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19 Best Blogging Platforms for Startups in 2025

Karl Hughes
5 min read
platforms
TL;DR: The best blogging platforms for startups in 2025 depend on your technical expertise and needs:
  1. Non-Technical Teams – Squarespace ($12/mo) or Wix (free) for all-in-one simplicity
  2. Developer-Friendly – Jekyll or Gatsby (both free) for performance and flexibility
  3. Content Teams – WordPress.org (free) for extensive plugin ecosystem and customization
  4. Headless CMS – Contentful or hygraph (free tiers) for API-driven content delivery
  5. Quick Distribution – Medium or LinkedIn Publishing (free) for immediate audience reach
Choose platforms based on five factors: setup cost, ease of use, customizability, distribution capabilities, and performance scalability. Most startups succeed with either WordPress.org for flexibility or static site generators like Jekyll/Gatsby for performance.

There are many good reasons to start a blog for your startup: to update your customers, to generate content that ranks in search engines, or to establish your founders as subject matter experts. After you come up with some ideas, understand why you’re writing, and create a content plan, you need to decide on a blogging platform.

How to Choose the Right Blogging Platform for Your Startup

There are a few key factors that will influence your choice of a blogging platform. While I could devote an article to each of these, I’ll save that for another day, and just leave you with a brief summary.

Here are the five things I consider when choosing a blogging platform:

  1. Cost to set up and maintain
  2. Ease of use
  3. Customizability
  4. Distribution
  5. Speed and scalability

You should weigh each of these factors based on your needs and the team who will be managing the blog.

Startup Blogging Platforms

Setting up a blog doesn’t have to be a headache – there are many platforms out there that will help you build a professional-looking one. Below I’ve collected a few of the best options for your startup’s blog in 2021.

Squarespace ($12) – Squarespace is my go-to recommendation for non-technical people who need a website. Squarespace works just as well for basic landing pages as it does for a full-featured website and blog.

hygraph ($0) – Brings your content to any platform or static site builder. With hygraph, you build the essential GraphQL infrastructure and they build a headless CMS for your content creators.

Jekyll ($0) – If you don’t mind writing a little HTML yourself, Jekyll is an awesome landing page and blogging platform. It can scale pretty much infinitely and it’s free to use with Github pages. You can also read our comparison with WordPress and our comparison with Hugo.

Gatsby ($0) – The new, hot static site builder has a great reputation among developers, and they’re growing quickly. If your tech team uses React, you might want to consider Gatsby.

Linkedin Publishing ($0) – Linkedin has a publishing tool that allows anyone to write blog posts that are immediately shared with their Linkedin network and profile. You don’t get any options for customizing your posts or calls to action, but it’s simple and gets automatic distribution.

ButterCMS ($24) – If you’d prefer to use a CMS as a backend and integrate your blog into your site, an option like ButterCMS would work. This works best with a static site builder or single-page application.

Cockpit ($0) – Cockpit is perfect if you need a flexible content structure but don’t want to be limited in how to use the content. You can use Cockpit for much more than blogging if you like.

Contentful ($0) – Like ButterCMS, Contentful can be used as a complete content management system with an API that will hook into your site. Both solutions are only recommended for developers.

Drupal ($0) – Free, open-source, and built on PHP, Drupal is a full-fledged content management system with a huge community. It’s more flexible than WordPress in many ways, but also requires more work to customize.

Ghost ($0) – An open-source NodeJS blogging platform, Ghost can be installed on your server or you can use Ghost Pro to let them serve it up. In either case, Ghost provides a nice-looking theme and great options for customizing your blog.

Medium ($0) – Medium has become really popular for startup blogs. While you don’t get to customize the look of your blog, it gets some free distribution on Medium.com.

Postach.io ($9) – Allows you to use Evernote as your blog’s backend.

Stitcher ($0) – A PHP-based static site generator. Offers the speed and flexibility of pure HTML for developers who might prefer PHP.

Tumblr ($0) – Tumblr is simple and customizable, plus you can make it work with your own subdomain. The community features also give you some built-in distribution although it’s less popular than Medium today.

Weebly ($0) – Weebly is a great all-in-one website and blog creator with many templates and tools to choose from.

Wix ($0) – Wix gives you everything you need for a stunning website or blog and it’s free.

WordPress.com ($0) – WordPress.com is a hosted blogging service. It makes setup easier, but allows for less flexibility and includes fewer plugin options than WordPress.org.

WordPress.org ($0) – While you’ll have to install WordPress on your own server, hosting is usually cheap. The biggest downside to WordPress now is the spam that shows up because it’s so popular.

Write.as ($0) – Quick, free (or cheap to upgrade), does custom domains, custom CSS, and it’s easy to create a bunch of blogs from one account if you upgrade.


Need help creating high-quality technical content once your blogging platform is live? Draft.dev specializes in authoritative blog posts and tutorials for developer-focused startups. Our network of 300+ technical writers helps companies scale content production without sacrificing quality or technical accuracy.

Ready to start planning your content strategy? Explore our guides on developing a content plan, technical writing best practices, and content promotion strategies.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best free blogging platform for startups?

The best free blogging platform depends on your technical capabilities. For non-technical teams, WordPress.com or Wix offer free tiers with professional features. For developers, Jekyll with GitHub Pages provides completely free hosting with unlimited scalability and exceptional performance. Medium offers free publishing with built-in audience but limited customization. Most startups benefit most from WordPress.org with budget hosting ($5-10/month) for the best balance of features, flexibility, and SEO capabilities.

Should startups use WordPress or a static site generator?

WordPress works best for teams with limited technical resources needing extensive customization through plugins and themes. Static site generators like Jekyll or Gatsby work best for developer-focused teams prioritizing performance, security, and modern development workflows. WordPress offers 60,000+ plugins and easier content management for non-technical users. Static generators deliver faster page loads and better security but require developer involvement for feature additions.

What is a headless CMS and when should startups use one?

A headless CMS separates content management from presentation, delivering content via API to any platform including websites, mobile apps, and IoT devices. Startups should consider headless CMSs like Contentful, hygraph, or ButterCMS when planning omnichannel content strategies, building custom frontends with modern frameworks, or needing complex content structures traditional CMSs don't handle well. They require more technical expertise than traditional platforms but provide superior flexibility.

Can I migrate my blog between platforms later?

Migration difficulty varies by platform. WordPress, Ghost, and markdown-based systems (Jekyll, Gatsby) export content easily in portable formats. Proprietary platforms like Medium, Squarespace, or Wix may complicate migrations. Choose platforms with good export capabilities if you anticipate growing beyond current needs. However, avoid platform paralysis - starting with an imperfect platform beats delaying content creation for months researching alternatives.

How much does it cost to run a startup blog?

Costs vary dramatically by platform choice. Free options include Medium, LinkedIn Publishing, and WordPress.com with limitations. Budget options include WordPress.org with shared hosting ($5-20/month) or Jekyll with free GitHub Pages hosting. Premium managed solutions like Squarespace ($12-40/month) or Ghost Pro ($9-199/month) include hosting and maintenance. Enterprise headless CMSs start around $300/month. Factor in additional costs for themes, plugins, CDN, security, and developer time for setup and maintenance.

Which blogging platform is best for SEO?

WordPress.org offers the best SEO capabilities through plugins like Yoast SEO and Rank Math, providing complete control over title tags, meta descriptions, schema markup, and technical optimization. Static site generators (Jekyll, Gatsby) deliver exceptional page speed and Core Web Vitals performance critical for rankings. Ghost offers strong built-in SEO features. Avoid platforms with limited SEO control like Medium or LinkedIn Publishing if organic search represents a primary traffic goal.

Do I need a custom domain for my startup blog?

Yes, custom domains are essential for professional startups building long-term brands. Free subdomains (yourcompany.wordpress.com or yourcompany.medium.com) appear unprofessional and provide no SEO value to your primary domain. Custom domains cost $10-20 annually and are included or available as affordable add-ons on virtually all platforms. Only use free subdomains for personal blogs or when testing content viability before investing in owned infrastructure.

About the Author

Karl Hughes

Karl is a former startup CTO and the founder of Draft.dev. He writes about technical blogging and content management.

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