The best blogging tools help you create better content, reach more readers, and grow your traffic faster.
This guide explains which tools to use at each stage of your blogging work.
Let’s start with our recommended toolkit.
Our Recommended Blogging Toolkit
Looking for the absolute basics? Here’s what we recommend:
- WordPress: Build your blog on a flexible and customizable platform
- Topic Research: Discover content ideas your audience is actively searching for
- ContentShake AI: Create optimized blog posts faster with AI
- Adobe Express: Design professional blog images even if you don’t have graphic design skills
- Mailchimp: Turn casual readers into loyal subscribers through email newsletters
- Google Analytics 4: See information about your blog’s traffic and how users interact with your content
Now, let’s go over the full list. One category at a time.
Blogging Platforms
1. WordPress
WordPress is a blogging platform used by millions of websites due to its extensive customization options and ready-to-use themes.
It provides everything you need to write and publish posts, with a simple editor for adding text and images.
You can add extra features through free and paid plugins as needed. Manage team access with different permission levels and keep your site secure with regular updates.
Pricing
The core platform is free. But you’ll need hosting and a domain (typically starting at $10/month). Premium themes and plugins vary in price.
2. Ghost
Ghost is a blogging platform built for content creators who want to monetize their blogs.
Publish free and paid content, send newsletters to subscribers, and collect payments—all in one place.
The platform includes a clean writing interface, members-only content features, and tools to track your post performance.
Pricing
Plans start at $11/month. And there’s a 14-day free trial.
3. Squarespace
Squarespace is a website builder ideal for beginners with little or no coding experience.
Its drag-and-drop editor helps you design pages with custom layouts and images.
The platform handles hosting, security, and updates automatically. While also offering built-in features for SEO, analytics, and image editing.
And you can manage your blog through the Squarespace mobile app.
Pricing
Plans start at $25/month. And there’s a 14-day free trial.
4. Topic Research
Semrush’s Topic Research tool helps generate content ideas from a single topic, which is useful for brainstorming ideas.
View popular headlines, common questions, and related subtopics you could cover in your articles.
Review topics that have been trending in the past 60 days. And analyze specific competitor domains to see their published content.
Pricing
You can fully test this tool and many others with a free Semrush trial. Paid plans start at $139.95/month.
5. Exploding Topics
Exploding Topics is a trend discovery tool that identifies rapidly growing topics you can use to find new blog post ideas.
It tracks audience interests across industries. And uses machine learning to predict upcoming trends in your niche.
Access detailed data you can use to refine your content strategy.
Pricing
A free version is available. Paid plans start at $39/month (billed annually).
6. Google Trends
Google Trends is a free tool that displays how popular a search topic is over time, helping you plan your blog content.
Compare interest among different topics and see which locations are searching for a given topic the most.
You can also identify seasonal patterns and time your content to match peak demand.
Pricing
Google Trends is free.
Blog Writing Tools
7. ContentShake AI
ContentShake AI is an AI-powered writing tool that helps create SEO-friendly blog posts for your website.
It suggests topics and outlines based on what works in your industry. And helps write the content itself.
Check your content’s performance score and alignment with your standards. And publish directly to WordPress.
Pricing
There’s a limited free version available. A paid plan offers more functionality at $60/month.
8. Grammarly
Grammarly is a writing assistant that identifies grammar and spelling mistakes, recommends stronger word choices, and guides tone adjustments as you write.
The tool explains each suggestion to help you learn from corrections.
A browser extension delivers suggestions directly in your blog editor.
The free version checks basic writing issues, while Premium adds plagiarism detection and advanced style suggestions.
Pricing
There’s a free plan available. Paid plans start at $30/month.
9. Hemingway Editor
Hemingway Editor is a writing tool that analyzes your text’s clarity and readability.
It highlights passive voice, complex phrases, and long sentences that make reading difficult. And then suggests simpler alternatives to improve your writing.
The paid version includes AI-powered rewriting suggestions. And lets you edit offline using the desktop app.
Pricing
There’s a free version available. Paid plans start at $10/month.
10. Adobe Express
Adobe Express is a graphic design tool aimed at those without design backgrounds that can be used to create blog images and social media visuals.
Start with pre-made templates, add your brand colors and fonts, incorporate free stock photos, and resize images for different platforms.
The tool also lets you remove image backgrounds, convert between image formats, and create short videos for your blog posts.
Pricing
There’s a free plan available. Paid plans for individuals start at $9.99/month.
11. Descript
Descript is an audio and video editing platform that helps create video content from your written material.
Create product demonstrations, video tutorials, and social media clips without complex editing.
The platform offers text-based video editing, auto-generated captions, and text-to-voice features.
Pricing
There’s a free plan available. Paid plans start at $24/month.
12. Supermeme.ai
Supermeme.ai is an AI-powered tool that creates custom memes you can use in your blog posts.
Simply describe the meme you want, and the AI generates it. Or you can use one of over 1,000 existing templates.
The platform supports multiple languages and can turn your memes into animated GIFs.
Pricing
You get 10 free credits. Paid plans start at $9.99/month.
13. Keyword Magic Tool
Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool is a keyword research tool that lets you uncover phrases people search in Google that are relevant to your blog.
View search volume, ranking difficulty, and search intent. To help you find the best terms to target.
The tool also uses AI to include information on a Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD %) score, a metric that shows how difficult it will be for your site to rank in Google’s top 10 results for a specific term.
Pricing
Fully test this tool and many others with a seven-day free Semrush trial. Paid plans start at $139.95/month.
14. Clearscope
Clearscope is a content optimization tool that assesses your content from an SEO perspective by comparing it with top-ranking pages.
It generates an overall score and offers specific recommendations on terms to include, headings to use, a readability level to target, etc.
The tool also helps you audit older blog posts to find gaps and other areas for improvement. Making it easier to update content and keep it relevant.
Pricing
Clearscope offers a demo to see how it works. Plans start at $189/month.
15. Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is a WordPress SEO plugin that analyzes your content to ensure it follows SEO best practices before you publish.
It helps optimize title tags, meta descriptions, and headings for better search visibility.
The tool also offers a readability analysis to make your content easier to understand. And internal linking suggestions (available in the premium plan) to improve your blog’s navigation and ranking potential.
Pricing
A free version is available. Paid plans start at $99/year.
Blog Promotion Tools
16. Semrush Social
Semrush Social is a social media management app that can be used to promote your blog content across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
The Social Poster tool lets you create and schedule posts from one dashboard.
You can also:
Pricing
A free trial is available. Pricing starts at $19.99/month.
17. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is an email marketing platform that bloggers can use to notify their mailing lists about new blog posts.
Create automated emails to welcome new subscribers, share updates, or remind readers about past content.
The tool has a drag-and-drop email builder to design polished emails without coding.
It also lets you group subscribers based on their interests and demographics. So you can send personalized emails.
Pricing
A free version is available. Paid plans start at $20/month for 500 contacts.
18. Google Ads
Google Ads is a paid advertising platform you can use to promote your blog content on Google Search and other platforms.
Choose from different ad formats, such as text ads, display ads, and video ads to reach potential readers in multiple ways.
Control your budget, choose specific keywords to target, and measure results with detailed analytics.
Pricing
Google Ads is free to set up. Costs depend on your campaign budget.
19. Google Analytics 4
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a free tool that provides insights into your blog’s traffic and user behavior.
You can track which posts get the most views, how long visitors stay on your pages, and where they come from.
GA4 also offers real-time tracking, audience details, and engagement metrics, giving you a clearer picture of reader behavior.
Pricing
Google Analytics 4 is free.
20. Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool that helps you monitor your blog’s performance in Google search results.
It lets you track how often your blog appears in search results, which pages get the most clicks, which search terms bring visitors to your blog, and more.
You can also check if Google is indexing your pages correctly and get alerts for technical problems.
Pricing
Google Search Console is free.
21. Matomo
Matomo is an analytics platform that tracks your blog’s performance and also prioritizes protecting visitors’ privacy.
It shows how readers interact with your content, which posts perform best, and how visitors move through your site.
You can install an on-premise version of Matomo on your own server for free to have full control over your data. Or choose their cloud version that they host and maintain.
Pricing
Cloud-based plans start at $26/month.
Choose the Right Blogging Tools
Selecting the right blog tools is all about considering your current needs and determining what will help address them.
Consider platforms like Semrush that combine multiple tools (keyword research, SEO, content, and optimization) to streamline your workflows and save money.
Start with a free trial today.
