25 Free Self Hosted Blog Platforms

You Decided to add a Blog to your Website, but What Blog Platform are you Going to Use?

Written on November 1, 2007 – 2:29 pm | by Shana Albert |

In my last post I discussed how you can increase traffic to your Website with a Blog. In today’s follow-up post I will show you the next step to this…. finding a Blog Platform to fit your needs.

There are many Blog Platforms out there. Some of them are free to download and others have a fee. You will need to research the different platforms to see which will meet your needs.

Some of the Blogging Platforms out there that are self-hosted, developer hosted, and Proprietary software (charged a fee for the use of the software). In this post I will be listing free Self Hosted Blog Platforms and the features to each platform. This way you can go through the Blogging Software links and information and choose the blog software that best meets your needs.

I have to admit that the only blog platform I have used is WordPress. It fit my needs beautifully and I had no need to look any further. However, that doesn’t mean that it will fit yours.

25 26 Free Self Hosted Blog Platforms

WordPress

I use WordPress for all of my Blogs. I love it!! It has everything I need. There are many Wordpress Templates, Plug-ins and Widgets to make my Blog run perfectly. Wordpress is the only Blogging Platform I have ever used. I never had a reason to try anything else. I am listing other Blogging Platforms for you to take a look at to see which platform will fit your needs best. I can not speak for the other Blogging Platforms as I have not tried them, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t fit your needs better than WordPress.

Features
- Full standards compliance
- No rebuilding
- WordPress Pages
- WordPress Links
- WordPress Themes
- Cross-blog communication tool
- Full List of Features

b2evolution

b2evolution includes all the features of traditional blog tools, and extends them with evolved features such as file & photo management, advanced skinning, multiple blogs support as well as detailed user permissions…
Not to mention third party plug-ins!

Features
- Advanced browsing (paged, calendar, categories, search…)
- Extended & multipaged posts
- Image/file upload & management
- Multiple and sub-categories
- Draft and quick publishing
- RSS & Atom feeds
- Full List of Features

Typo

Typo is a lean engine that makes blogging easy. Typo’s main attributes are ease of use, usability, beauty and excellent support of web standards. Typo is open source software, which means you can take it, use it and modify it for free; because we think freedom is priceless.

Features
- Instant publishing, no rebuilding necessary
- Comments
- Built in spam protection
- Textile and Markdown and Smartypants support
- Ping / Trackback
- Categories / Tags
- Full List of Features

SimpleLog

SimpleLog is a Ruby on Rails weblog application that helps you focus on writing above all else. SimpleLog has all the features you want in a weblogging applicaton wrapped in an efficiently designed interface that eliminates clutter. By focusing on simplicity and usability, SimpleLog allows you to spend your time writing, rather than managing a convoluted CMS.

Features
- Package-based, hierarchical inheritance of debug levels and trace flags
- Set debug levels using level numbers or names
- Special handling of exceptions, object arrays, byte arrays and char arrays
- API support for logging primitives
- Ability to turn tracing on and off independent of the debug level
- Convenience methods to reduce the amount of code needed to log
- Documentation that’s complete but brief, embedded in the configuration file
- Full List of Features

PyBlosxom

PyBlosxom is a lightweight file-based weblog system. It originally started out as a Python clone of Blosxom but has since evolved into a beast of its own. PyBlosxom focuses on three things: simplicity, extensibility, and community.

Features
- simplicity - PyBlosxom uses the file system for all its data storage. Because of this you can use whatever editor you want to use to create, update, and manipulate entries.
- extensibility - PyBlosxom has a plugin framework allowing you to build plugins in Python to augment and change PyBlosxom’s default behavior.
- community - There are hundreds of PyBlosxom users out there all of whom have different needs. PyBlosxom is used on a variety of operating systems in a variety of environments. The pyblosxom users list shares their experiences, plugins, and expertise.

Serendipity

Serendipity is a PHP-powered weblog application which gives the user an easy way to maintain an online diary, weblog or even a complete homepage. While the default package is designed for the casual blogger, Serendipity offers a flexible, expandable and easy-to-use framework with the power for professional applications.

Features
- Simple
- Robust Editing Interface
- Threaded comments, Nested categories and posting to multiple categories
- Anti-Spam / Comment moderation
- Dynamic
- Full List of Features

Pivot

Pivot is a web-based tool to help you maintain dynamic sites, like weblogs or online journals. Pivot is released under the GPL so it is completely free to use. It is written in PHP, and does not require additional libraries or databases to function.

Features
- Sophisticated Categories/Weblogs system, so you can maintain several weblogs and publish your entries how you like
- Template based. Fully adaptable to your wishes
- Built in simple search tool
- Keeps simple statistics of how your visitors came to your site
- Easy to upload and include pictures with your log-entries
- Allows for making thumbnails of uploaded images
- Comment system that remembers your visitors
- Full List of Features

Nucleus

Nucleus is a PHP/SQL blogging tool which resides on your webserver. Includes multiple blog capabilities, and RSS syndication. With Nucleus, you can set up one or more weblogs. If you want to, you can even show the contents of multiple weblogs on the same page.

By downloading the Nucleus Core package, you’ll already have access to a great set of features. By dropping in plugins, you can extend the feature set even more.

Features
- Maintenance of one or more weblogs/news-sites
- Multiple Authors
- Within a weblog, you can set up one or more categories.
- Built-in commenting system
- Full List of Features

Subtext

Subtext is a personal blog publishing platform that focuses on usability, elegance, and simplicity. If you’ve ever caught yourself throwing your hands in the air and declaring that you’re going to write your own blogging engine, then Subtext is for you.

Features
- XHTML and CSS compliant
- Search engine-friendly permalink structure via friendly URLs
- TrackBack and Pingback
- Hosts multiple blogs on a single installation
- MetaWeblog API support
- Full List of Features

FlatPress

FlatPress is an open-source standard-compliant multi-lingual extensible blogging engine which does not require a database to work.

You don’t need MySQL because FlatPress stores all of its content on text files.

Features
- Standard-compliant (XHTML valid)
- Plugin support
- Easy to customize with themes
- Free and Open Source
- Text Files
- Multiple Categorization
- Archiving
- Links / Blogroll

Drupal

Drupal is equipped with a powerful blend of features, Drupal supports a variety of websites ranging from personal weblogs to large community-driven websites.

Features
- Collaborative Book
- Friendly URLs
- Online help
- Personalization
- Role based permission system
- Polls
- Templating
- Full List of Features

Geeklog

Geeklog is a PHP/MySQL based application for managing dynamic web content.
"Out of the box", it is a blog engine, or a CMS (portal system) with support for users, comments, trackbacks, multiple syndication formats, spam protection, and all the other vital features of such a system.

Features
- Free and Open Source
- Multi-User Support
- MySQL Datastorage
- Commercial Support
- Archiving
- Links / Blogroll
- Multi-paged posts

Mephisto

Mephisto is a web publishing system. It’s a blog engine with some simple CMS-ish concepts (sections, pages), a very flexible templating system, and an aggressive caching scheme that takes advantage of your web server’s best traits.

Features
- Beautiful admin interface
- Slick Asset Management
- Flexible Liquid templating system
- ATOM feeds
- some tagging, some ajax, yadda yadda.
- Full List of Features

Pebble

Pebble is a lightweight, open source, Java EE blogging tool. It’s small, fast and feature-rich with unrivalled ease of installation and use. Blog content is stored as XML files on disk and served up dynamically, so there’s no need to install a database. All maintenance and administration can be performed through your web browser, making Pebble ideal for anybody who is constantly on the move or doesn’t have direct access to their host.

Features
- Posting and management of content through your web browser, including rich text editor support.
- Blogger and MetaWeblog API interface included for posting content via compatible tools.
- Categorisation of content into multiple hierarchical categories.
- Tagging of content and a generation of a tagcloud.
- RSS enclosures for distrbuting files or podcasting.
- Simple content publication workflow.
- Pinging websites via XML-RPC when new blog entries are added.
- Publication of static content alongside your blog entries.
- Full List of Features

LifeType

LifeType is an open-source blogging platform with support for multiple blogs and users in a single installation.

Features
- User Friendly Interface
- Integrated Media Management
- Choose your Style
- Built-in anti-spam Filter
- Multiple Users per Blog
- Full List of Features

dasBlog

dasBlog is an open source blogging platform for ASP.NET 2.0

Features
- Ability to pre- and post-date entries
- Automatic Referral and Trackback blacklist update
- Logging and display of Comment IP addresses and resolved Hostnames for Admins
- Admin access auditing
- Improved RSS Comments support for SharpReader and RSS Bandit
- Theme templates are now cached in memory
- Support for running under ASP.NET 2.0
- Permalinks based on Title and Date optional: 2005/06/06/title.aspx
- Works with Windows Live Writer out of the box
- Full List of Features

Elgg

Elgg is an open-source social networking platform. It offers blogging, networking, community, collecting of news using feeds aggregation and file sharing features. Everything can be shared among users with access controls and everything can be cataloged by tags as well.

Features
- Blogging
- Social networking
- File repositories for individuals and communities
- Podcast support
- Full access controls
- Supports tagging
- Full RSS support
- Full List of Features

BoastMachine

BoastMachine is an open source, state of the art publishing platform written from scratch, that makes your web publishing experience so fun and easy as never before! From the fully automated installation to advanced content management featuresto spam fighting, boastMachine provides you with all that you would ever need!

Features
- Lightweight, yet full-featured and easy to use
- Powerful content management system
- Dynamic search engine friendly pages
- Various permission levels for posts
- Supports multiple blogs, authors, user levels and profiles
- Readymade language, theme and smiley packs
- Built-in spam-figthing capabilities
- Powerful backup/restore system
- Written in PHP and backed by MySQL
- FREE and Open Source (GPL)
- Full List of Features

DotClear

DotClear is a French blog package distributed as free software under GNU General Public License. DotClear has had large Success in France and Belgium. DotClear has the ability to write posts using either XHTML or wiki syntax, as well as being multi-user with multiple levels of access.

Features
- RSS and Atom feeds
- Multi-user levels
- Multilingual interface
- Use of MySQL and PHP 4.1+
- Use of CSS
- Full List of Features

LiveJournal

LiveJournal lets you express yourself, share your life, and connect with friends online. You can use LiveJournal in many different ways: as a private journal, a blog, a discussion forum, a social network, and more.

Features
- Numerous Pre-made Designs for Your Journal
- Post Rich Media to Your Journal
- Tag and Categorize Your Entries
- Manage Comments in Your Journal
- Full List of Features

Textpattern

Textpattern is a flexible, elegant and easy-to-use content management system. Textpattern is a web application designed to help overcome hurdles to publishing online, and to simplify the production of well-structured, standards-compliant web pages.

Features
- Quick conversion of plain text to valid XHTML with Textile
- Quickly search old articles by keyword
- Up-to-the-minute visitor/referrer logs
- Browser-based template and CSS editing
- Unlimited site sections
- Unlimited article, link, file and image categories
- Full List of Features

blojsom

blojsom is a Java-based, full-featured, multi-blog, multi-user software package.

Features
- Plugins and Event/Listeners
- Syndication Formats
- Templates and Themes
- Remote Editing
- Full List of Features

NanoBlogger

NanoBlogger is a small weblog engine written in Bash for the command line. It uses common UNIX tools, such as cat, grep and sed to create static HTML content. It’s free to use and modify under the GNU General Public License.

Features
- intuitive command line interface
- highly configurable and script-able
- easy drafting, editing and management of entries
- archiving by category, year, month, day, and entry
- pagination
- permanent and navigational links
- templates and CSS style sheets for full control over layout
- placeholders for easy template manipulation
- support for multiple weblogs
- Full List of Features

BlogEngine.Net

BlogEngine.NET is an open source .NET blogging project that was born out of desire for a better blog platform. A blog platform with less complexity, easy customization, and one that takes advantage of the latest .NET features.

Features
- Plug ’n play
- Full featured
- Web 2.0
- Referrer stats
- Cool widgets
- Full List of Features

BBlog

bBlog is a powerful, elegant personal publishing system written in PHP and released as free, Open Source software under the GPL. It is a flexible but simple way to blog that works for blogging beginners, and can grow into a more advanced user’s needs.

Features
- Fast, easy installation gets you up and running in minutes
- Complete control of look and feel of your blog
- Easier customization through Smarty templating
- Modular architecture makes it easy to drop in a new plugin developed by our active development community
- Threaded comments
- Advanced trackbacks, Blogrolling, XML/RPC, spam protection
- Comprehensive support for web standards
- Uses PHP/MySQL
- Full List of Features

Movable Type

Movable Type is a professional publishing platform developed by California-based Six Apart.

Features
- A completely reinvented user interface
- Built in reports on blog activity
- Integrated asset manager for uploading, reusing, and finding files like photos, audio, and video
- Blog-style presentation of your recent content is easy to skim and lets you know how your blogs are doing
- Customize MT’s entire user interface using the same MT template language that publishes your blog
- Full List of Features

Technorati Tags:blog platforms, software, wordpress, blogging

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10 Responses to “You Decided to add a Blog to your Website, but What Blog Platform are you Going to Use?”
By Tim Nash on Nov 1, 2007 | Reply

You missed perhaps the oldest of them all Movable Type, no longer popular but it was when it first came out revolutionary.
By Shana Albert on Nov 1, 2007 | Reply

Hi Tim,

I was totally confused. I was under the impression that Movable Type had a fee, but I see that MovableType.org is free. I was thinking of MovableType.com which has a fee for using their blogging software for anything other than personal use. Thank you for pointing that out.

I have added Movable Type to my list of Free Self Hosted Blog Platforms.
By Dog training on Nov 27, 2007 | Reply

Very interesting… as always! Cheers from -Switzerland-.
By Gadgets watch blog on Jan 19, 2008 | Reply

Nice tips. Please keep update. I’m checking which one is best according to me and let you guys know the status.

Thanks.
By Edward Beckett on Mar 10, 2008 | Reply

Nice Shana … Great Post!
By Dan Price on Mar 24, 2008 | Reply

I found this list to be incredibly helpful. Thanks!
By Mcneri on Apr 9, 2008 | Reply

Informative piece. Thanks for sharing.
By fedmich on Jun 1, 2008 | Reply

Wow, I didnt know there were so many. THanks for this
By kelly on Aug 2, 2008 | Reply

GREAT entry here Shana!

I’ve tried most of the free blogging platforms here. I’ve used wordpress with some success but found that you can’t import your old database into WP 2.6 without some manual work in phpMyAdmin. I must say I still love the older version of WP cos installation and maintenance was easy, along with the various avail plugins.

One more for others to consider: Modx.com (which I will be trying out soon as my current URLs now are not user-friendly enough!)

Will visit again!!!
By andrea tedeschi on Sep 11, 2008 | Reply

Hello, I’ trying to move my blog (http://www.andreatedeschi.com) from blogger.com to a new an more (FREE and hosted) flexible platform, also I’m finding a multilingual platform cause I need to write in italian, spanish and english.
What platform I can use?

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