosting and create a self-hosted blog

2. Medium

Furthermore, it is one of Twitter’s founders achievements and it offers a full WYSIWYG user interface when editing online, with several options for formatting provided as the user redacts over rich text format.

This platform uses a system named “claps”, which is resembled to the “likes” on Facebook, in order to vote articles and stories, named the Tag system, and splits stories into different categories so that the audience can choose the preferred version of the story.

Pros

• Simple to use and doesn’t require any installation or coding skills_ Offers the possibility to reach an online community of people with common interests_ All you have to do is focus on writing instead of designing a website* It’s free to use

Cons

• It owns the audience you have, so if you lose your blog, you lose your followers too_ Running ads to make money is not possible on this platform_ Has very limited features when it comes to design or building your own brand

3. Squarespace

Pros

• Simple and easy to work with, especially for newbies who aren’t that tech savvy* It has beautiful professionally designed templates- Separately offers domain name with SSL/HTTPs and eCommerce stores

Cons

• It’s limited to its built in features- The personal plan restrains you to 20 pages, a blog and 2 contributors* Its integrations are limited to a select few services and tools

Pricing

The price for their personal plan is from $16/month, or $12/month if you pay for the year in advance. For the Business plan, the price starts at $26/month, or $18/month billed annually.

4. Blogger

In addition, it’s also a decent free service for blogging that only needs a sign in with your Google ID and you can have your blog up and running in no time. Furthermore, you can also customize it with new themes. The down side of it, is that it’s a Google service and they are known for shutting down things that millions of people love using.

Pros

• Easy to use and manage without any technical skills needed_ Allows you to safely store thousands of posts, photos, and more with Google free_ Has the additional advantage of Google’s large secure platform and reliability

Cons

• It’s limited to basic blogging tools and it doesn’t allow you to add new features as your blog’s popularity grows
• Has limited design options, with fewer templates available and the third party templates are usually low quality
• Doesn’t receive updates or new features
• Google is able to suspend your blog at any time or cancel your service altogether

5. Tumblr

It is actually similar to hundreds million different blogs, packed with literally anything. Submitting content to a Tumblr blog from anywhere using decent mobile apps can actually be easily made and it’s simple to customize your theme and make it your own. Furthermore, it is also a micro blogging platform with social networking features that include following other blogs, re-blogging, built-in sharing tools, and more.

Pros

• Has an integrated social media component_ Being a micro blogging tool, it make it simple to quickly blog videos, images, GIFs, and audio formats_ It is free and beginner friendly

Cons

• Comes with a limited series of features that you cannot expand once your blog grows_ Even though there are many themes available, they don’t offer additional features_ It’s difficult to back up your blog or import it to other platforms

6. Joomla

Moreover, when it comes to capabilities, it is placed in the middle, although it has more complex site development options than WordPress and it’s also a self-hosted solution, which means you will need a domain name and web hosting to use it.

Pros

• It’s an open-source platform, that allows you to modify and distribute code without worrying about licensing fee
• A compelling, powerful and flexible platform, that can be used to build any kind of website or blog
• Allows you to choose from hundreds of templates to customize your site’s design
• It is a complex platform where you don’t have to be a developer to use it
• You can add more features because it has extensions available.

Cons

• Support options are limited to community support, not to mention paid support is hard to find and can be costly
• Managing your backups, updates, and security is your responsibility
• A bit difficult to incorporate your own custom design without programming experience

Pricing

Even though it’s free, you still need a domain (about $14.99/year) and hosting (usually starting from $7.99/month) to use it although if you use SiteGround, then you can get started for $3.95 per month, and you will get a free domain.

7. Live Journal

Pros

• It is free and you also have the option to sign up for a paid version if you need more features
• It’s available in several languages
• You you can blog anonymously on it.

Cons

• As a blogging platform, it lacks many features needed for business or professional blogs
• The free version contains adds
• It doesn’t have any professional templates.

Pricing

The price can range from $5 to $25 depending on how long the period you choose to pay is. Paying for it will eliminate the issues with the ads

8. Weebly

Furthermore, blogging is also part of it, and it gives you access to various layouts that are customizable, some free themes, and of course, sharing features.

Pros

• It is easy to use and doesn’t require any technical skills
• Gives you the option to test the services before buying them
• Contains various kinds of templates
• Its setup is fast and simple.

Cons

• Has limited features and no option of adding new ones
• The integration with third party platforms is limited
• The free version contains adds
• Exporting the site can be difficult
• Support over the phone is not available free, only for Pro plans and up.

Pricing

The prices start from $8.00/month, but if you want all the available features, you could pay up to $49.00/month

9. Ghost

Furthermore, it is an open source platform that has limited features oriented on posts with blog writing. In addition, it has both options accessible, as a hosted platform and as a software that you can install and host.

Pros

• It is free if you download and install it yourself
• You can use the ghost site and only pay on the basis of traffic
• It’s a fast platform

Cons

• Has limited features that are oriented on posts with blog writing
• You need to be tech savvy in order to work on this platform

Pricing

The price for their Pro plans ranges from $19/month to $100/month, but they do give you a trial to test it out before buying.

10. Cloudfare

Pros

• Offers free domain name server (DNS) for all the members that are powered by an anycast network_ Has one of the fastest DNS lookup speeds worldwide
• It has the highest number of connections to Internet exchange points of any network worldwide* It’s simple and flexible

Cons

• Has simplified user interface, which means the options are very limited
• It lacks plugins
• It’s in its beta-testing phase

Pricing

Pricing for the hosted version starts from $19/month, custom domains are $14.99/year and web hosting starts from 7.99/month.

11. Wix

Pros

• Has drag and drop HTML5_ Offers 24/7 support
• It has over 500 site designs to choose from
• It’s free of charge
• Easy to use and doesn’t require any coding skills

Cons

• You are risking to have your site taken down at any moment
• It doesn’t allow you to install new features and it requires authorization
• Changing the design of the site later on is not possible

Pricing

The price for the premium plans starts from $5.50/month to $25.50/month.

12. Drupal

Pros

• It’s a flexible easy to work with platform
• Perfect for help with structured content
• Has 39,000 free modules, over 2,500 free themes and 1,180 free distributions
• It has drag and drop functionality

Cons

• It’s difficult to master, so it’s not for new users
• Slower than other platforms
• Doesn’t work well for custom applications

Pricing

The price for a website can start from $50, $500, $5,000, $50,000 or more depending on what it is that you want to achieve.

13. Jekyll

Pros

• It’s simple and flexible
• Allows you to host your blog free on GitHub
• It is fast
• No server maintenance required

Cons

• Doesn’t have any post scheduling
• Content cannot be dynamically presented
• Has limited plugins and themes

Pricing

The price for features included in plans starts from $7/month and goes up to $21/month.

14. Svbtle

Pros

• Doesn’t require any setup
• Offers markdown support
• Provides an audience
• Gives you a clean writing experience

Cons

• It isn’t entirely free
• Has limited customization options
• Doesn’t have a comments system, you can only communicate via email or Twitter

Pricing

The price is $6/month, although it does come with a free trial of 30 days in the beginning.

15. Pen.io

• It’s effortless to use for writing blog posts* Doesn’t require any technicall skills

Cons

• Doesn’t give you any control over your page on SEO
• It doesn’t offer any exposure to your blog

Pricing

Pen.io is free of charge.

16. Postach.io

Pros

• It is free
• Offers markdown support
• Has good themes
• Multimedia support

Cons

• It’s difficult to modify the order of blog posts once they’re submitted

Pricing

It doesn’t require any investment.

17. Contentful

• Offers multilingual content support
• Has extensive query filters
• Allows you to create any kind of content template
• It has synchronization

• Copying entire pages is rather difficult and requires a lot of effort
• The changes you make can take up to a quarter of an hour to appear on the preview pages