Best Reviewed
Web Hosting
- Best web hosting service WebstrikeSolutions.com *Est. $30
- Budget web hosting service PolurNET.com *Est. $5
- Best blog hosting service WordPress.com *Est. $0
- Free web hosting 50Webs.com *Est. $0
- Budget e-commerce hosting service Netfirms.com *Est. $10
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Best blog hosting service
- Easy to use
- No coding needed
- Lots of templates
- Categories and tags
- Statistics available
- Limited customization
- Text ads on free plan
If you only want to start a personal blog, you don't really need a full-featured web host, you can go with a free blog host instead. Reviews say WordPress.com offers plenty of features and is relatively easy to learn. Features include many templates, spell-checking, a private blog option, statistics and a support forum. It's based on open-source software, so add-ins are available. Different pricing levels are available, but the free blog hosting plan now places unobtrusive Google text ads on your blog.
We found the best comparison reviews of WordPress.com at PC Magazine and PC World, both of which describe both advantages and drawbacks clearly. Blogging consultant Stephanie Booth recommends WordPress.com after evaluating even more free blog hosts, and Top Ten Reviews ranks WordPress.com in relation to a field of ten. Publishing expert Robin Good's review is the most thorough, but aimed at very sophisticated bloggers with a lot of technical expertise.
Our Sources
This review gives WordPress.com an overall rating of only 3.5 stars (out of a possible 5), partly because customization is limited. WordPress earns praise for relative ease of use, but Vox is the Editor's Choice.
Review: WordPress, Brian Heater, Feb. 2007
This review recommends WordPress as more feature-rich than Blogger, with more customization options than Windows Live Spaces and Yahoo! 360. The main drawback to using WordPress as a free host as well as a blog editor is that your blog will have "occasional text ads."
Review: Internet Tips: New Tools Help Take Your Blog to the Next Level, Scott Spanbauer, Nov. 2006
Blogging consultant Stephanie Booth has tested over a dozen free blogging hosts, recommending WordPress.com as the best. In this article, she praises WordPress for adding tags as well as categories.
Review: WordPress Finally Has Tags!, Stephanie Booth, Sept. 22, 2007
WordPress is the top-ranked blog service, compared with the other nine top blogging tools reviewed – earning the highest possible ratings for promotion and technical support, and only a slightly lower rating for ease of use. The rating for design tools is only "good," losing points for customization limits and some inconvenience.
Review: WordPress Review, Editors of TopTenReviews.com
5. Robin Good
In a 92-page review aimed at more sophisticated bloggers, publishing expert Robin Good tests six leading weblog services, ranking WordPress last. It's easier to use than some of the more sophisticated software, but lose points when it comes to branding, archiving and blog aggregation.
Review: Group and Multi-User Blog Platforms Compared, Robin Good, May 16, 2005
6. Knowledge Is Everywhere (blog)
This review urges Typepad users to switch to WordPress.com, primarily because it's indexed faster by Google and brings more traffic. Readers weigh in with questions and comments, with one reader reporting the opposite experience.
Review: WordPress.com Review After 30 Days, Editor of Knowledge Is Everywhere
This interesting article is not so much a review of WordPress.com – though the author loves it – but rather, a review of various WordPress themes available. Over 60 readers add comments.
Review: WordPress.com Theme Reviews, Editor and Contributors to InternetDuctTape.com