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WordPress is a very popular blogging platform that runs millions of blogs. But, what if it doesn’t meet your needs? Just because tons of people use it doesn’t mean it will be right for you. Here are 7 solutions to help you find your own advanced blogging solution. These CMS’s (Content Management Systems) will offer you a lot of options and features – but it’s important to weigh pro’s and con’s when choosing the right system. Most of these work in the same manner; you’ll have to download and upload the files to your server (some need a database to work), and then go through an install and configure the system. Later, there should be some kind of extensions you’ll be able to add – such as themes, plugins, modules, sections – and a lot more.
Textpattern is a robust CMS. It’s most useful for blogs, although full sites can and have been created with Textpattern as well. It happens to be quite flexible – you can create almost anything with plugins and a custom sections and styling. Personally, I would only recommend this to people who have dealt with PHP and other CMS’s before; although using Textpattern is fairly easy to learn.
Cool Features:
Habari is a free blogging system that, although is still new – proves to be a safe, firm, and well-rounded solution for many. Called the ‘future of blogging’, this flexible system is well on its way to being a huge force in the CMS market.
Cool Features:
Movable Type is a powerful all-in-one tool that lets you create blogs and entire websites with one platform. Being flexible with themes and plugins, you can really do anything with Movable Type! Movable Type is free, but for those who need a larger amount of support (like a business), Movable Type Pro comes with more features – and is not free.
Cool Features:
Tumblr is a micro-blogging platform. Although you can’t host it on your own server, you can customize your Tumblr blog as much as you would like with super cool themes! With an awesome community, Tumblr is the easiest solution for micro-blogging. You’ll also have the ability to use custom domains!
Cool Features:
Drupal is an open source Content Management System that can create anything to a small blog to a large community website. You can even create discussion websites, corporate pages, personal blogs, directories and even social networking sites – all in a breeze.
Cool Features:
ExpressionEngine is a flexible CMS that helps you fulfill your site’s full purpose. There are modules, plugins and extension hooks to help you customize your website to the upmost extent.
Cool Features:
Last, but not least – FlatPress is an open source blogging system that does not need a database to work. This means that those without access to MySQL databases finally have a blogging system to fit their needs!With FlatPress, there are widgets and plugins to make your site as unique as you want it to be.
Cool Features:
Now that you have seen some of the great options available, what will be your pick? Are you going to stick with WordPress? Are you going to try any of the solutions here? Let us know below!
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Nicole Dominguez is a self-taught teenage web designer, that founded SoDevious.Net, a resource for teenage bloggers and designers like herself. Check out her portfolio or follow her on Twitter, @sodevious.
Sunday, April 8th, 2012 03:39
I need to give a try to Drupal :) Currently I am using WordPress and Blogspot only. Need to try out other CMS
Saturday, March 31st, 2012 05:39
It is always a breath of fresh air to see someone let people know that not all blogging solutions are a 1 size fits all. I have been using WordPress for many years and I love what can be done with it. But there are some things that really tweak my nerves about it also. I had the chance to be a Beta tester for the new BB2 online site designer (cms) and all that I can say is where has it been all my life! I will leave a couple of my sites on WordPress until I get the rest of them moved over to this new Web 3.0 Super-Hero.
I just want to be able to drag and drop forms, graphics, social stuff, and whatever else I want to use into the pages and go. No worrying about updating plugins, finding widgets, tweaking code, etc… Let the host worry about all that stuff.
So you can count me in as a vote for the new BB2 BlockBuilder that was launched on March 29th and already got 100,000 raving Facebook fans and users. Here is the information about how it stands up to WordPress: http://cozy-webs.com
Sunday, February 19th, 2012 17:58
Nice to see you pointing out other platforms but to me WordPress is the king. :)
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 15:56
Thanks For This Wonderfull Post . Will Start Work With Drupal Now Lets See What`s The Review Of It
Thursday, March 1st, 2012 03:05
What’s your verdict?
Saturday, October 29th, 2011 13:34
I quite disagree with few things here…
1) WordPress is not just a Blogging Platform, it has evolved as a complete CMS
2) You can add any custom functionality in WordPress & modify it the way you want
3) If a particular functionality is not there in WordPress as Plug-in I have seen over & over again that it no where else in any of the above platform.
WordPress is far better than any other option you have listed above.
Thanks
Friday, October 7th, 2011 04:06
I think blogger is also a good alternative to wordpress. Don’t you think so. Nice post anyway.
Monday, August 15th, 2011 09:47
great list!! i just new player here.. thanks for the info i think wordpress still the easiest of all
Sunday, May 22nd, 2011 06:02
Hi buddies! I am with blogger, for more customization and widgets! Can edit your own and import layout, great toll and value for free! Bye!
Monday, December 27th, 2010 11:42
Part of this decision is based on your specific comfort level. Of what I have found, Blogger and WordPress seem to be the best, but there are many different choices out there.
You really need to look at the different features each one brings and your level of tech expertise can also weigh in here.
Wednesday, December 8th, 2010 08:10
Hi there! Newbie here… Nice site!
Developers are welcome to download and try out my new survey wordpress plugin. Simply visit
http://www.brandography.com/contact-us and in the “comment” box write “Free Plugin”.
Your honest feedback is appreciated. Thank you.
Friday, November 12th, 2010 00:49
WordPress and WordPress only is all i say
Saturday, November 6th, 2010 16:49
Joomla – ugh! It’s a total nightmare and doesn’t belong on the list.
Thursday, October 28th, 2010 07:24
Nice list of blogs, haven’t heard of habari but I will have to check that out.
There is the sgblog at simplegram.com I use it and it is really easy to use.
Thursday, September 9th, 2010 03:39
I have been working with php for about 2 years now and just started working with WordPress with the goal to start building my own themes. However, after looking at the code in the core files, I’m shocked that the thing works as well as it does. Don’t get me wrong. I like the functionality and extensibility of WordPress, but the underlying code, frankly it’s a mess.
Friday, August 27th, 2010 04:12
Gelato CMS is an opensource clone script for tumblr .It could be useful to the bloggers who expects tumblr as self hosted .
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 01:06
Still nothing worth a damn for asp.net for blogging. It is unbelievable that microsoft keeps churning out crap no one needs like mvc and silverlight but they said the hell with making a decent blog platform.
Saturday, July 17th, 2010 13:54
Nice to see you pointing out other platforms but to me WordPress is the king. :)
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 13:21
no love for posterous? come on. I use both tumblr and posterous and link them together. nothing beats posterous when u want to post anytime anywhere.
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 07:27
Joomla is awful, it is a usability nightmare, especially on the admin end. I advise clients to stay as far away from that masterpiece of doom as possible. It is a nice list, I’d take a look at Radiant CMS http://radiantcms.org or choose from WordPress, Textpattern or Drupal those are the ones I develop with, based on what the client wants and how idiot-proof it has to be.
Joomla, should get it’s act together and make things usable, accessible and the admin area a lot less of a clusterf*ck.
Monday, July 12th, 2010 18:53
Nice, but i think Joomla is one of the most flexible, robust and secure platform out there. Plus, it has a great support, and an incredible amount of plugins and extensions, imho. Cheers!
Sunday, July 11th, 2010 17:06
We were into Joomla till date. CMS are an inseperable part of portals now a days. Without it, its much difficult to manage things smoothly. We will surely concentrate of Habari.
Saturday, July 10th, 2010 07:06
I’ve heard of most of these before but I really don’t think I can leave WordPress, although it’s not great for everything. I think for the most part it’s good to focus on a couple of technologies so you can get to know them really well. Can’t really go wrong with knowing PHP and picking up some specifics of other platforms though.
Friday, July 9th, 2010 15:41
Might also want to take a look at Jimdo — we have a pretty nifty blog module in the website creator. It’s super easy to use.
Friday, July 9th, 2010 14:34
I think there is a need to differentiate between a blogging system (textpattern, wordpress, Movable Type), CMS with (of course) the possibility to act as an Blog and Blogging Providers (wordpress.org, tumblr, blogspot).
Friday, July 9th, 2010 09:02
I’m working on a WordPress website now for a friends business, it’s been good n’ challenging! I would have gone for EE, I’ve seen some amazing sites done with it, but the cost is too much for me! Thx for the list! :)
Friday, July 9th, 2010 08:33
I use Textpattern, it’s very scalable and flexible CMS. It’s not a blogging platform, it’s a CMS.
Right now I love Tumblr with it’s simplicity :-)
But, nothing beats WordPress for its plugins.
Friday, July 9th, 2010 08:25
which do you think is easier to create templates? I hate making layouts for wordpress, you have to chop your html in like 10 files (I know you can do it in just 1 page – i did already – but it’s still confusing as documentation is not that good)
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 20:31
Might want to checkout Orchard. http://www.orchardproject.net/
Its a .net project with a very similar feel to wordpress. Still pretty young however.
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 19:38
I love wordpress. Nothing compares. But I also use Tumblr.
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 21:45
http://cargocollective.com/
you need to apply and it seems to be geared towards creative projects
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 14:15
I think, WP + right plugins are the best platform :)
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 13:49
Congratulations!!!
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 18:58
Yeah! I’m with Petar on this one too — Joomla should be on this list. It’s Open Source, it has thousands of Extensions (the majority of them using either GNU or CC licensing) that expand the usability and make it possible to run great, dynamic content. Right now the only thing WP has on it is nesting Categories, but v1.6 is currently in Beta and should fix that.
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 13:13
What a helpful survey! I like your objectivity and point-by-point descriptions. Thanks for posting this.
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 12:07
Nice! thanks for share this… humm maybe i give a try to Tumblr, looks perfect for blogging “On The Go” thanks!
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Ivan
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 12:07
Nice! thanks for share this… humm maybe i give a try to Tumblr, looks perfect for blogging “On The Go” thanks!
Stacie
Friday, July 9th, 2010 09:02
I’m working on a WordPress website now for a friends business, it’s been good n’ challenging! I would have gone for EE, I’ve seen some amazing sites done with it, but the cost is too much for me! Thx for the list! :)
ncus
Friday, July 9th, 2010 08:33
I use Textpattern, it’s very scalable and flexible CMS. It’s not a blogging platform, it’s a CMS.
Right now I love Tumblr with it’s simplicity :-)
But, nothing beats WordPress for its plugins.
mark
Friday, July 9th, 2010 08:25
which do you think is easier to create templates? I hate making layouts for wordpress, you have to chop your html in like 10 files (I know you can do it in just 1 page – i did already – but it’s still confusing as documentation is not that good)
Martin
Friday, July 9th, 2010 09:55
http://www.posterous.com …Of course!!
leonid
Friday, July 9th, 2010 14:32
very usefull post!!!
thanks!!
Sajid Holy
Sunday, July 11th, 2010 17:06
We were into Joomla till date. CMS are an inseperable part of portals now a days. Without it, its much difficult to manage things smoothly. We will surely concentrate of Habari.
Jared Detroit
Saturday, July 10th, 2010 07:06
I’ve heard of most of these before but I really don’t think I can leave WordPress, although it’s not great for everything. I think for the most part it’s good to focus on a couple of technologies so you can get to know them really well. Can’t really go wrong with knowing PHP and picking up some specifics of other platforms though.
Powen
Friday, July 9th, 2010 15:41
Might also want to take a look at Jimdo — we have a pretty nifty blog module in the website creator. It’s super easy to use.
Hannes
Friday, July 9th, 2010 14:34
I think there is a need to differentiate between a blogging system (textpattern, wordpress, Movable Type), CMS with (of course) the possibility to act as an Blog and Blogging Providers (wordpress.org, tumblr, blogspot).
CoryMathews
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 20:31
Might want to checkout Orchard. http://www.orchardproject.net/
Its a .net project with a very similar feel to wordpress. Still pretty young however.
Anna Z
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 19:38
I love wordpress. Nothing compares. But I also use Tumblr.
Ian Vehrmt
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 14:44
FlatPress seems very interesting; I’ll give it a whirl.
Petar
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 13:34
And Joomla is an open source Content Management System :)
Alton
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 13:13
What a helpful survey! I like your objectivity and point-by-point descriptions. Thanks for posting this.
Joe
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 16:35
I’m sticking with WordPress.
Saffron
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 18:58
Yeah! I’m with Petar on this one too — Joomla should be on this list. It’s Open Source, it has thousands of Extensions (the majority of them using either GNU or CC licensing) that expand the usability and make it possible to run great, dynamic content. Right now the only thing WP has on it is nesting Categories, but v1.6 is currently in Beta and should fix that.
jonny
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 21:45
http://cargocollective.com/
you need to apply and it seems to be geared towards creative projects
Mal
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 14:15
I think, WP + right plugins are the best platform :)
Vinicius Camara
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 13:49
Congratulations!!!
Laura Moser
Thursday, July 8th, 2010 19:10
I noticed Joomla wasn’t in the list…why is that?
Mario
Monday, July 12th, 2010 18:53
Nice, but i think Joomla is one of the most flexible, robust and secure platform out there. Plus, it has a great support, and an incredible amount of plugins and extensions, imho. Cheers!
Todd
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 07:27
Joomla is awful, it is a usability nightmare, especially on the admin end. I advise clients to stay as far away from that masterpiece of doom as possible. It is a nice list, I’d take a look at Radiant CMS http://radiantcms.org or choose from WordPress, Textpattern or Drupal those are the ones I develop with, based on what the client wants and how idiot-proof it has to be.
Joomla, should get it’s act together and make things usable, accessible and the admin area a lot less of a clusterf*ck.
Hemen
Friday, October 7th, 2011 04:06
I think blogger is also a good alternative to wordpress. Don’t you think so. Nice post anyway.
yoyo
Monday, August 15th, 2011 09:47
great list!! i just new player here.. thanks for the info i think wordpress still the easiest of all
Nejisan
Sunday, May 22nd, 2011 06:02
Hi buddies! I am with blogger, for more customization and widgets! Can edit your own and import layout, great toll and value for free! Bye!
Malik Merchant
Saturday, October 29th, 2011 13:34
I quite disagree with few things here…
1) WordPress is not just a Blogging Platform, it has evolved as a complete CMS
2) You can add any custom functionality in WordPress & modify it the way you want
3) If a particular functionality is not there in WordPress as Plug-in I have seen over & over again that it no where else in any of the above platform.
WordPress is far better than any other option you have listed above.
Thanks
Hamm
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 15:56
Thanks For This Wonderfull Post . Will Start Work With Drupal Now Lets See What`s The Review Of It
Rob
Thursday, March 1st, 2012 03:05
What’s your verdict?
Geekyard
Sunday, April 8th, 2012 03:39
I need to give a try to Drupal :) Currently I am using WordPress and Blogspot only. Need to try out other CMS
Leonard
Saturday, March 31st, 2012 05:39
It is always a breath of fresh air to see someone let people know that not all blogging solutions are a 1 size fits all. I have been using WordPress for many years and I love what can be done with it. But there are some things that really tweak my nerves about it also. I had the chance to be a Beta tester for the new BB2 online site designer (cms) and all that I can say is where has it been all my life! I will leave a couple of my sites on WordPress until I get the rest of them moved over to this new Web 3.0 Super-Hero.
I just want to be able to drag and drop forms, graphics, social stuff, and whatever else I want to use into the pages and go. No worrying about updating plugins, finding widgets, tweaking code, etc… Let the host worry about all that stuff.
So you can count me in as a vote for the new BB2 BlockBuilder that was launched on March 29th and already got 100,000 raving Facebook fans and users. Here is the information about how it stands up to WordPress: http://cozy-webs.com
Aruneetu
Sunday, February 19th, 2012 17:58
Nice to see you pointing out other platforms but to me WordPress is the king. :)
Donny
Monday, December 27th, 2010 11:42
Part of this decision is based on your specific comfort level. Of what I have found, Blogger and WordPress seem to be the best, but there are many different choices out there.
You really need to look at the different features each one brings and your level of tech expertise can also weigh in here.
andrewlloyd
Wednesday, December 8th, 2010 08:10
Hi there! Newbie here… Nice site!
Developers are welcome to download and try out my new survey wordpress plugin. Simply visit
http://www.brandography.com/contact-us and in the “comment” box write “Free Plugin”.
Your honest feedback is appreciated. Thank you.
me
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 01:06
Still nothing worth a damn for asp.net for blogging. It is unbelievable that microsoft keeps churning out crap no one needs like mvc and silverlight but they said the hell with making a decent blog platform.
Dean Saliba
Saturday, July 17th, 2010 13:54
Nice to see you pointing out other platforms but to me WordPress is the king. :)
mike mai
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 13:21
no love for posterous? come on. I use both tumblr and posterous and link them together. nothing beats posterous when u want to post anytime anywhere.
Asshu
Friday, August 27th, 2010 04:12
Gelato CMS is an opensource clone script for tumblr .It could be useful to the bloggers who expects tumblr as self hosted .
Phillip
Thursday, September 9th, 2010 03:39
I have been working with php for about 2 years now and just started working with WordPress with the goal to start building my own themes. However, after looking at the code in the core files, I’m shocked that the thing works as well as it does. Don’t get me wrong. I like the functionality and extensibility of WordPress, but the underlying code, frankly it’s a mess.
Jacob
Friday, November 12th, 2010 00:49
WordPress and WordPress only is all i say
Samwest314
Saturday, November 6th, 2010 16:49
Joomla – ugh! It’s a total nightmare and doesn’t belong on the list.
Lauren
Thursday, October 28th, 2010 07:24
Nice list of blogs, haven’t heard of habari but I will have to check that out.
There is the sgblog at simplegram.com I use it and it is really easy to use.
ArdianZzZ
Tuesday, September 14th, 2010 04:02
Yeah, WordPress is good but Textpattern rocks!