If you want to start blogging but not build or host your own website, here are some options. I think it’s perfectly fine to start with these but it’s good to keep in mind that it’s not the best idea to build your castle in other people’s kingdom. At least keep local backups in a format that you can deploy somewhere else if and when the services go down or take a direction that doesn’t align with your goals.
Pika is a blogging platform that is free for the first 50 posts (60/year after that). The editing interface is simple and supports rich text and Markdown. The editor is WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) so you see the formatting right away instead of starting at Markdown. They provide HTML export on request but to my understanding it’s not possible to get the Markdown exported (maybe if you ask?). This makes moving away from Pika a bit more cumbersome in my opionion.
Bear Blog is another option. It’s free, allows custom domains and uses Markdown with YAML front matter to configure posts. They are committing to building software that lasts forever which is commendable effort but always worthy of taking it with a grain of salt. They also provide a discovery feed where you can find other blogs hosted in Bear. In other places like Herman’s own blog and in IndieHackers the developer talks about its income and it being community funded but I couldn’t find any info on the monetisation model on the public website.
If you’re a software developer and write about tech topics, DEV is worth checking out. It’s a hosted service where you can write blog posts in Markdown and read other people’s posts. It’s quick to get started with and if you’re okay with writing in pure Markdown, its editor is okay.
WordPress is one of the world’s most popular website platforms and there are many companies that offer WordPress hosting, letting you focus on writing and not running the software. It has a massive plugin ecosystem and – depending on where you buy from – some amount of customisation available.
Ghost is a CMS focusing on publishing and running newsletters. It’s developed by a non-profit (The Indie Hackers Podcast: Tips for Growing Your Online Business was the podcast that got me interested in it) and offers both self-hosted and hosted options.
Micro.blog is a blogging service that connects to Fediverse. It’s pricing comes in three tiers (10/mo and $15/mo) depending on your needs. It offers anything from basic blogging to customisations, scheduling and connecting to external feeds.