Hello everyone, I am interested in reading a couple plant-related articles in journals and research papers both for my interest and for work in university (I'm a forestry student), however logging in through my institution does not give me access to all of them. Are there any website that may give me free access to such papers?

Because this comes up quite frequently on the subreddit, I'm going to adapt some pieces from my blog into one long post for people to peruse. I generally run through a checklist of what I'm looking for in most platforms when reviewing them, so I do the same thing here on all the free options. That checklist is below:

Core Requirements:

• No required coding: we don’t want to make you deal with coding or anything particularly technical to get a website set up

• Easy to host: really the same as the above point, ideally the time between deciding to start a blog and writing your first post should be minutes as opposed to hours

• Platform longevity: we don’t want to host on a platform that will disappear next year – ideally we want a platform that a) makes money and b) is under active development

• Value: if we’re starting a blog, we’re not going to want to spend tons of money per month on it – <$10 per month is ideal but it depends on the platform. In this case, we're looking for free.

• Site Speed: we don’t want to be hosting a website on an incredibly bloated platform that takes seconds to load – it can be fine, but its a much better experience if it’s fast

• Media Support: we probably want support for images, video, and audio – you may have a use case that doesn’t require those, but I’d say that’s not the standard

Nice-to-Haves:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): for me, this is important, but for many blogs this isn’t as necessary to your goals

• Customization Options: ability to easily change themes / design options can be incredibly useful

• Exportable: this is more of a nice-to-have, but being able to change platforms in the future is definitely a plus

• Image Optimization: this comes back to the “speed” point, but it’s nice to have

• Newsletter Functionality: a nice feature to have available

• Monetization Options: at some point, you may want to add this to your site

• Analytics: this requirement may be closer to a need-to-have for most people given its important to see what’s working and what isn’t

Choices for Free Blogging Platforms

Here are the blogging platforms that have a free option that we'll be talking about:

• WordPress**.com** (Note: this is not WordPress**.org**, it is a slimmed down version)

• Bear Blog

• Write.as

• Mataroa

• Substack

• Wix

• Blogger

There are a handful of other free platforms that are not discussed here as well and probably a handful more that I'm missing:

• Medium

• Lykhari

• Pika

• If you're technically inclined, there are tons of static site generators you can host on Github Pages / Cloudflare Pages / Netlify / etc for free

Initial Considerations – Custom Domains

Before we go any further, many people are looking to answer the question: “what’s the best free blogging platform I can use with a custom domain (e.g. myexamplesite.com)?”. That question actually has a specific answer – Blogger. Blogger is the only free option that supports that, as the rest of the platforms require a subscription. Substack is another outlier here – it requires a $50 one-time fee for a custom domain – which is pretty reasonable.

Back to the Platforms

WordPress.com

Don’t confuse wordpress**.com** with wordpress**.org**. WordPress.com is a slimmed down version of the WordPress software that provides free and paid hosting plans for blogs and websites. It is a great tool for starting a blog, but if you want to use any advanced WordPress features, you’re going to be better off eventually moving off the platform. That said, its simple to export a site to .org if you move off the platform.

• No required coding: Check

• Easy to host: Check

• Platform longevity: Check

• Value: Check

• Site Speed: Check-ish

• Media Support: Check

Nice-to-Haves:

• SEO: No

• Custom Pages: Check

• Customization: Check

• Image Optimization: Check

• Newsletter Functionality: No

• Monetization Options: No

• Analytics: No

• Exportable: Check

Bear Blog

A new entrant to the web hosting block – Bear Blog excels at simple blogging. Your blog will be fast and very easy to get up and running, but the lack of easy media support may be a turn-off for some.

• No required coding: Check

• Easy to host: Check

• Platform longevity: Check-ish – the platform has been around since 2020, charges for its premium service, and the developer has been active in development

• Value: Check

• Site Speed: Check – very fast

• Media Support: Check, although requires you to externally host files on the free plan (via Dropbox, Imgur, etc)

Nice-to-Haves:

• SEO: Check

• Custom Pages: Check

• Customization: Check, custom CSS

• Image Optimization: No (on the free plan)

• Newsletter Functionality: No

• Monetization Options: Limited

• Analytics: Check – very basic

• Exportable: Check – via csv

Write.as

A writer-focused platform that is very easy to set up and get started on. The platform looks great with very little work, but is somewhat limited on features such as SEO and custom pages.

• No required coding: Check

• Easy to host: Check

• Platform longevity: Check – has been around since 2015 and charges for the product

• Value: Check

• Site Speed: Check – very fast

• Media Support: Check, but would required external hosting

Nice-to-Haves:

• SEO: No

• Custom Pages: No

• Customization: Check, although somewhat limited.

• Image Optimization: Seems limited from what I can tell

• Newsletter Functionality: No

• Monetization Options: Somewhat limited

• Analytics: Check

• Exportable: Check

Mataroa

A similar option to Bear Blog – the platform itself is simple and barebones, but it has almost all the features that you would want. Limited SEO options are probably the major missing piece here.

• No required coding: Check

• Easy to host: Check

• Platform longevity: Check-ish – the platform has been around since 2020, charges for its premium service, and the developer makes the financials public (though, to be fair, it only generates ~$1k/year)

• Value: Check

• Site Speed: Check – very fast

• Media Support: Check

Nice-to-Haves:

• SEO: No

• Custom Pages: Check

• Customization: Very limited

• Image Optimization: Seems limited

• Newsletter Functionality: Check

• Monetization Options: Limited

• Analytics: Check

• Exportable: Check

Substack

A very good option if you are comfortable publishing everything on a platform (as you are subject to business model changes). They have features for effectively everything you would want and you can have a custom domain if you pay the one-time fee ($50). If you want to start a newsletter, this is the platform that you should be using.

• No required coding: Check

• Easy to host: Check

• Platform longevity: Check

• Value: Check

• Site Speed: Ok

• Media Support: Check

Nice-to-Haves:

• SEO: Limited

• Custom Pages: Check

• Customization: Limited

• Image Optimization: Check

• Newsletter Functionality: Check

• Monetization Options: Check

• Analytics: Check

• Exportable: Check

Wix

A very common option for creating free blogs. I personally am not a fan of the user experience to create a site, but they do have almost all of the features you would want if you’re willing to spend the time and dig in here.

• No required coding: Check

• Easy to host: Check

• Platform longevity: Check

• Value: Check (Free)

• Site Speed: Bad, especially on mobile

• Media Support: Check

Nice-to-Haves:

• SEO: Check

• Custom Pages: Check

• Customization: Check

• Image Optimization: Check

• Newsletter Functionality: Check

• Monetization Options: Limited

• Analytics: No

• Exportable: Check

Blogger

One of the oldest blogging platforms around, Blogger still does it all. And it does it all for free! The site leaves a lot to be desired in terms of design and overall customization, but you can update your blog to look ok pretty easily.

• No required coding: Check

• Easy to host: Check

• Platform longevity: Check – has been around since 1999 and Google keeps it going

• Value: Check

• Site Speed: Ok enough

• Media Support: Check

Nice-to-Haves:

• SEO: Check

• Custom Pages: Check

• Customization: Very limited, but there are preset themes to choose from

• Image Optimization: Check

• Newsletter Functionality: No

• Monetization Options: Check

• Analytics: Check

• Exportable: Check

If anyone has any comments on the features, would very much welcome them. There are probably quite a few workarounds available on each platform to deal with any shortcomings.