But the truth is "blog hosting" is sort of a made-up term. Companies that are blog friendly tend to get recognized as such by their users. These companies usually offer a variety of blogging software packages that can easily be installed by most of us non-technical people. Sure, you can download most of these on your own, then setup a database manually, and other slightly technical steps (that your hosting company can walk you through), but being able to just click a few buttons in your host's control panel is that much easier. In the olden days, it was much more difficult to setup a blog.

If you are unsure which blogging software to use, our recommendation is to start with our favorite: Wordpress. It's probably the easiest and most flexible of any blogging software, and it's completely free. Other blogging software platforms include: Typepad (Movable Type), Livejournal, SimplePHPBlog, Textpattern, b2evolution, Nucleus, pMachine, and LifeType.

Although "free" hosting exists, it is typically littered with their ads, not on your website, and in the long run, most people end up switching to a cheap blog hosting service anyways. It is not uncommon for them to break permanently, as well as having little or no control over it—especially if you want to move it later. It's a risky proposition for those wanting to have a blog for the long term (whether personal or for business).