Best blogging platform: 3-year cost, SEO, export and ways to earn
A blog is a long game. The platform you pick in year 1 decides what you pay in year 3, how much of your income it takes, and whether you can take your posts and readers with you if you leave. This page compares five blogging platforms on exactly that, from their official US pricing and help pages, read on November 8, 2026.
This page covers platforms only, the place your blog lives. It does not cover writing tools.
There is no ranking yet. We have not started hands-on tests. A ranked list will follow our test log, scored on our published rubric. The “who it fits” notes below rest on published facts only.
The five platforms at a glance
| Platform | What it is | 3-year platform cost | Cut of your paid-subscription income | Export |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress (self-hosted) | Free software on a host you pay | $95.52 (Hostinger Premium, 48 months upfront) to $143.64 (Bluehost Starter, 36 months) | None from WordPress. Your payment tool’s fees apply | Posts, pages, comments and users to a standard WordPress file |
| WordPress.com | Hosted WordPress | $0 (Free, with WordPress.com ads) or $99.00 (Personal, 3-year term) | 10% on Free, 8% on Personal, 4% on Premium, 2% on Business, 0% on Commerce, plus Stripe fees | Posts, pages and comments to a standard file |
| Ghost(Pro) | Hosted Ghost, built for blogs and newsletters | $648 (Starter) or $1,044 (Publisher), projections | 0% from Ghost on Publisher and higher. Card fees apply. Starter has no paid subscriptions | Content, members list, themes, redirects and media |
| Substack | Newsletter and blog platform | $0 | 10%, plus credit card fees | Posts, subscriber list and stats |
| Squarespace | Website builder with a blog | $684 (Basic) or $1,044 (Core), projections | 7% on Basic, 5% on Core, 1% on Plus, 0% on Advanced, plus card fees | One blog only, to a WordPress-format file |
“Projection” means 3 x the yearly price shown today, because the platform does not show a renewal price. Add a domain to any paid option once its free first year ends: a .com at Namecheap renews at $19.98 a year (checked November 8, 2026).
3-year cost, plan by plan
| Plan | Price shown | 3 years | How we got it |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress on Hostinger Premium | $1.99/mo, 48 months paid upfront | $95.52 | One payment, covers year 4 too. Renews at $10.99/mo |
| WordPress on Bluehost Starter | $3.99/mo, 36 months | $143.64 | $3.99 x 36. Renews at $9.99/mo |
| WordPress on SiteGround StartUp | $1.99/mo for 12 months | $455.64 | $23.88, then $17.99 x 24 |
| WordPress.com Free | $0 | $0 | Visitors see WordPress.com ads |
| WordPress.com Personal | $9/mo monthly, $4/mo yearly, $2.75/mo on a 3-year term | $99.00 | $2.75 x 36. The page’s renewal line showed no amount |
| Ghost(Pro) Starter | $18/mo billed yearly | $648.00 | 3 x $216. Projection. Up to 1,000 members |
| Ghost(Pro) Publisher | $29/mo billed yearly | $1,044.00 | 3 x $348. Projection. Up to 1,000 members |
| Substack | Free to publish | $0 | Substack keeps 10% of paid subscriptions |
| Squarespace Basic | $19/mo billed yearly | $684.00 | 3 x $228. Projection |
Host prices come from our renewal price tracker. The cheapest 3-year figures depend on paying for a long term upfront. WordPress.com’s 2-year and 3-year terms are cheaper per month than yearly billing, but we could not see what they renew at.
A free platform is not free if you earn. Substack costs $0 to run, but on 100 paid readers at $5 a month ($500), its 10% is $50 a month, or $1,800 over 3 years, before card fees. Ghost Publisher costs $29 a month and takes 0% itself. On those numbers, Ghost Publisher costs less from about $290 a month in paid subscriptions. Below that, Substack costs less. Card fees apply on both and are not in this comparison.
SEO controls
| Platform | What we could confirm from official pages |
|---|---|
| WordPress (self-hosted) | Not checked on an official page yet. Most SEO controls come from plugins you choose |
| WordPress.com | “SEO and analytics tools” built in. Plugins on Personal and higher (per the pricing FAQ) |
| Ghost(Pro) | Redirects and routes files you control (they are part of Ghost’s export) |
| Substack | Not checked yet |
| Squarespace | Page titles and descriptions, an automatic sitemap, 301 redirects (up to 400 KB of rules, about 2,500 lines) |
We list only what we read on the platform’s own pages. A blank or “not checked” cell means we have not verified it, not that the feature is missing.
Can you take your blog with you?
Export is the most important check for a blog, because posts and subscribers are years of work.
- WordPress (self-hosted): Tools, then Export, saves your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, tags and users to a standard WordPress file that any WordPress site can import (WordPress.org).
- WordPress.com: exports your site’s posts, pages and comments to transfer to another WordPress site or platform (WordPress.com support, reviewed October 5, 2026).
- Ghost: one zip with content and settings (JSON), members with their subscription status (CSV), post analytics, themes, redirects and, on Ghost(Pro), all media files (Ghost help).
- Substack: a zip with your posts, subscriber list and related statistics, from Settings, then Exports. Substack says: “Anything you publish on Substack is yours to own.” (Substack help, updated December 12, 2023)
- Squarespace: exports only one blog page, with its posts and comments. Drafts, custom CSS and most other page types stay behind, and images may not move automatically (Squarespace help, updated October 9, 2026).
Paid subscribers are the hard part. A file of emails is not the same as moving paying readers. How each platform hands over paid subscriptions is on our test list.
Ways to earn
- WordPress (self-hosted): any ad network, affiliate links, sponsorships or membership tool you install. Costs depend on the tools you pick.
- WordPress.com: the pricing page lists “Earn with WordAds” (it does not say on which plans) and paid subscribers, “Available on every plan, including Free.” WordPress.com keeps a share of paid subscriptions and payments: 10% on Free, 8% on Personal, 4% on Premium, 2% on Business and 0% on Commerce, plus Stripe’s processing fee.
- Ghost(Pro): paid subscriptions on Publisher and higher, with 0% transaction fees from Ghost. Starter does not include paid subscriptions.
- Substack: paid subscriptions. “Writers keep 90% of their revenue minus credit card fees.”
- Squarespace: courses and memberships carry a fee of 7% on Basic, 5% on Core, 1% on Plus and 0% on Advanced, on top of card processing.
Who each fits
WordPress (self-hosted). Fits a blog you want to own fully, grow for years and earn from in any way. Avoid if: you do not want to handle updates, backups and plugins.
WordPress.com. Fits a writer who wants WordPress without managing a host, at a low cost. Avoid if: you need to know your renewal price now. We could not see it on the page.
Ghost(Pro). Fits a blog that is also a paid newsletter and will earn enough to justify $29 a month. Avoid if: you want paid subscriptions on the cheapest plan. Starter does not have them.
Substack. Fits a writer starting a paid newsletter with no budget. Avoid if: you expect real income. The 10% cut grows with every subscriber.
Squarespace. Fits a business site with one blog attached. Avoid if: you plan to run more than one blog, or might move platforms later.
Not covered yet
- Wix: we could not read a clean US price (the page showed a GST-labelled price).
- Medium: its help page refused our request, so we could not verify its terms.
- Blogger: not checked yet.
We will add them once we can read their official US pages.
What AI assistants say
Our November 8, 2026 scan asked ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity 20 questions about websites and hosting. None was about blogging platforms directly, and none of the 80 answers named Ghost or Substack. The closest question was “Best hosting for a blog that gets 50,000 visits a month?”. All 4 answers named WordPress and SiteGround. 3 of the 4 mentioned renewal prices. One run, on one day. Full scan: What AI assistants recommend.
What we have not tested yet
These checks are on our list. None has started.
- Starting a blog on each with our own money and recording what the card is charged at checkout
- Exporting a real blog with posts, images and subscribers, and importing it elsewhere
- Moving paid subscribers between platforms
- Cancelling each paid plan, step by step, and timing any refund
- Contacting support with the same questions and logging the first human reply time
- Measuring page speed from a US location
- Writing and publishing from a phone on each
Sources and dates
All read on November 8, 2026, unless a date is given.
- WordPress.org: Tools Export screen
- WordPress.com: pricing, export your content (reviewed October 5, 2026)
- Ghost: Ghost(Pro) pricing, exporting content and data
- Substack: going paid, how do I export my posts (updated December 12, 2023)
- Squarespace: pricing, export your site (updated October 9, 2026), URL mappings (updated September 8, 2026), SEO checklist
- Host prices: Hostinger, Bluehost, SiteGround, via our renewal price tracker
- Domain price: namecheap.com/domains
- AI answers: our scan of November 8, 2026, method here