Finally I came to bear
Recently, I discovered Bearblog, a minimalist blogging platform that quickly won me over. After signing up for a free account and exploring its features, I knew I had found my new blogging home. In this post, I’ll share why I made the switch to Bearblog and compare it to other blogging services I considered.
Posthaven
Originally, my blog was hosted on Posthaven. Actually it was a pretty good platform and it offers something that isn't available on Bearblog like large file upload, comment and password protected private blog. (On Bearblog you cannot set password for a blog, but by setting a post to draft, a private-ish effect can be achieved)
The main issue of Posthaven is that it is no longer actively maintained. The theme tool is broken with latest ruby release because its dependency were outdated. The editor they provided has terrible editing experience and lacks markdown support.Customer service is unresponsive, and to top it off, they forced you to put jQuery, twitter(X) and facebook javascript on your site.
After dealing with these issues for almost a year, I decided to explore other options.
Actually, Posthaven does offer an export tool, but it is buried and not listed on their dashboard or help pages. I’m not sure why they made it so difficult to find.
Finding a new home
After doing some web surfing, I managed to find some blogging services:
| Service | Price | Speed | Markdown | Customization | file/image hosting | SEO | Ad | Analytics | Mail list | password support | Search | maintaining? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Posthaven | 5$/m | average | No | HTML/CSS + liquid | large (~250MB) per file | Yes | No | View count only | Yes | Yes | algolia(Builtin) | Not? |
| Bearblog | free or 5$/m or 49$/y (discount for some country) | superfast | Yes | CSS | 10MB per file | Yes | No | Advanced(paid) | Send mail yourself | No | javascript plugin | Yes |
| Ghost | start at 9$/m | fast | Yes | HTML/CSS | 5GB in total | Yes | No | Advanced | Yes | Yes | Builtin | Yes |
| Write.as | free or start at 6$/m | fast | Yes | HTML/CSS | Image only currently (paid) | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Builtin | Yes |
These were some of the platforms I considered. Others, like Svbtle, offer no customization, and Blot requires external storage service, which I dislike.
So I ended up choosing Bearblog because it offers the best value for the price (only $4.20/month after discount) while providing the features I need.
After considering several blogging platforms, I’m happy with my decision to switch to Bearblog. It strikes the perfect balance between simplicity, performance, and affordability. For anyone looking for a straightforward, no-fuss blogging experience without too many distractions, Bearblog is a great choice. While it’s not as feature-rich as some other platforms, it does everything I need at an unbeatable price.