So, you’re not serious enough about blogging to host your own blog? You’d rather use a free blogging service? Are you sure? You can get a domain and hosting for only $3.99/month. No? Okay, then I guess we can get started.

Okay, here’s how this fill work. I’m going to compare Blogger, LiveJournal, and Wordpress.com. We’ll see what free blog provider is the best. Let’s start with LiveJournal.

LiveJournal

LiveJournal has been around since 1999, providing blogs mainly for people in the 13-20 age range. Personally, I’m not a fan of LiveJournal, but I’ll keep this review unbiased.

• URL Format: you.livejournal.com.
• Domain Allowed?: Not for free accounts, though the ad-supported “Plus” account allows the use of a domain name (which costs $5-7/year, and I highly recommend).
• Major Flaws: Transfer speed of free blogs is limited at peak hours. Very limited theme support.
• Any Ultra-Cool features?: No.
• Themes: Very limited. Some color changes mainly. To create your own theme, you must have a paid account.
• Ads: No ads in the basic free plan, though there’s a “Plus” plan which offers more features in exchange for some ad space.
• Ease of use: Not great.
• Rating: 2/5

Wordpress.com

Wordpress.com, is based off the very nice blogging software available at Wordpress.org. WPC offers blogs that have some of the features of the Wordpress blogging software, though the feature-set is not really comparable.

• URL Format: you.wordpress.com or domain.
• Domain Allowed?: Yes.
• Major Flaws: Really limited themes.
• Any Ultra-Cool features: Free OpenID URL (your blog’s URL).
• Themes: Choose from small selection. You cannot create your own theme, though if you pay you can edit the CSS.
• Ads: None. You cannot add your own, for lack of theme support.
• Ease of use: Fairly easy.
• Rating: 3/5

Blogger

Blogger is the best of the free blog providers, a Google service for the past few years. Many of the shortcomins of other providers are nonexistent, thanks to Google’s generosity.

• URL Format: you.blogger.com or domain.
• Domain allowed?: Yes.
• Major flaws: Atom instead of RSS (though Feedburner, another Google service, can remedy that). Limited themes, though the least limited compared to the others.
• Any Ultra-Cool features: N/A.
• Themes: Limited, though the least limited compared to Wordpress.com and LiveJournal.
• Ads: No ads. You can easily add your own and make a few cents.
• Ease of use: Really easy.
• Rating: 4/5

Blogger, it seems, is the easiest to use free blog provider….Though you can’t compare it to the self-hosted Wordpress system (which isn’t that hard to install). If your on a really tight budget, and need to use a free host, I suggest using Blogger. Get a domain, if you can afford $6/year. If your blog starts to gain popularity, and you decide to give Wordpress a go, you’re covered. Wordpress can import posts (and comments) from Blogger, and you can re-point your domain to the Wordpress installation.

If you want to install Wordpress, we’ve got a tutorial. The Starting a Great Blog tutorial covers everything from Domains and Hosting to Installing Wordpress to Stat Tracking.

Tags: Blogging, Software, Web Sites