Friday, October 23, 2009

It is not easy to set up a list like this since there are always people who see things differently than I do, so I am going to make it clear that these ten best free blog hosts are based on my experiences, and my opinions. They don’t necessarily reflect the true quality of the hosts but instead it shows what hosts have been working for me the way that I have used them.
I will have to emphasize that free blog hosts always tie your hands when it comes to customization and flexibility. If you are about to blog about your two week trip to India, then it’s a great choice, but if you plan on blogging for a longer time you should definitely get a hosting account. You don’t want to build a large blog, only to realize that the free hosts limits start bothering you, and you are facing a very difficult process of moving your blog. HostGator is the best and most affordable blog host there is and that is why I recommend you to have a look at their offers.

For more info, have a look at this post about the best blog host there is.
1. Blogger
Had to be number one. There is absolutely nothing bad to say about blogspot blogs except that these days it takes some time to get them indexed. The templates that they offer are nice and SEO friendly, and clean like I prefere my themes to be. You can even display your own ads on the blog if you get enough targeted traffic in the first place. Most of the issues that people have with it is that it is not customisable enough, even though there is quite a lot of ‘widgets’ available. There is a wide range of themes available if you just use the Google to find them, and the ones that are already there are easily modified using their built in editor. Definitely the best free blog host there is but is suffering a little from the fact that the spammers have found it also. It is easy to create hundreds of accounts and hundreds of blogs, and that is causing the blogs to take a little more time to get indexed in the search engines.

2. Blog.com
Has always worked great for me, and if you are looking for wordpress hosting then this is a great service. They say that there are some limits to the amount you can use their services, but if you are not going to make it your flagship, then there is no problem. There are some of their ads displayed, but not too much. Overall they provide a good service for free. The registration is quick and reliable and there are still quite a lot of subdomains available so you can usually get what you want.
3. Vox.com
This seems to be a pretty trusted domain, since blogs are usually indexed quite quickly for a free service. Once again, it is not for professional blogging, but if you want to just write stuff down and even get some visitors for it, it is great. I have had some problems with the confirmation e-mails sometimes, but usually they have arrived within 12 hours. The layout is quite customisable but the themes are not. They provvide a wide variety of themes but I bet most of them don’t suite the eyes of the bloggers that much.
4. Dreamhost Apps – I can not recommend it to anyone, and if you have any decent websites that are in any way associated with that company, I suggest that move away before any problems occure!
A great service to host a WordPress blog and a number of other apps. Completely free, and if you feel like you are going to make it with your blog, you can easily upgrade to paid hosting ( DON’T ) and have total control of your blog. There is quite a good selection of themes already included, but with like most of the free hosts, you are not allowed to install any more. Registration worked perfectly.
5. Blogsome
Yet another wordpress bloghost. Works great but you are forced to display some of their adsense ads. If you are not going to build a blog that will be huge and used for monetization, then its a good way to get some property online with another C-class IP. Not too much thees to choose from. I have had no problems with them and the process of creating the blog was easy just like with almost all the WP-installs. There are some exeptions though.
6. Blogomonster
I usually don’t like free blogs that are not created to a subdomain, but with Blogomonster I have had my blogs indexed so quickly that I can’t really complain. WordPress hosting with no problems in the registration and tiny ads on the top and bottom of your posts
7. Blogetery
Basically a duplicate from Blogsome, with the exeption that there are no ads displayed. The themes are boring and simple, just the way you should like them.
8. Bravejournal
It is always a good idea to spread your blogs to different platforms to give them a more variant profile. That is why services like Bravejournal are great because they have their own platform. The biggest problem with them is that you have to display a huge banner ad on the top of your blog, so if you are not willing to give anything back to your host for offering that free hosting, then it is not for you. You can modify the themes quite a lot and they do boast a good selection of themes, but if you want to make your blog look good then this is definitely not the place for you.
9. WordPress.com
As much as people like it, I don’t. I have to agree that it has some street credibility and that the domain is powerful because they have a strict policy against spam. At the same time they are a bit too strict in my opinion – you can get easily banned from linking to a website that is monetized and does not look ‘legit’ in their eyes. They are not going to answer your e-mails but instead take your content and shut down your account. If you plan on building a blog there, it is a good idea to do backups of everything to avoid losing your content. Also if you have multiple accounts there and one of your blogs get deleted, there is a chance that they track your IP and wipe out the other ones too.
10. Blogdrive
This has got to be the ugliest free blog host that there is. The themes are pure pain to eyes that are used to fancy wordpress, and the permalinks to your posts are going to be simple 1.htm, 2.htm. The thing with this is though that it gets indexed also quite quickly. It has not been abused, possibly because of the crappy interface and the looks, but it works and gets the job done.
There are so many different hosts that I have used an I have some great experiences even with more than these and I would like to list them down here, so if you are looking for a bunch of free blog hosts, or are not happy with the ones that I listed here, you can choose yourself from the large variety offered.
Bloggerbite
SosBlog
Ohlog
Tripod
Wetpaint
Clearblogs
Weebly
There are a great number of other hosts available but since this is about the the 10 best free blog hosts, I am not going to mention them here. Many of them never sent me the confirmation e-mails even after multiple re-requests and some of them just did not get the blog set up correctly – it always displayed an error message. So if you want to have a wide variety of blogs, then there is your list – the best option is always to buy hosting so you can be in total control of your website, but if you are not willing to spend that extra money that would be spent on high quality affordable hosts like Hostgator, Fatcow or Bluehost then you will have to go with the free ones.

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