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Choosing the Right Blogging Platform
Choosing the right blogging platform can be challenging. The questions are numerous.
Which one is the best? Which one will serve my needs? Which one will provide long-term sustainable growth functionally? Which one is the best to design on? Which one is the easiest to manage, manipulate, and administer?
Sometimes, it’s just best to map it out.
So here’s one such chart. Guess who wins?
| CityDesk | MT | WP | bBlog | DasBlog | CS | Drupal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platform | Win | Perl MySQL | PHP MySQL | PHP MySQL | .NET | .NET MSSQL | PHP MySQL |
| License | $ | $ | OS | OS | OS | $ | OS |
| Installation | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| Usability | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Comments | 0 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| Search | 0 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Ping | 0 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| URLs | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| SE Friendly | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| Templates | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Static Pages | 5 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 5 |
| Categories | 0 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 |
| Extensibility | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Support | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Feeds | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| API/Email | 0 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 |
| Stats | 0 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Multi Author | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 |
| Score | 37 | 69 | 75 | 56 | 68 | 71 | 74 |
MT = Movable Type, WP = WordPress, CS = CommunityServer, $ = Commercial Software
There are certainly even more blogging platforms out there. Check this other chart out as well (and where you can “test” drive them)!
 | Dotclear 2.1.4 DotClear was design only for weblogs management, and do it well. It is completely free! DotClear is a free software distributed under the GNU General Public License. |
 |
 | Eggblog 4.1-0 Eggblog is a free php & mysql package, allowing you to create your own online website, journal or weblog (blog). |
 |
 | FlatPress 0.812.1 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. All you need is a PHP-enabled web space. |
|
 | Globber 1.4 Globber is a fast and easy to use/modify blogging engine with Markdown support. Some of Globbers features are: Caching, google sitemap, tags, spam-filter (Askimet), RSS2 newsfeed, easy template and plugin support. |
|
 | Habari 0.5.2 While there are a number of technical reasons that highlight the differences and advantages Habari has over other blogging packages, a major component of what makes Habari different is its community participation model. |
|
 | LifeType 1.2.8 The goal of the LifeType project is to create a stable multi-user and multi-blogging platform, to strengthen the concept of communities around blogs. |
|
 | Loudblog 0.8.0a 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. |
|
 | Max.Blog 1.0.6 Max.Blog is a new, very simple yet powerful blog software! It is 100% free, and is aimed at users who want to start a new blog, but don’t have time to go through complicated settings and features. |
|
 | Nucleus CMS 3.33 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. Each blog has its own team of authors. |
|
 | Pritlog 0.4.1 PRITLOG is an extremely simple, small and powerful blog system. It does not use or need a MYSQL database and fully works based on flat files. The idea is derived from a similar app called PPLOG. |
|
 | Serendipity 1.4.1 Serendipity is a weblog/blog system, implemented with PHP. It is standards compliant, feature rich and open source (BSD License). Serendipity is constantly under active development, with a team of talented developers trying to make the best… |
|
| | SimplePHPBlog 0.5.1 I started this project because I wanted a dead-simple blog. Something that didn’t require a database, used flat text files, and looked nice. The main advantage of using Simple PHP Blog is that it only requires PHP 5 (or greater) and write permissions. |
|
 | Textpattern 4.0.8 A free, flexible, elegant, easy-to-use content management system for all kinds of websites, even weblogs. Built into Textpattern is Textile, a simple syntax for nudging plain text into structurally sound and stylistically rich web content. |
|
 | WordPress 2.7 WordPress is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. More simply, WordPress is what you use when you want to work with your blogging software, not fight it. |
|
| | Zomplog 3.9 Zomplog is made for users, not for coders There are many great weblog systems around, but they all require technical knowledge from their users. Zomplog is different: it let’s you focus on content instead of code. |
If there is a bottom line though, it’s just that you start blogging. Period. Choose one and go!
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10 Responses to “Choosing the Right Blogging Platform”
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There are choices other than WordPres??? I'm shocked!!! </sarcasm>
Would have like to have seen how Joomla would have scored against WP – I use both, but and going purely WP in the near future!
puaha.
Word.
Speaking of shocked, I can't believe there's no love here for Expression Engine. World class. Way more than just a blogging platform, it's a full-featured CMS. The free "core" version is a very powerful blogging platform by itself. They're set to release v.2 pretty soon. Examples: http://expressionengine.com/showcase/
We'll be using EE as our multi-blog-managing platform with our blogs here at http://www.palau.orgin 2009.
good point. i use that all the time. /facepalm.
I did a ton of research just over a year ago because once I started blogging I did not want to switch platforms. Overwhelmingly my research pointed to Wordpress. I have been using it for over a year now and I am 100% happy. It is much more than a blogging platform as well. Its Content Management capabilities make it an excellent platform for churches who have tight budgets to build their web sites on. It is a great platform for non-tech people to manage.
I would agree with Alan that Expression Engine deserves a mention but after using both on client sites, I prefer Wordpress.
word up. both are decent, but like you, do the research to know what you need!