This is a poll I run two years ago – I’ll be interested to see how (and if) the results differ. I’ve removed the least popular categories from last time and added an ‘other’ option. If you’ choose ‘other’ please let us know what blog platform you run in comments below.
If you have more than one blog and more than one platform running them choose your most used platform.
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{democracy:46}
Looking forward to seeing what your responses are.
Self hosted WordPress is the only way to go for me. It is the most professional and the most customizable platform out there. If you are really serious about your blogging, a domain name and a self-hosted WordPress blog are a must.
Self-hosted WordPress owns. Enough said!
Just love using WordPress.org. Was thinking of moving to another platform, but WordPress’s plugins and ease of use made me stick with it.
Thanks for the “31 Days of Blogging” tips, Darren. I’m currently stop blogging for a while to reflect why I’m demotivated on continuing to blog. With all those tips, now I’m rebuilding my blog from scratch and with your tips, it motivates me to start my blog back up again.
Which hosting service would you recommend Darren? I’m on wordpress.com right now but will eventually migrate to .org.
I use a self hosted WordPress for all of my blogs. I pay for the web space so why not use it. I think it gives you the most control out of all of them if you host it yourself. Greg Ellison
You might like to explain the difference between WordPress.org
and WordPress.com – I’ve been using WP for ages and can never remember which is which. And in polls, if confronted with this sort of confusion, I tend to not complete the poll, which – if a common reaction – might lead to WP’s results not being as high as they ought to be.
Looks like a blow-out so far. I have to say that WordPress has been and will be my default blog platform since I moved from the free service Blogger. The ease of installation and the community of developers behind WordPress make it a strong contender today and for the foreseeable future!
I am actually just going to install WordPress MU and BuddyPress for the first time today. It just can’t get better!
Squarespace. The ‘newbie’ is doing really well after v. 5.0. Nice poll ;)
Self Hosted WordPress addicted… I never consider other ways!
WordPress is the only way to go in my opinion. We put all of our own blogs and the blogs of our clients on it. WordPress is so powerful you can build sites like this http://www.stuccoitalianoinc.com/ and take advantage of all of the great features of WordPress.
If someone is struggling with making a decision on which platform to go with, all they have to do is look at what all of the most popular blogs and bloggers are using, WordPress.
I suspect that Self Hosted wordpress is going to rock this one. It’s just so easy to use, install and because and it is so popular it means that there are so many great plugins, themes etc. to use. The continued growth in wordpress is a testament to it’s simplicity and configurability.
I started with Blogspot and have since moved to self hosted wordpress.
Though self hosted wordpress blog wins hands down, I still leave my blogspot blogs as it is except that I make them do-follow blogs.
The blogspot blogs are still earning money for me…:)
I’ll vote for wordpress.org
Yeah, WordPress.org has a huge lead and honestly I don’t think they will ever loose it durning this poll.
WordPress has sent them self up well with word of mouth and a use what the pro’s use attitude. Not to mention its easy to use.
I use WordPress.org and Blogger for several blogs. Tried some other, local platforms, but they were just experimental.
i just moved from blogger to wordpress.org. wordpress offers sooooo much more flexibility
Self hosted wordpress. Customization and support are pretty beast.
I’ve only been blogging for about 6 months, and I’ve been using iWeb/MobileMe. For me, it was a good way to get started, but I’ll be moving to something else soon.
Self-hosted wordpress since I started blogging (around 2004). It’s flexible enough, simple enough and fast enough for me.
I already see that I’m in the trend: an independent WordPress site.
Part of being professional (or aiming to be professional) is having your own site.
And I find WordPress to be the best platform. By far…
I’d have been really surprised to see anything other than self-hosted WordPress in the lead in this poll! My current blog is self-hosted WordPress. I keep my Blogger & LiveJournal accounts primarily for commenting on others’ blogs and for private posts. I was a longtime Movable Type user though, and am deciding whether or not to resurrect an old MT blog, and also whether or not to migrate it to WP if I do.
WordPress.org always rules the blogosphere. The plugins are the main feature of WP.org which makes many people compelled to use it. The ease of adding some special features by just downloading a simple zip file is the un-argumented plus point.
Wow! That’s a lot of WordPress fans. May I be the first here to offer a big shout out to Squarespace? When I was researching platforms and came across the September ’04 Washington Post article about the company, I tried it and fell in love. Have been their evangelist ever since. And the platform has evolved enormously since that article was published…
Great, I’m the only one who voted for LiveJournal.
Why isn’t it considered a blog?
Well, I see all the commenters so far are WP fanboys and fangirls, so I have to weigh in with my two cents about Blogger. I have to disagree that WordPress.org is the “only” way to go. Blogger is a very reasonable alternative. Let me count the ways:
* 100% free
* No need for a webhost or an installation
* Forwarding to your own domain is completely free (you just have to buy the domain)
* Editing your layout with the Page Elements API is a breeze
* Creating a custom layout is, for me at least, a little easier with the blogger <b:< tags than PHP
* No need for plugins
* Complete freedom about what widgets etc. you can add
* If you don’t want to mess with a custom HTML template, there are an enormous number of free and paid skins available for the standard templates
* Lots of custom “gadgets” (Googlese for “widgets”) available
* Connected to your Google account
Now I agree Blogger has some drawbacks:
* The commenting system is pretty poor (I use IntenseDebate instead)
* No practical way to manage your media files (Picasa doesn’t allow much)
* Blogger has been known on rare occasions to rather arbitrarily suspend blogs flagged for spurious reasons
* Support is practically non-existent
But I still have found myself using Blogger for most of my blogs, including the one I linked under my name (my most-established blog). I do have one WordPress.org blog and agree it is an impressive system, but it has its own drawbacks. WordPress.com is not worth bothering with for all but the most basic applications.
I also have used Ben Barden’s Injader, and I like that it requires no plugins, has an unlimited heirarchy, and has a forum included. I think its main drawback is a lack of ready-made themes. If you have decent skills at creating PHP based layouts (as for WP), I would highly recommend looking at the under-appreciated Injader.
I used to use LiveJournal, mainly to keep up with friends in other parts of the world, but its day is past. It tries to be both a blogging platform and a social networking site, and it doesn’t do either very well. It’s basically useful only for a private blog for your friends and family.
I’ve seen impressive-looking blogs that use Drupal (LOLSaints.com), but have not tried it myself.
I picked Drupal because of it’s flexibility. I often added programming elements to my sites, and Drupal was well designed for those types of additions. I’m really looking forward to Drupal 7.0 because it switches design from nodes to fields. This should give a lot of additional freedom to those willing to mess with the back end.
I’ve used Joomla for over 2 years. It’s very flexible and there are a lot of plugins, but it’s not suited for blogs. I just started with wordpress, and that’s probably the best blog platform to use.
I use Blogger platform because is free no cost.
Self hosted wordpress any day, easy to install and manage.
Hi,
I think WordPress is by far the best blog CMS.
– It has LOTS of features inbuilt
– It is very SEO friendly
– Had loads of additional features available as plugins
– Has a very active developer community in the open source space
– Has good support available from paid programmers for customizations, etc
hard to beat that!!
I have been using WordPress. I really like it because most other people can help you since they use it also. I really have not used any other platform.
I use self hosted wordpress for most of my sites – except two. I use a custom blogging tool(my own code) for those two.
Selfhosted wordpress rules. I use it also as CMS for http://zlataleta.com
What about Habari? It is superior to many of those on your list.
I use http://squarespace.com for two of my sites and am more than happy with it. The guys who own and run the company are cool and down to earth, it’s very easy to get in touch with them and they’ll help you out with any problems.
There’s also a Squarespace community forum where people are more than willing to lend a helping hand with coding or design problems.
I respectfully disagree with the first commenter on this post. IMHO, WordPress is *NOT* the most professional, cusomtizable platform out there. Out the box, perhaps, but ExpressionEngine can be hacked up a WHOLE lot more than WordPress can.
That and PHP knowledge (only a fundamental understanding of the EE tags) is really needed to do much customizing.
I used to use WordPress. But now I don’t. WP fanboys: Please avoid shooting me. Thanks. xD
I Completely agree with Ginkgo100. Adding to the benefits mentioned by him, blogger is a blessing in disguise for noobies who know how to write, have quality content but zilch knowledge of html. Also blogger allows monetizing which is not in case of wordpress.com.
Once I switched from WordPress.com to WordPress.org, I dont think I will ever go back, even with personal blogs. Its also easy to find plenty of support, theme designers and assistance for self-hosted WordPress.org
Started with Blogger, like so many people do. Got tired of the restrictions and I wanted more control. Finally decided to self host and went with WordPress because of all the template designs and plugins you could use.
If I had to choose 1. WordPress, 2. Blogger as for the rest, tried them, didn’t really like them.
@Ginkgo
I tried modifying a Blogger theme once. It was not an experience I’d repeat for free. As for your other points, most of them are either common to WordPress or not really relevant (“No need for plugins” ? WordPress doesn’t “need” plugins…).
Blogger has it’s place, but it really doesn’t compare to WordPress in terms of usability, expandability, and scalability.
I love Blogger despite its limitations. After all it’s where I first learned how to blog.
But I’ve recently won a WordPress blog in a blog contest so I’d be moving to a new home soon. Which only goes to show I love WordPress more – sight unseen.
That’s just it for me, and no disrespect to Blogger which I love too. WordPress is remain the blog platform to beat. “,)
I love WordPress (self-hosted). I will ask this question because I need a referral and there seems to be a lot of WordPress expertise here. I am looking for a very dynamic WordPress Calendar plug-in that is for a community events site I manage. I want to convert the site to WordPress but the calendar has to allow non-registered users to be able to submit events through a form that would then be held in a moderation cue for approval. If anyone has a suggestion, my name links to the contact page on my blog. I welcome any and all suggestions. Thanks!
You’re missing Squarespace from your list — which is what I use and easily bigger than most of what you listed.
http://www.squarespace.com/
I’m running a home brewed blog.
I use WordPress but not the self-hosted one. I am still finding myself and what I want to with all of this. I guess as things grow and improve, I may look into that. Thank you all for the eye openers!
Bridget
For me right now, WP org is beyond my financial and ccs knowledge. I do have a couple of blogs on WP com and on Blogger, which I love. My site in on a less expensive (and less versatile) platform called “Webs.”
As I said, right now, expense is the biggest motivator for choosing a good platform.
As to the Live Journal commenter, I have one on there, too, and it is actually quite good.
The worst thing about WP com is that they allow NO advertising. Booooo!
Karen
I use TikiWiki. Feels pretty lonely out there sometimes, but I like all the other features TW has to offer. And I’m used to it.
~jon
The simplicity and easier to use widgets on Blogger for me puts it ahead of self hosted or free version of WP.
I can’t imagine too many people don’t use WordPress.org as their primary blogging platform. This is especially true for bloggers with multiple blogs.
I use simple scripts to set up my WordPress blogs and i can set up a new blog in 5 mins. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
Truthfully I use both Blogger and WordPress (self hosted).
I wrote a post about the advantages/disadvantages of either, but my conclusion is that Blogger dominates WordPress when it comes to:
–widgets
–Media posting images & video (WordPress STILL needs to improve this)
–customization (changing an element in blogger is much easier than WordPress
WordPress beats blogger in:
–comment design (superior format)
–comment spam (WP Spamfree rocks, no false positives)
–templates (greater variety and beauty)
–plugins
Google is steadily improving Blogger so we may have thousands of new themes plus pages (finally).
As far as blogging platforms go, I only recommend Blogger (for those who don’t want to muck with hosting) and WordPress self hosted (for those who want a powerful layout).
@Paritosh, that’s part of what I meant when I said WP.com was not worth bothering with. Monetization is expressly disallowed. Also, just so you know, I’m a lady, not a dude. =-)
@Hazardous Paste, I’ll admit I am only using the built-in Page Elements widgets. Custom-building widgets on Blogger looks like a world of pain. Also, I know WP.org is functional w/o plugins, but if it didn’t “need” plug-ins, why would there be so many web pages devoted to which plug-ins you “have to have”? Injader and Blogger, btw, are also SEO-friendly.
Also, what’s weird in these comments is that lots of people are not answering Darren’s question (“What platform do you use most?”) but a much different one (“What is the BEST blogging platform?”) I don’t think there is one “best,” as each one has its strengths and weaknesses depending on the user’s needs.