Top 10 Non-WordPress Blogging Platforms
I have been proudly using and evangelizing WordPress as one of the best blogging platforms available today. Having said so, I feel being pretty fair with my words. But, there lies an unbiased desire within me to look out on the other side of the blog-o-sphere, where people are doing great with their non-WordPress blogs. The grass may not always be greener on the other side, but there is no harm in having a barefooted walk!
Once, a popular website named Online journalism review (which has stopped producing new content) conducted a survey on - Which blogging platforms are popular in the world ? The results were beautifully represented as follows:
This information is however more than 2 years old and things have probably changed since then. Advanced would be a better word, I guess! In one of the recent articles, Monika talked about various options one can have while starting of his first blog. However, they were the not self-hosted blogs, something which pro’s love a lot for the fact that it allows a higher degree of customization.
After analyzing the features of various self hosted non-WordPress blogging platforms which help running the blogs across the world, I have come up with 10 short listed candidates. We shall see how do they serve the purpose of blogging and how different they are from the kingpin - WordPress platform. I have excluded both WordPress.org and WordPress.com from this list.
Here we go!
1) TextPattern
It is by far the second most widely used stand alone blogging platform after WordPress. It facilitates round about the same features which WordPress has except the fact that it doesn’t have such a strong community on the web. It has no licensing fee and can be configured quite easily.
Other features include easy publishing using textile, an inbuilt text-to-HTML converter, options to preview a post or page, XHTML and CSS compliance, tagging template system, support for comments, trackbacks and pings, spam protection system, RSS and Atom feed support, plugins, built-in CSS editor, link management or blogroll capability, image and file management systems, etc. It also has an incorporated site statistics feature which is pretty cool!
Moreover, there is a support forum to cater your valuable needs - TextPattern Forum.
This is another well known and widely used blogging platform. It is the first platform ever to use the trackback feature. The platform offers you unlimited weblogs, ability to create standalone pages, image and file managers, customized user roles, customizable templates, plugins, tags, categories, sub-categories, et. al. It supports both static and dynamic publishing. The website also has an active forum here - Moveable Type Forum.
3) Drupal
Drupal is a free software package that allows you to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. It is not just a blogging platform but is extended to a variety of features. It has an easy-to-use web installer and a built-in functionality to combine with dozens of freely available add-on modules. It is a powerful system to create any of the following modules on your blog/website :
- Content Management Systems
- Collaborative authoring environments
- Forums
- Newsletters
- Podcasts
- Picture galleries, etc.
4) b2Evolution
You would have probably seen this one on the fantastico automatic script installer in your cpanel. A powerful CMS which was developed from the same original code that spawned WordPress. b2Evolution is also written in PHP and provides a variety of features like - plugin framework, integrated stats, spam protection, web standards compliance, multiple blogs, multiple users and authors,etc. Just like WordPress, it is fairly easy to install and upgrade. Licensed under the GPL, it is always free to use.
5) Serendipity
This platform is better known for its flexibility to cater the needs of varying users. It has a user database ranging from newbies to geeks. It is remarkably known amongst the users of all technical levels. It offers all mundane features like - plugins, support for skins, anti-spam, comment, trackbacks, pings, flexible input/output, etc. It is pretty easy to upgrade whenever a newer version is available. One of the best features it has is the option to choose between HTML, Textile, Wiki, BBCode and other markups. The support forum for Serendipity lies here - Serendipity Forum.
6) LifeType
>This blogging medium is well known for its integrated media management, rich templates, plugins, spam filter, an easy and intuitive installation wizard, etc. It also features moblogging, multiple blog support, XMLRPC interface for remotely creating and editing articles. Just like WordPress, it also has an in-built XMLRPC ping service. You may visit the Life Type Forum for a more specific query.
7) Flatpress
It is yet another standards-compliant blogging platform. It supports plugins, widgets and other mundane features which as blog must possess. It has an easy customization with themes, powered by Smarty. Though it is not as widely used as WordPress, nor does it have as many customization options, but it is a perfect option for someone who is afraid of technology and clumsy features.
8 ) ExpressionEngine
Yet another powerful blogging platform from the makers of pMachine. It is often described as a Roll Royce surrounded by Toyota’s, mainly due to its cost! It can be considered as a paid alternative to MovableType that may better suit the users who do not mind paying for their support. It incorporates all basic and advanced features a pro blog shall have. This includes - Multiple blogs, custom entry fields, Moblog, RSS and Atom, image resizing and thumbnailing, bookmarklets, emoticons, etc. It also has a powerful template engine which enlists a lot of features. The complete list of features can be found here. Overall, a great option if you wish to try something other than WP and can think of shelling out some money for the cause.
9) Blosxom
It is known for its lightweight yet feature-rich package which again is free. A weblog application designed from the scratch keeping in mind the 3 golden rules - simplicity, usability, and interoperability. Blosxom does not rely on PHP or SQL databases. This is quite unlike other blogging platforms in the market. However, it uses Perl and flat files. It is an extremely small platform with < 150 lines of actual code! Talking about features, it has all the basic ones. This platform is something which should not be compared to WP, but is definitely an alternative for several novice users.
10) Nucleus
This is another blogging tool which is commonly located on fantastico. It has been around for quite some time and current version 3.31 is of just 595 KB! It offers features like - multiple blogs and authors, time stamping on drafts, plugin support,etc. Nucleus is free to use under the GPL and has a reasonable sized user base. You may look out at its forum for more help - Nucleus forum.
These were a few standalone blogging platforms I found worth putting up here. I would encourage more alternatives as comments to this post. Happy blogging!
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Gobala Krisnan is a direct-response marketer turned blogger who makes over $10,000 a month from his blog empire. If you want to make money online from blogs, he is the only person who can reveal the secret of merging time-tested direct marketing strategies with web 2.0 traffic. Read more about him >>
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Here is an article I wrote, which I believe is an unbiased comparison between Joomla and Wordpress that might be useful to you:
http://www.miracletutorials.com/wordpress-vs-joomla-review/
Let me know what you think.
Best wishes,
john