Blog Software

Free (or cheap) blogging software

Our report on web hosting lists WordPress.com as the pick for best weblog host. Editors at PC Magazine do recommend the WordPress software, but say it's more complicated than most users need. (Movable Type is even more complex.) A review of blogging software by Susan Mellott at All Things Web 2.0 notes, too, that WordPress.com prohibits any commercial use, so you can't use it to earn any income. (You can discuss your business, however, and it's an unusual free blog host in that no ads are inserted.)

Based on detailed reviews, PC Magazine gives its Editors' Choice award to Six Apart Vox, free blog software that they find "combines the ease-of-use of Blogger and the best of the social networking features of LiveJournal, with a super-slick interface that easily trumps both other programs you can use." Mellott notes that Vox, like LiveJournal, combines weblog publishing with social networking. Some users will like this, but what PC Magazine judges as "super-slick," she judges as childish.

We found no consensus about the best blogging software. It's all in the eye of the beholder -- so you need to pick a blog solution that matches your own personality and taste. It's like building a house -- check out the neighborhood before buying the lot. Vox is free but publishes ads inside the blogs, without your having any control over them. This is also true of LiveJournal, another free blog service.

A 2007 review in Smart Computing -- a publication aimed at people who like to keep their computing simple -- recommends Six Apart TypePad.com (*est. $5 to $30 per month). The monthly fee includes hosting, and the software is online rather than installed on your computer. This lets you write and publish from any computer or Internet-enabled cell phone. TypePad also makes it easy to publish audio files as podcasts. The service offers a lot of integration with other important online services -- Flickr for photo-sharing, Facebook for social networking, FeedBurner for RSS and e-mail subscriptions, and Technorati and Google for promoting your blog. You can also sell from a TypePad blog via integration with eBay, Amazon.com and PayPal.

Mellott says a major drawback to TypePad is that it doesn't let you customize the CSS code. (CSS stands for "cascading style sheets" and is important for efficient adjustment of typeface, color schemes and layout.) This is partially true; the TypePad website says you have to step up to the Pro version (*est. $15 per month) to be able to do this. However, you can choose among quite a few templates to get the look you want, using the less expensive versions (*est. $5 to $9 per month).

Mellott's comparison review at All Things Web 2.0 tests several blog software and hosts, including WordPress, Blogger, Vox, LiveJournal and InstantSpot by actually publishing a blog at each site. You can judge the results for yourself. (The review is listed on the All Reviews page in this report.) The reviewer concludes that Blogger and InstantSpot, both free, are the easiest and least expensive if you want to keep things simple. Unlike LiveJournal and Vox, which give you no control over the ads posted on your blog, both Blogger and InstantSpot let you include Google AdSense ads -- so you have some control and have some income potential. Blogger lets you use your own domain name at no extra cost. At TypePad, this means moving up to the Plus level (*est. $9 per month).

These aren't the only good choices on blog software. Susan Gunelius, the weblog guide at About.com, recommends Windows Live Writer, free offline blog software that you install on your own computer. This means you keep a backup copy of your entries (but not of readers' comments). You can use Windows Live to publish to various blog hosts, including Blogger, and the software includes lots of easy-to-use features.

For Mac users, Rebecca Freed's review of offline Mac blog software, also published at About.com, recommends Infinite Sushi ecto 2.3.4 (*est. $18) as the most convenient to use. You can use ecto to publish to Blogger or other blog hosts. PC Magazine recommends the five-program Apple iLife (*est. $80) for Mac users, which includes photo-sharing and Apple iWeb '08 site design software. However, PC Magazine editors note that to use it conveniently requires an annual subscription to Apple's .Mac service (*est. $100 per year).