Less known blogging and website platforms

Even if you have your own blog or website, you may want to try out something new and swap WordPress, Blogger, TypePad or Live Journal for some newer platform.
Less known (used in the title of this post) is relative of course.

Here are some sites which offer services for bloggers or website creators. 
I have chosen only those sites which are free or offer a choice of a free basic account. They are listed in no particular order.

I'd like to recommend Weebly in the first place because it has a special version for education which lets you create a class website or blog with your student accounts. They can publish their projects, e-portfolios, homework on the site.
Editing of the page is very easy - you just drag and drop everything you need including photos, maps, videos, texts etc. I love the promise that there are no advertisements on your site.

Lifeyo is another blog building platform with an intuitive interface which can be used with students. I quote Richard Byrne from  Free Technology for Teachers: "LIFEYO's ease of use makes it easy to get students creating websites."
What is truly great is the absence of advertisements on your blog. It is also suitable for creating and publishing your portfolio.

Jimdo is a site which offers a private account for free with the storage of 500 MB.
I quote ReadWriteWeb: "One of the easiest tools we've seen for creating truly multimedia sites!"
There is a video tutorial of how to make a website in minutes. One of the best features of Jimdo is the wide choice of languages to choose from. This makes it possible to use a Jimdo-hosted website for the speakers of other languages, not only English.


The site which looks really cool is Jux which combines Open Source and Creative Commons principles. It requires no knowledge of HTML or other coding but it lets you play with themes, templates, widgets etc.
I quote the website: "Everything on the site is a widget than can be dragged, dropped, moved and reshaped willy-nilly. The basic site widgets include a text box, an image, a page title, a site title, etc."

SnapPages is somewhat similar to the Jux website. You build your site by dragging and dropping page elements and widgets. The basic account is free and offers a storage of 1 GB which is more than enough for a personal website.

A fast and free website building is promised by Webnode. It says "Even your grandma can do it!" which may encourage beginners to try this platform out.
There are hundreds of really beautiful templates to choose from. You can create photo galleries, polls, forums and add plenty of gadgets and widgets.

Sub Hub Lite is another web platform for creating your personal blog or website. It promises an easy and fast way of setting up a fully customizable website.

hPage is a totally free website building platform. It has a long list of features and many extras. You can choose between English or German to use on your site.