Top 10 Free Blogging Platforms & Features For Web Designers

The obvious choice for Number 1 is Wordpress, it is the most versatile and flexible platform that I have come across. But, that is my opinion, Wordpress seems to fit my needs 9 times out of ten. Our needs and that of our clients are different, don’t get me wrong I am not saying that Serendipity, Text Pattern or any of others are not very good, just simply my preference. Thats the key word here preference.
The amount of Wordpress users out there is phenomenal, which makes me think that most haven’t tried or even heard of some of the free Blogging Platforms that are readily available to use and download, and each has, like Wordpress, there own community that there own dedicated following.
When I talk about Blogging Platforms in this article I am talking about Stand Alone Blogging Platforms, and not the likes of Blogger, MySpace, Facebook which are hosted platforms (they can be discussed in a future article). Nothing wrong with these, just not exactly useable for Web Designers.
All I am trying to do in this article is to show other Web Designers that there are other Blogging Platforms out there, and not to be limited to using a single Platform. The clients needs vary all the time, so its quite proffessional, to have a little knowledge of other platforms. If the only thing you know is Wordpress, then you are a Wordpress Designer, if you know about more, you are a WEB DESIGNER. We have to be flexible.
I personally don’t think there is much difference between CMS (Content Management Systems) and Blogging Platforms, a blog can be tailored from both, just as a CMS System from a Blogging Platform. But I’ll keep the traditional CMS systems (Drupal, Joomla…) out of this Top 10.

1. Wordpress (http://wordpress.org/)

URL: http://wordpress.org/
Wordpress is the Daddy of the Blogging Platform, can’t see anyone knocking it of the top spot for a long time yet.
Licence: Free.
Forum: Wordpress Forum.
Features: W3C compliant, easy to edit templates,create non-blog pages (ie. Homepage), update and maintain numerous Blog Rolls,thousands of themes available, cross-blog communication tools, comments, trackbacks, pingbacks,spam protection, optional user registration,password protect posts or pages,easy to upgrade, import from another blogging platform, allows multiple authors, bookmarklets, plugins…and the list goes on and on.

2. TextPattern (http://www.textpattern.com/)

URL: http://www.textpattern.com/
Main contender to Wordpress, more or less the same features, just doesn’t have the support from the internet community.
Licence: Free.
Forum: TextPattern Forum.
Features: Easy publishing using textile, a text-to-HTML converter, preview post or page,compliant XHTML and CSS, tag-based template system which allows the creation of reusable blocks of content and code,comments, trackbacks, pings, spam protection system, built-in site statistics,RSS and Atom,plugins, built-in CSS editor, link management system, image management system,integrated file management system… and like Wordpress the list goes on and on.

3. Moveable Type (http://www.movabletype.org/)

URL: http://www.movabletype.org/
Licence: Free.
Forum: Moveable Type Forum.
Features: The first to use trackBack, Unlimited weblogs, static and dynamic publishing, can create standalone pages asset and file manager, customized User roles, customizable templates, plugins / extensions, tags, categories, sub-categories…

4. Serendipity (http://www.s9y.org/)

URL: http://www.s9y.org/
Licence: Free.
Forum: Serendipty Forum.
Features: Designed for users of all technical levels, anti-spam, comment, trackbacks, pings,plugins, skinable, easy to upgrade, flexible input/output, choose between HTML, Textile, Wiki, BBCode and other markups (I like this feature), and many more of the standard features not worth repeating.

5. LifeType (http://lifetype.net/)

URL: http://lifetype.net/
Licence: Free.
Forum: Life Type Forum.
Features: integrated media management, smarty templates, plugins, spam filter, installation wizard, moblogging, multi blog, nice looking URLs (strange for a feature), XMLRPC interface for remote creating and editing articles. And of course you may ping as many directories as you like with the inbuilt XMLRPC ping service…

6. Flatpress (http://www.flatpress.org/home/)

URL: http://www.flatpress.org/home/
Licence: Free.
Forum: Flatpress Forum.
Features: standard-compliant, plugin support, Widget system, easy to customize with themes (powered by Smarty). To be honest there aren’t a lot of features, but I do like the bare bones system which does exactly what it says: I AM A BLOG!

7. Wheatblog (http://wheatblog.sourceforge.net/)

URL: http://wheatblog.sourceforge.net/
Licence: Free.
Forum: Wheatblog Forum.
Features: The features on Wheatblog are much and such the same as Flatpress.

8. sBlog (http://sblog.se/wiki/Main_Page)

URL: http://sblog.se/wiki/Main_Page.
Licence: Free.
Forum: sBlog Forum.
Features: Again, as Flatpress and Wheatblog, basic features. Something appealing about that. Clean and Simple.

9. Eggblog (http://eggblog.net/)

URL: http://eggblog.net/.
Licence: Free.
Forum: Eggblog Forum.
Features: Basic features.

10. Loudblog (http://www.loudblog.com/)

URL: http://www.loudblog.com/.
Licence: Free.
Forum: Loudblog Forum.
Features: LoudBlog is a sleek and easy-to-use Content Management System (CMS) for publishing media content on the web. It automatically generates a skinnable website and an RSS-Feed for Podcasting. Just upload your audio/video files, add some notes and links, and you’re done! (I love the idea of this).

10 Comments so far

1. CincauHangus on February 3, 2008 10:04 am

   what about joomla?

2. Jon Daley on February 4, 2008 5:22 am

   What do you mean when you say “nice looking URLs are strange for a feature”? Just that everyone now has non-parameterized URLs, so we should take that off the list? It was probably a more interesting feature when it was first added 4 or 5 years ago.

   Speckyboy: All I meant was, that it wouldn’t be something I would not put high up on my list of features for a Platform. I actually like this platform.

3. xocekim on February 5, 2008 6:39 am

   Great post Speckyboy. I was not aware that there was so many good quality blogging platforms available to me. I do use a handful of Wordpress plugins myself so my only worry moving to another platform would be whether a similar plugin was available for it.

4. Ben on February 27, 2008 10:52 am

   I respect this article. It’s good. Well done putting WordPress at the top of the list and then Textpattern right under it. You should know, however, that to say Textpattern doesn’t have an online support community is very inaccurate. Having used Textpattern extensively myself I can personally attest that Textpattern has a vibrant online support community.

   I also find it odd that you would leave off Expression Engine seeing as their basic “blogging” package is free. And I second the idea that you should have included Joomla.

   Great article though. Thanks for the contribution to the blogging community.

5. AmeyJah on March 6, 2008 5:58 am

   Moveable Type and Life type are not good platforms. I wonder why did you choose them. No doubt WP is #1 as it contains various plugins to support.

6. Interior Decorators on June 17, 2008 4:39 pm

   Isn’t blogger a platform? or is it not free?

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