10 Weblog Engines Reviewed
Choosing blogging software can be a scary process, especially if you are new to blogging. There are many different types of engines and content management systems (CMS) that could be used. Picking the software that you’ll need is not an easy task, given the wide variety and types on the Web today.
There are many different aspects to consider when choosing which blogging software to pick. For instance:
- Programming language.
Many blog platforms run on either PHP or Rails, but you can find just about any flavor of programming language you are looking for. - What features you’ll need.
The type of software you might choose is very dependent on the type of blog you are going to run. Some blog software is geared more towards new users, while others are more developer and designer friendly. It’s a matter of finding software based on the features you need. - The size of the software’s community.
If the software community is larger for one blogging system and much smaller and less active than another, the more active community is usually a better choice for software. More active users within the development community means more improvements on the code base, in a faster time frame. - The age of the software.
The age of the software shows the maturity of the blogging platform. Young projects are more unstable, and are more likely to have bugs. - If you are planning on extending the blog.
If you are thinking about adding things like forums, a store, or some other feature to your blog, some blogging software will be more suited to fill that need than others.
The blog software that you choose can have a big impact on your blogging. It’s important to choose the right software in the very beginning, so you can avoid the hassle of migrating to different engine later on. Here are the pros and cons of the 10 most popular blogging systems.
1. WordPress
WordPress is the most famous and widely-used blogging platform. It features a very intuitive web-based installer so anyone from skill level novice to expert can quickly install the software without any hiccups.
The WordPress community is a major asset to the blogging software. It has one of the largest and most passionate communities of developers and users, so one could find just about any theme or plugin imaginable. The possibilities for extending the software are endless, and many web sites and services have used the WordPress code base to build entirely different applications. WordPress also features integration with Akismet, one of the most effective spam protection systems for blogging software.
WordPress makes it easy for new bloggers to not only install the software, but also to download and install automatic upgrades to plugins with only one click. The learning curve for WordPress is fairly minimal, and if a new user runs in to problems, they can always check the extensive documentation. WordPress is perfect for the new blogger who wants to get his feet wet installing their first blog software, or the advanced developer who’s looking to extend the stable code into something entirely different.
If you are wanting to start a multiple-blog site, you can also check out WordPress MU. WordPress MU is the same code base as the mature WordPress single blog code base, with some added functionality.
Sites powered by WordPress
Web Designer Wall
I Love Typography
Binary Moon
Superflous Banter
2. Movable Type
While WordPress is the most widely-adopted blogging platform, Movable Type has the most prolific installs of high-traffic blogs. Their high-profile installs include (and certainly aren’t limited to) Huffington Post (the most popular blog on the Web), Gawker blogs (Lifehacker, Gizmodo, etc.), BoingBoing and dooce.
A major reason for so many high-profile sites using Movable Type is the built-in support for multiple blogs running on one install. You can quickly create as many blogs as you wish, creating blog networks like Huffington Post and Gawker instantly.
While Moveable Type has historically been a step behind WordPress in terms user friendliness, Movable Type has made great strides to improve their interface and installer, and possibly the biggest step forward recently was moving the platform to open source. This has grown the community considerably.
Movable Type is a great choice if you are wanting to run multiple blogs or a blog network with the software that can handle large amounts of traffic.
Sites powered by Movable Type
Kevin Kornell
Cameron Moll
Dave Shea
Dan Cederholm
3. ExpressionEngine
ExpressionEngine is a very robust blogging platform, but isn’t free. The best feature about ExpressionEngine is the feature to publish multiple websites, either using different subdomains on a single domain, or across multiple domains.
You could use one code base to power multiple sites across multiple domains. The software features an extremely clean and simple backend that shouldn’t confuse the blogger. Designers and developers love ExpressionEngine for the fact that it’s quite easy to hand over a site and have the client update his own blog. It’s a solid all-in-one package.
ExpressionEngine is really geared for people who are trying to start a multi-blog site, but anyone can use the software quite easily thanks to its thoughtful and elegant design. A single license costs $99.95, but if you’re running a personal blog you can download the core version of EE.
Sites powered by Expression Engine
Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain
Veerle Pieters
4. Drupal
Drupal isn’t your typical blogging software. While it has an incredible community behind the code and many blogs use it for blogging software, it’s not just blogging software. Drupal is community software.
Drupal really shines as blog software for a blogging community. Performancing is a great example of using Drupal as a community of blogs. Whether you are wanting to power one blog to a 100, Drupal is an excellent choice.
Another strong point about Drupal is the versatility of the software. It comes packaged with a robust user system, but also a lot of community-friendly features like forums, books (for creating documents in a “book” structure) and a tracker which allows you to follow updates and content that other users have published recently.
Drupal also comes with a large community of developers and modules. With these modules, one could build any type of site or add nearly any sort of functionality to their Drupal installation. Many top-notch sites use Drupal to publish their multiple blogs and user communities. Performancing, Spread Firefox, The Onion, and Ubuntu and others.
Drupal is the perfect blogging software for anyone wanting to add a community to their blog with forums and extensions.
Sites powered by Drupal
43 Folders
Abduzeedo
5. Textpattern
Textpattern is a much simpler blogging platform than any of the above mentioned software. It isn’t even packaged with a WYSIWYG editor, and instead relies on the Textile markup language to format the text.
Textpattern is very similar to ExpressionEngine, except without many of the features that ExpressionEngine provides out of the box. (You can read more about the differences between the two blog platforms.) While Textpattern is a stable, mature piece of software, it’s not the top choice for beginners, as they have to learn the Textile language or write posts in html. If they’re wanting to have a WYSIWYG editor, they’ll have to install the plugin, as it’s not provided by defaul.t
There are plenty of themes and extensions, and while the developer community isn’t as large as WordPress’s, Textpattern has an extremely loyal and dedicated developer community.
Textpattern is a great choice for a more advanced blogger who appreciates simplicity and doesn’t mind learning Textile.
Sites powered by Textpattern
Hicksdesign
UX Magazine
NZRN
Erratic Wisdom
6. Joomla
Joomla is a CMS that is similar to the community-friendly Drupal, and gaining traction every day. While Drupal is geared more towards developing community-flavored sites and blogs, Joomla seems to be geared more towards ecommerce (you can read more about the comparison between Joomla and Drupal here).
Regardless of their differences, Joomla is very much like Drupal in the fact that it’s easy to get anything from a simple site to a community blog in minutes. Joomla has a vibrant development community which has created many extensions.
Joomla is perfect for anyone wanting to build a blogging community site, or add ecommerce functionality to a blog.
7. b2evolution
b2evolution is another blogging platform that allows for a single installation of a blog, or a whole network of blogs, right out of the box. b2 probably has the weakest developer community behind it, with only a 200+ plugins (compared to Joomla’s 3,400+).
While the b2 developer community may not be very large, it has a very promising code base and many people still use b2evolution to power their blogs and blogger communities.
The software features a very easy-to-understand backend, ideal for beginners. b2 also has has a built in stats feature, which is something most blogging platforms don’t have out of the box. The software also features a post editor with a very minimal WYSIWYG editor, which is perfect for a beginning blogger.
8. Nucleus CMS
Nucleus is yet another single or multi-blog/multi-author blogging software package. It is fairly comparable to b2evolution in terms of features and development community, and has a list of fairly extensive and useful plugins and themes that can be added to customize any installation.
Nucleus has a much more polished look and feel than b2evolution, and the backend area is simple and clean. Also, Nucleus has a much more active release schedule than b2, which means the code is more actively worked on. Here’s a demo site if you are wanting to play around with the software before trying to download it.
Nucleus is a great blog platform for anyone needing a straightforward blogging platform for one or more blogs.
9. Serendipity
Serendipity takes pride in the fact that it is a beginner-friendly blogging platform. Serendipity keeps your plugins up-to-date by automatically checking the plugin repository online and downloading the updated version if needed from a fairly extensive library of user-contributed plugins. The software also features nested and threaded commenting, which many blog platforms don’t support without a plugin of some sort.
Serendipity uses the high-performance Smarty templating system, and makes use of fast and clean PHP code under the hood. If you are a new blogger, Serendipity offers a setup wizard that makes blog installation a breeze. Unlike b2evolution or Nucleus, Serendipity doesn’t offer a multiple blogs with just one installation, but you can have multiple users to the single blog installation.
10. Mephisto
Up until this point, we haven’t even mentioned any blog software that runs on any other language other than PHP. Mephisto blogging software is blogging software built on Rails. Mephisto offers a very clean look to the backend, and has an intuitive feel to it. You can control every aspect of the look of Mephisto with the built-in template editor, without the help of FTP clients.
There isn’t much in terms of extra themes or plugins to help with customizing the blog’s layout or functionality. Mephisto is more of a bare-bones blogging software that up until recently hasn’t been developed too extensively.
Mephisto is more of a blogging platform for designers and web developers who are able to create their own themes and plugins to customize the site. Beginners might fare better trying WordPress or Movable Type. These two popular blogging platforms make customization easier with all of the plugins and different themes offered.
Honorable Mentions
Here are a few blogging systems that weren’t included that deserve mentioning.
- Dotclear
Dotclear is a French blogging platform that is also offered in English. It supports multiple blogs with one installation, and offers a very user-friendly backend. - Symphony
Symphony is a “web developers” blogging platform. It’s based in xml/xslt, so it requires a bit of a learning curve. Symphony is highly versatile and customizable, and perfect for the advanced blogger wanting fine-grain control over the site. - Habari
Habari is an up-and-coming modern blog platform that focuses on tackling at the core level many of the shortcomings that other blogging software communities have tried to address with add-ons. Habari prides itself in being standards compliant and more secure than other blogging platforms. - Pixie
Pixie is a small CMS that allows for fast creation of websites or blogs. It’s simple, easy to use, and free. It features a beautiful backend, with easy to understand navigation and layout.
Other Resources For Choosing Blogging Software
- Blog software at Wikipedia
A nice roundup of the different types of blogging software, separated by license type. - Blog software comparison – Wikipedia
Compare the different blog platforms based on factors like platform, supported database, license and latest release date. - CMS Matrix
Select and compare up to 10 different CMS platforms at a time. CMS Matrix provides an extensive comparisons of features and criteria. - Open Source CMS
Open Source CMS allows you to actually try out the different types of blogging software without having to download and install anything. It’s a much like a blogging test drive. They host multiple platforms of blogging software, allowing you to see the frontend of the blog and nose around the admin area of the blogging system. - Showcase of WordPress-based sites
- Showcase of Movable Type-based sites
- Showcase of Expression Engine-based sites
- Showcase of Drupal-based sites
- Showcase of Textpattern-based sites
- Showcase of Joomla-based sites
Glen Stansberry writes for the web development blog Web Jackalope (his blog’s feed).
Alex Willcocks
August 29th, 2008 3:34 amNice article – interesting to see what platforms different sites run on!
Straetmans
August 29th, 2008 3:36 amGreat article!
Never heard of Movable Type. Gonna try that one time:)
Ben Jacob
August 29th, 2008 3:37 amThere is one unique software “YikeSite” written in Rails and has one of the easiest interface. But comes as a Self hosted app. which enables all kind of users to manage pages easily, and lets a n00b to run his own website. And Still on the phase of development
http://yikesite.com
luka
August 29th, 2008 3:47 amReally nice post but what about Php-fusion? In my opnion it is just as good as many of the above menhtioned CMS systems
erenon
August 29th, 2008 3:52 am“Up until this point, we haven’t even mentioned any blog software that runs on any other language other than PHP”
MovableType runs python.
Christy John
June 29th, 2010 12:02 amMovable Type is written in Perl.
jbcarey
August 29th, 2008 3:53 amnice post…. i think it’s very hard to get wordpress from it’ throne… but movable type is doing a good job so far.
jbcarey
August 29th, 2008 3:54 amdotclear is french which doesn’t help the userfriendlyness….
Chris
August 29th, 2008 3:59 amTextpattern doesn’t “rely” on textile. You can of course, write in HTML or install the TinyMCE extension and enter content in a word processor like interface.
Noel Hurtley
August 29th, 2008 3:59 amErenon: MovableType is built with PHP and Perl AFAIK.
Dave
August 29th, 2008 4:03 amJust to let you know, the url for Movable Type above is broken (has a space in it)
Simone
August 29th, 2008 4:05 amThere are also a lot of other blogging engine written with other languages, like Ruby or .NET.
You should mention them as well sometimes
Kim A
August 29th, 2008 4:10 amExpressionEngine is really geared for people who are trying to start a multi-blog site
Expression Engine is geared towards the simple brochure site, through single blogs, simple ecommerce to multiple sites to whatever you need to publish. As their site says, ‘Publish Your Universe’, not matter how big or small it is.
And they do have a free version, if you are setting up a non-commercial, personal blog.
The beauty of Expression Engine is that it allows you to expand when you need to because the functionality to do so is built in, thus removing the need for endless hacking around with plugins that other blogging-only platforms have.
Interesting article overall, but seems to lack evidence of proper research.
Kuz
August 29th, 2008 4:11 amI use ExpressionEngine for most of my development. Having tried almost all the others listed, I stuck with EE due to the fact that it acts almost more like a framework than an out of the box blogging system. I realize that may not appeal to a lot of people, but it’s helped me to build some pretty complicated sites without needing to take a refresher course in database development.
Janko
August 29th, 2008 4:17 amI understand that not so many web designers use asp.net but there is one outstanding open-source engine written in asp.net: BlogEngine.NET (www.dotnetblogengine.net). It is incredibely easy to customize, both functionally and visually.
Here is my overview of this engine, if you are interested: http://www.jankoatwarpspeed.com/post/2008/04/16/BlogEngineNET-Powerful2c-open-source-blog-engine-written-in-ASPNET-20.aspx
Urs Mueller
August 29th, 2008 4:19 amFrom the server-side, I really like Pivot.
It is php-based, but writes to files. No SQL-Server needed.
L2
August 29th, 2008 4:20 amIn a list of 10 items is 90% PHP (9 items) and 10% RoR (1 item). Now that is convincing that most run on either PHP or Rails. That opening trashed my whole opinion about this article.
It’s terrible article!!!
Erik
August 29th, 2008 4:21 amI’ve recently switched from Textpattern to Expression Engine after almost 3 years. They both have a really easy to use templatingsystem which is great if you build your own themes. WordPress has a steeper learning curve when it comes to custom themes.
The reason why I switched from Txp to EE is because Txp lacks a lot of functionality and is not as flexible as EE. With EE you can customise the new post interface to your liking. For instance, adding a second text area is a real pain with Txp (it requires some hacking in the code), but with EE it’s really simple.
Another big plus is that EE is more complete. Although Txp has a lot of great plugins, you simply need less with EE.
So if you’re building a more complicated (magazine like) website, you’re definately better off with EE. If you’re looking for a reliable, fast and free cms, you will probably do just fine with Txp!
kamikaze.cockroach
August 29th, 2008 4:30 amAnother site powered by Expression Engine is Barack Obama’s campaign site.
Expression Engine 2.0 is being built from Code Igniter which is completely Open Source and community driven.
Amanda Fazani
August 29th, 2008 4:31 amI’m shocked that Blogger didn’t even get a mention in this list! Next to WordPress, this is one of the most popular (and documented) Blogging services, used by millions of Bloggers all over the world.
Is there a particular reason (or bias) why Blogger was not included?
mirco
August 29th, 2008 4:42 amMovable Type is written in Perl not Python. Also if you use dynamic publishing it uses php.
Jeff
August 29th, 2008 4:42 amI’m a little surprised that MODx didn’t make the list. Very flexible, easy to install, suitable for both novices and developers, and allows for complete custom application development.
Definitely worth a look!
Remington Phillips
August 29th, 2008 4:46 amThanks for the great article Glen.
I’ve been thinking about starting a blog for my network of websites, so your roundup has helped me figure out “who’s who” in the blog software game.
Geroge Karl
August 29th, 2008 4:51 ambesides assigning one article to multiple categories and having sub sections and categories, joomla is the only way to go. Even wordpress is a joke comparing to Joomla!
Rafael Tosta
August 29th, 2008 4:57 amGreat reference! Thanks for the excelente job!
Romain
August 29th, 2008 5:01 amWhat about Dotclear and its last amazing release 2.0.1 ?
Tast it now!
http://www.dotclear.net/
Frédéric de Villamil
August 29th, 2008 5:15 amFunny to see Mephisto here as it’s not a blogging software but more a CMS. And btw, there is a much more active, old and complete blogging software in ruby on rails with plugins and lots of very nice themes. It’s called Typo
PomCompot
August 29th, 2008 5:21 amAs often in english spoken article, few interest is given to the internationalization stake. One of the big disadvantages of the blog platforms you present is the lack of full internationalization.
DocClear, a french blog engine, is really a good choice with very few bugs, a great stability and a good internationalization. The version 2 has just been released. Give it a try, it worths it.
Thanks for this very good article either.
Diego
August 29th, 2008 5:28 amNope, MT runs Perl
Michaël
August 29th, 2008 5:29 am@jbcarey :
DotClear has always been available in English, since its beginning, and in a lot of other languages. I’m really surprised not to see it in this list.
Geek in Heels
August 29th, 2008 5:32 amI currently use WordPress, but am currently making the move to Squarespace. I have tested numerous platforms over the years and IMO, Squarespace is easily the best out there. It’s not free, but it’s worth it for its ease of use and customability. You can read my review of their new V5 platform here.
Michael Thompson
August 29th, 2008 5:34 amJoomla is terrible.
Ty
August 29th, 2008 5:40 amGreat overview! I’m a serious WordPress fan though.
Andy C
August 29th, 2008 5:45 amI use Habari – the Admin interface is superb, the article editor simple and uncluttered and a variety of themes and plugins support all the key functionality required for a blog.
While Habari has some rough edges, it is actively being worked on with new features being added daily. Don’t be deceived by the 0.5 – Habari is perfectly capable of running a blog – today.
bob
August 29th, 2008 5:53 amb2evolution is a good bloggin app.
Mr Mouse Anony
August 29th, 2008 6:06 amvBulletin appears to have an official addon to add a full featured blog software to your online community forum.
Ben de Groot
August 29th, 2008 6:13 amYou don’t mention Habari, why not? It’s a very nice new blogging application, that is quickly growing into the platform that WordPress was supposed to be, but without making the same mistakes. It’s focus on usability, good design and a sane architecture, combined with being community-driven, make Habari a winner in my book.
Also it should be noted that several popular packages such as Joomla and WordPress are continuously encumbered by security issues.
Dan
August 29th, 2008 6:20 amI know this has already been said, but this article did not mention blogger.com…
Tom
August 29th, 2008 6:29 am@ erenon: it would be great, if mt would be programmed in python. unfortunately it’s the read-only perl.
Jummy
August 29th, 2008 6:38 amDooce is no longer powered by Movable Type. They now use Drupal, as explained here.
Deron Sizemore
August 29th, 2008 6:42 amExpressionEngine is really geared for people who are trying to start a multi-blog site
I disagree with the above statement. That is definitely one of it’s pluses with the “Multi Site Manager” but definitely not who EE is targeted for. I’d venture to say that majority of EE users do not have a multi-blog site.
As was said above, they also have the free “Core” version of EE, so it’s not just a paid platform. I run two sites with the free “Core” version.
Paul Frost
August 29th, 2008 6:54 amAnother Expression Engine user.
It is so much more than a blogging tool, I have built several sites on it due to the flexibility of the way you can store and access data. You can create multiple data fields and customize them in many ways.
It is a framework that you use to build custom sites, rather than just another weblog.
Jack
August 29th, 2008 7:03 amI think your summary of ExpressionEngine was really shortsighted, and I’m sure thousands would agree with me. ExpressionEngine isn’t primarily geared for multiple-site blogs — that’s just a simple feature. It’s REALLY geared for mind-blowly flexible content management. Sure, it does blogs well. Ridiculously well in fact. But due to the nature of it’s expression tag system, it allows someone without knowledge of PHP actually build out custom features and functionality right into the HTML/CSS. The sky is pretty much the limit in the type of site you want to build.
It really fits for nearly 95% of all client work in my case — full corporate sites right down to a simple blog, all easy, all flexible. I recommend everyone checking it out!
Josh N.
August 29th, 2008 7:32 amYou should check out Symphony. It’s XML/XSLT based, so the learning curve is a bit steep. It’s more of a full CMS rather than a blog engine, but can do blogs easily. Verson 2 is almost out of beta and rocks. My current fav CMS — and I’ve used a lot!
Nollind Whachell
August 29th, 2008 7:34 amI’m assuming this review was for non-hosted blogging solutions, since platforms like Typepad and Squarespace aren’t listed.
For example, I still haven’t found another platform that compares to Squarespace in it’s ability to structure your site before you add content to it (since most others you structure your site after you add content, as you need something to work with). I mean I don’t need a site map from my clients because their content structure (shown within the Architecture area of Squarespace) almost replicates this.
Even more so, I have yet to see another CMS provide a built-in Style Editor like Squarespace. I mean you’d have to purchase a desktop solution like Stylizer to get something comparable.
All said and done though, it is a hosted solution and it limitations are what you pay for it’s simplicity and ease of use. With Version 5, you no longer have access to templates but they are working on ways to let you edit anything (with about 95% achieved now), so there won’t be a need to mess with XHMTL code. However you can play with CSS as much as you want, as it’s CSS template structure is probably the best I’ve seen versus other solutions. In a nutshell, Squarespace is optimized for “designers” rather than developers. So those who prefer immediately visualizing and conceptualizing their content, layout, and designs without having to play with too much code in the back end will probably like it considerably.
mave
August 29th, 2008 7:35 amI get the impression that whoever wrote this article hasn’t actually USED all of these systems. Some of the information here is false or misleading, and the rest of it is too general and doesn’t really speak to the essential qualities of the various platforms. Terrible article!
And regarding Textpattern – you do NOT need to use textile to publish in Textpattern. It’s actually one of the few platforms that you can use straight HTML/CSS/PHP with – one of the few systems where you don’t have to muck around with some silly template system, and can just develop your pages “normally”.
Hynek Zatloukal
August 29th, 2008 7:41 amTextpattern forever :-) With PHP knowledge you can do wonders with Txp.
Glen Stansberry
August 29th, 2008 7:42 amWe didn’t include blogger because we were focusing on only blogging software, not hosted solutions. It’s a great blogging service though! :)
Jumper
August 29th, 2008 8:11 amDrupal and Text Pattern are CMS. If you mention Drupal you can also talk about Joomla and others which can have same blog features. All these systems you said are made to download so I can think that’s why you don’t talk about Blogger and Vox. Am I wrong? Regards…
Glen Stansberry
August 29th, 2008 8:28 am@L2: You can find a blog platform for just about any language. I chose to focus on the most widely-used software, which unfortunately is mostly PHP.
mp
August 29th, 2008 8:34 amExpressionengine si not just a blogging tool, it is true web cms. Lot of flexiblity, plus the templating language is supreme to WP and movable type. Have you guys every really looked at these system before recommending them.
I HAVE througly reviewed most of the systems you listed. A pretty interface is one thing, but the templating system and flexiblity is the core of the system. Expressionengine wins hands down.
mp
August 29th, 2008 8:38 amAlso, I do like Textpattern but not quite as much as EE. Templating engine is similar. But EE has more flexibilty built in without plugins. Also, EE’s documentation, user community, and support are extremely organized. Don’t take good documenation for granted especially. A system could be great, but if it’s not documented in a way a developer can use it who cares.
mp
August 29th, 2008 8:46 amLast thing, look at the code you have to use for b2evolution to list the last 3 entries in a “blog”.
” title=”">
get_item() )
{ ?>
permalink() ?>” title=”">title( ”, ”, false ); ?>(issue_date() ?>)
“>
Take a look at EE:
{exp:weblog:entries weblog=”blog1|blog2″ limit=”3″}
{title}
{body}
Posted on {entry_date format=”%M %d, %Y – %h:%i %A”}
{/exp:weblog:entries}
enough said…
Linked
August 29th, 2008 9:00 amI’m looking for a really straightforward and simple cms. The primary need is to enable our partners to update their own websites. So the basic requirement is a multi-site capability. No fancy plugins needed. Simple and easy to use. Any suggestions?
eric-from-boston
August 29th, 2008 9:03 amwhat does smashing use for a platform?
Gary Horsman
August 29th, 2008 9:09 amI’m putting in my support for Textpattern. As stated, Textile is not required for writing blogs, but it makes it simpler to style text without having to explicitly know XHTML.
If you know XHTML and CSS, you can go far with TXP to build any kind of site, whether for blogging or commerce or business or whatever. Easy to install, easy to use and completely free.
ExpressionEngine looks promising as an alternative to TXP, but until they finish 2.0 and give users a file management system (already present in TXP), I’ll wait before I add it to my arsenal of CMS tools.
Brandon
August 29th, 2008 9:27 amThis is a post I’ve been waiting for for a while! I’m an avid user of WordPress at the moment for my little design/portfolio blog Make Design, Not War, but for a while I was hunting around madly for which engine to commit to.
As a designer with a little programming experience (enough to build custom WP or EE themes at least), I really wanted something that would A) not require me to learn a ton of new information to setup and B) a platform that I could rely upon for easy content management once the site was built.
I tried out Expression Engine for quite a while (and liked it) before deciding that the open source aspect and thriving growth of the WP theme and plugin community is a platform that I don’t mind committing to because of it’s flexibility – plus it’s free. In any event, thanks a ton for summing up the top 10 blogging platforms.
As a side note, I love the UXMag site – one of the most unique blog designs I’ve seen. I only wish they updated their content more often – those articles have been pretty much the same on the front page sine last Feb as far as I can tell. Beautiful example of how far you can stretch a blog design.
Deron Sizemore
August 29th, 2008 9:32 am@Gary Horsman:
There already is a “File Manager Module” that would give this functionality. It’s a third party module but from what I understand, it’s solid and works like it’s suppose too.
Andrei Gonzales
August 29th, 2008 10:23 amJoomla is the worst. I’m surprised it was even considered – probably out of popularity, but that’s it.
Joomla’s output code is so useless it’s not even funny. I had to build a custom Joomla-based website from scratch (I used both versions to test which one was better – neither of them were decent), and I can honestly say that those 5 days turned that week into the worst week of my career.
Stay away from Joomla. Stay far far away.
Steve Comrie
August 29th, 2008 10:30 amAs mentioned by some other people, Moveable Type is written in Perl and Dooce.com switched to Drupal a couple of months ago.
gaetan
August 29th, 2008 10:40 amThank You very much SmashMag
But DotClear is very wonderfull as WordPress… but “français”
a french webdesigner
Shantesh Patil
August 29th, 2008 10:52 amYou should also not BlogEngine that runs on ASP.NET. It is one of the simplest blogging engines to setup and use and you can create new themes for it in litlerally minutes.
Robin
August 29th, 2008 11:09 amTextpattern is not just a blogging system, It’s full CMS. You don’t have to learn Textile there is a WYSIWYG toolbar plugin that takes a seconds to install. It has a very solid community and dev team. The templating language is beautiful, great for those that don’t want to learn PHP. It’s by far my favourite CMS and i’ve tried them all.
ExpressionEngine is also great for the bigger sites.
Sam Wilson
August 29th, 2008 11:13 amExpression Engine has a very feature-ful free version that I used to learn EE with. EE rocks.
standardista
August 29th, 2008 1:15 pmb2evolution is a repulsive piece of shit. Completely unoptimized – if you have any level of traffic whatsover, you might as well send up smoke signals, b/c it will kill your server.
Mark
August 29th, 2008 1:41 pmWordPress FOREVER!!!.. I dont think u should have to ever pay for blogging software. WordPress by far has exceeded its competitors obviously by being included in fantastico
Tedel
August 29th, 2008 2:00 pmerr… and Blogger?
Kana
August 29th, 2008 2:20 pmThe link on Drupal – Joomla comparison is 1.5 yrs outdated and it doesn’t portray a true picture any more. A lot of progress has been made since on both systems and many points are not valid.
Lots of readers will now be going through that article without realising the fact that some major parts are not accurate any longer.
I’m surprised you have actually posted it, it’s misleading.
Michaël
August 29th, 2008 2:22 pmThere is a typo in the DotClear link that breaks it, the ‘n’ should be removed.
DotClear used to have a whole section translated in English for non French speakers, but it seems this section has not came back yet on their new website…
Chris B
August 29th, 2008 3:06 pmI’m a designer not a developer.
I tried a few CMS’s for my design portfolio. I chose EE in the end, for flexibility, the amount of features, and ease of use for a non-developer.
I would strongly recommend it to anyone.
Paul Gendek
August 29th, 2008 4:21 pmI’ve used WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal from that list!
Brekk
August 29th, 2008 4:35 pmHello. It’s supposed to be Kevin Cornell, not Kornell with a K.
John Faulds
August 29th, 2008 5:51 pmThis pretty much sums up my experience with it too.
Doug
August 29th, 2008 6:07 pmI would recommend Chyrp for small and simple blogs. Very clutter free and intuitive. A young product that has a lot of potential.
mkl grafik
August 29th, 2008 7:51 pmAnyone else here have had to suffer through Plone? It’s the only CMS used where I work. Terrible.
Love using WordPress for my personal projects.
mammut
August 29th, 2008 9:05 pmYou should also considere sNews for example, altough it’s not meant to be strictly blog engine, it is so lightweight and versatile that a little advanced PHP developer can pretty much run anything on that. For example I have developed an ecommerce solution and a medicinal appointment solution for doctors on that. Everyone was thrilled about it.
Samuel
August 29th, 2008 10:00 pmNice review!!!
I use a BlogEngine.NET in mi blog and is really nice, this is the creator’s url may you can make a review about they.
http://www.dotnetblogengine.net/.
Great!!
Henrik
August 30th, 2008 12:10 amDooce is powered by Drupal, not movable type.
kristarella
August 30th, 2008 12:39 amWorth while review.
There are sites here that I assumed were using WP, but they’re not!
Frank
August 30th, 2008 1:43 amI really miss the blogging sofware ‘pivot’ in this list!
Mark
August 30th, 2008 3:33 amAnd the best off all: Drupal is Made in Belgium!!
yaph
August 30th, 2008 4:35 amOne thing you must definitely consider, if you plan to build a popular site is code quality and security. Drupal for example has a strong focus on security also monitoring 3rd party extensions and fixing security vulnerabilities, when they are detected. This is something very valuable since a badly written add-on may ruin your server.
Something else I deem important is search engine friendliness. Designers must be able to create templates that comply with Web standards and use semantic markup. There should also be support for speaking URLs built-in.
When it comes to usability, editors without HTML knowledge should be able to create nice looking posts and integrate media such as images. In this regards WordPress excels and Drupal core can really be improved.
cjagers
August 30th, 2008 4:55 amI can’t believe Squarespace is missing from this list. They offer one of the more powerful engines and are unique in their ease to customize.
Nicomashi
August 30th, 2008 5:14 amHere is our blog engine for Joomla!, it names IDoBlog. You can see it on IDoJoomla.com
Umut Yurtseven
August 30th, 2008 6:46 amsorry, wont do it again.
Toni Marie
August 30th, 2008 9:53 amThe review of Joomla here (and in many of the comments) is highly inaccurate and outdated.
We only use Joomla in our business also, but we don’t typically design sites to be blogs, we do work for businesses and organizations.
Joomla as a blog platform exclusively might be a big of overkill, as Joomla is a CMS and quite robust. I’ve reviewed IDoBlog for the extensions directory (mentioned here in the comments) and it adds the multiple blogging features that Joomla previously was weak in.
I’m surprised at this because I read Smashing Magazine regularly and the reviews are usually thorough and on-target.
Cory Gibbons
August 30th, 2008 11:06 amI find you can’t go wrong with wordpress.
skimmas
August 30th, 2008 11:13 amthe cms matrix link is wrong it’s .org not .com
Srecko Bradic
August 30th, 2008 10:45 pmFor me the WordsPress is the favorite but withhut any doubt that there is more powerful engines for runing of blogs or web site.
Eric
August 31st, 2008 3:20 amThe Joomla VS Drupal list is from 2006! Not very reliable to base your choice for a cms right now.
Check your resources first please!
trcwest
August 31st, 2008 4:33 amits got to bee wordpress with all the coders that work together and help with plugins and now that they have updated newer things it just gets better and better… mines powered by wordpress and its pretty nice and simple.. to manage and to look at.. trcwest.com/blog/
Gisele
August 31st, 2008 5:16 amEy! Great listing! I found it very useful to redirect people that contacts me about blog designs. I usually recommend WordPress right away, but it’s nice for them to see a good article abut the topic and try out well to see what fills out more their needs!
Thanks a lot guys!
Gisele Jaquenod and Birdie’s Blog
namdatviet
August 31st, 2008 8:50 amThis site uses WordPress too, right?
ray
August 31st, 2008 9:09 amyeah why did staff not mention what this site runs on?
rifai
August 31st, 2008 11:40 am@namdatviet,
Yeah, i think smashing magazine use wordpress !!
mnik
August 31st, 2008 1:42 pmTumblr anyone?
Damir
August 31st, 2008 4:26 pmYes.
Andre
August 31st, 2008 5:32 pmTake Wikidot, it is simply the best. Despite that the default skins suck
Jedd
August 31st, 2008 7:21 pmWhat about blogger.com????????? I can’t believe it’s not even in there
yoxx
August 31st, 2008 7:39 pmvery nice article
Shmily
August 31st, 2008 11:43 pmNice story!!!!!!! Like it.