Top five blog platforms

PCWorld's editors recently put together a list of their five favorite blogging platforms. Not too surprisingly, the list was topped with a Blogger, WordPress and TypePad trifecta. Lesser-known Tripod and Squarespace rounded out the list.

All five of the hosted platforms are either free or cost less than $10 per month, and each has its own set of pros and cons. Each of those feature sets can make a platform sing for one user while making it too pedestrian for another (formatting features can be a godsend for people who don't have strong HTML skills, for example).

Active bloggers become intimately familiar with their blog tool of choice, so a platform's features are even more important for them. This editor's alter ego has had pretty good luck using WordPress. But which blog platform is your favorite? Is there one that should have been on PCWorld's list but didn't make the cut? How well have blog platforms kept pace with the explosion of bloggers in the last few years?

Blog community response:

"In placing WordPress in second place, PC World note that ads are not allowed (I presume they are referring to the wordpress.com platform). This is an important consideration when trying to make money from your blog. Running ads is a prime money maker for many blogs and removing that option narrows down the money making strategies available to you as a blogger."
--Monetize Your Blog

"As someone who's used all the listed platforms, WordPress gets my vote for all-round excellence and usefulness. I also love Blogger for its sheer speed in setting up a blog. Typepad gets my vote for the best customer service. In short, they're all great, and if you get into blogging, you'll use each of these platforms at different times."
--Blogging for Dollars Blog

"Compared to Movable Type (an excellent platform), WordPress is child's play and when the time comes for an upgrade or when you decide it is time for a new look, ease of use becomes really important, particularly if you have to make those changes yourself."
--chilibean

[rambansal]

Wordpress has a lot of resources for blogging but seems to be badly managed because its widgets directory has a lot of garbage in it, many widgets don't work and once installed, can not be removed easily ccreating a hell of a problem to the bloggers.
Non-applicablility to javascript is another great drawback of wordpress.
Ram Bansal

[MasterBin]

I agree with Rambansai. Blogspot is my number 1 choice. Not only is free and newbie friendly, also because they are in the state of the arts. Wordpress had too many downfall, and you should wonder their security guard. Blogspot in the other hand, are much safer place. Atleast that's what I heard from couple of "hacking expert". From money making point a view, I have to say blogspot in the lead for having adsense control right on its dashboard. And without having to change the domain, Google seems to love it anyway.
(I found that many top SERP blog in several niche actually own by people with .blogspot still in their domain)

my 2 cents

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