Tumblr is a microblogging and social networking website founded in 2007. It is a blogging platform where you can start blogging easily. With Tumblr, you can have a blog more like a social media profile and also you can follow other blogs. On Tumblr, you can share your content more like a short form - like a social media post. In this article, we are going to explore why alternatives to Tumblr, and what your Tumblr alternatives options are.
Limitations of Tumblr: Why Alternatives to Tumblr?
Although Tumblr is a popular blogging platform that has been on the internet for many years, according to Finances Online, there has been a drop in total blog creation on Tumblr recently.
Compared to the previous year, when the platform had 572 million blogs, that is a 53 million blog decrease.
On the other hand, according to Statista, recently there is a drastic down in the traffic that Tumblr gets from all around the world. Tumblr received 198.3 million visits in December 2023, compared to 230 million six months prior.
This decline in traffic may have multiple causes. Changes to the platform's policies, for instance, have sparked a range of responses and caused some users to switch to other websites. Maybe its own limitations.
Limited Customization: Compared to other blogging platforms like Hyvor Blogs/WordPress, Tumblr lacks sophisticated design flexibility even if it permits basic theme customization. It could be constrictive for those with certain branding requirements.
Content Ownership Concerns: Users may not have complete control or ownership over their blogs because Tumblr hosts all information on its servers. Your content can be in jeopardy if Tumblr decides to delete an account or the platform altogether.
Poor Long-Form Blogging Experience: Short-form posts like pictures, GIFs, and tweeting are the main purpose of Tumblr. Its editor lacks sophisticated formatting tools for serious bloggers producing lengthy content.
Limitations of SEO: When compared to other platforms like Hyvor Blogs, Tumblr blogs are not SEO-friendly. There aren't many ways to customize SEO components like structured data, meta descriptions, and keyword optimization.
Unsuitable for Blogging Professionally: On Tumblr, professional bloggers who want to make money from their blogs could find it difficult. Native tools for sophisticated monetization, such as integrated eCommerce capabilities or direct ad placements, are absent.
Limited Control Over Advertisements: Tumblr shows its own advertisements around the site, which users have no control over or ability to directly profit from. Your audience's user experience may suffer as a result.
Absence of sophisticated analytics: Because Tumblr's dashboard only provides basic analytics, it is more difficult to monitor specific performance measures like audience behavior and traffic sources.
Community-Centered Environment: With its strong social media component, Tumblr promotes sharing, likes, and reblogs. Although excellent for engagement, it can take attention away from developing a targeted, stand-alone blog or brand.
Platform Uncertainty: Tumblr has seen ownership changes and a drop in popularity over time. This calls into question its long-term viability as a trustworthy blogging platform.
No sophisticated extensions or plugins: Numerous plugins are available on platforms such as WordPress to increase functionality. Because Tumblr doesn't have these choices, it can't adapt to the demands of its users.
However, if you are looking forward to starting a blog that really represents the meaning of a blog apart from a blog that is more like a social media page, Tumblr might not be a good move for you. And that is why you need to go for Tumblr alternatives. In this article, let's see our top 5 Tumblr alternatives 2025 with a comprehensive comparison.
1. Hyvor Blogs
Hyvor Blogs (HB) is a robust, all-in-one blogging platform that empowers you to create and manage a professional blog effortlessly. Unlike other platforms, Hyvor Blogs includes all essential blogging tools in-built, eliminating the need for multiple integrations. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced blogger, HB provides a feature-rich yet user-friendly experience.
Here are the main features of Hyvor Blogs.
Multi-language support by default
With Hyvor Blogs, you can do blogging in the language you prefer or you can start multi-language blogging using different languages and grow your audience. It is just a piece of cake. Do you have an idea for creating a multi-language blog? If yes then Hyvor Blogs is the right choice for you because with Tumblr that’s not possible. Well, you can have blog visitors who are not very comfortable with English right? So why not make them comfortable by making your blog available in their mother tongue?
Right-to-left (RTL) languages supported
Hyvor Blogs supports right-to-left languages like Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi, and more.
Auto translation
No tedious tasks of translating blog posts into different languages. With just one click, you can translate your blog posts easily.
User-friendly blog console
Both Tumblr and Hyvor Blogs let you start blogging with a few clicks. So it is way too easy. But there Hyvor Blogs has a user-friendly console that really helps you to create, and manage your blog like a pro. But in that case, Tumblr fails because its dashboard is quite primary, less user-friendly compared to HB and the learning curve is high.
Hyvor Blogs blog console is very user-friendly and easy to work with.
Custom domains
In Hyvor Blogs, you can have custom domains. For your blog then you can have a domain like abc.com, not abc.hyvorblogs.com. Then you can maintain your blog on your own without any hesitation. Let’s say you have your blog URL as abc.hyvorblogs.com. Eventually, as you promote your blog you will understand that you are promoting the blogging platform instead of your blog. So we encourage you to own a custom domain for your blog.
Custom themes
When comes to designing a blog, every blogger has different design plans. You will not always find default themes given by the platforms. In Hyvor Blogs, you can create your own themes if the default themes do not satisfy you. Not only that, you can completely customize blog themes and your blog as exactly the same as you want. A beautiful and attractive theme makes your blog visitors feel interested in spending time on your blog.
Hyvor Blogs has official blog themes that are free and open-source: for example, “Zing“, “Pela”, “Hello”, “Raydo”, etc. The Hyvor Blogs team is working hard on introducing new themes as well. All official themes will forever be free. Therefore, you can easily switch between themes and find out the best one for you.
Here is the latest theme published “Raydo”. You can discover Hyvor Blogs’s themes here.
You own your blog and data
These days everybody is concerned about their data privacy and security. When using Hyvor Blogs, you completely own your blog and blog data and you completely have control over your blog. Nobody else owns it and controls it: it is only you.
Mobile Friendly
You can blog on the go with Hyvor Blogs as it is completely mobile-friendly. No matter where and whenever you are, you can use any device to access Hyvor Blogs: even using your mobile phone.
In-built SEO Analyzer
Hyvor Blogs has a real-time SEO analyzer in the post editor to help you with on-page SEO. You know how SEO is important when you are running a blog right? Everything depends on SEO. Therefore you have to think about all SEO factors when creating content; that’s quite hard and you might miss things. That is why having such a feature is important. It will help you identify common issues and better optimize your blog posts for search engines.
In-built Link Analyzer
According to a study by Ahrefs, 66.5% of links become broken within 10 years. Broken links can significantly harm your blog’s user experience and SEO. This link analyzer analyzes all the links and lets you know their status. It consists of 2 separate features:
Link analysis: It gives real-time feedback for you as you write your post. This will help you publish your blog post without any broken links. This checks for internal, external, and even anchor links in your post.
Full blog link analysis - This does a bi-weekly (14 days) full-blog analysis checks for all links in your posts and provides you with a report via emails. Learn More.
AI (GPT) for content creation
Hyvor Blogs has integrated chat GPT 3.5 for you to easily generate content and add it to the editor. Here is a demo of how it works.
You can generate content and use pre-built commonly used prompts such as SEO keyword ideas, FAQ generators, etc.
Excalidraw Integration
The famous drawing tool, Excalidraw, is now embedded within the image uploader to help you quickly draft a sketch as you write.
Google Fonts, Locally
With this, you do not have to deal with multiple CSS files, @font-face rules, uploading assets, etc. Or, you do not have to use a third-party service like Google Fonts, which comes with a privacy liability. This feature combines the simplicity of Google Fonts and the privacy of locally hosting the fonts. All the fonts (CSS and font files) are served directly from your domain - no requests are sent to Google or any other third party. Learn more.
Team contribution
With Hyvor Blogs multiple people can contribute to your blog. If you have a team to manage your blog, then Hyvor Blogs is the ideal choice for you because Tumblr cannot give you that facility.
Powerful rich text editor
HB has a rich text editor with markdown syntax support. But on Tumblr, you can choose the editor you like. It can be a rich text editor, markdown, or plain text/HTML editor.
Free Commenting System - Hyvor Talk
Having a commenting space for blog users on a blog is a crucial part. So with Hyvor Blogs, you can use Hyvor Talk for FREE. Hence, you do not have to worry about adding a commenting space.
Newsletters & Memberships - Hyvor Talk for FREE
As same as Hyvor Talk comments, you can use the newsletters and memberships features of Hyvor Talk without any hassle for free of cost from the growth plan onwards. Create your own custom newsletters for your blog users. When it comes to memberships, you can create membership plans for your paid subscribers, and with Hyvor Talk’s gated content, you can make content exclusive for paid subscribers (learn more).
Sub-directory hosting
Host your blog at /blog of your web app: Cloudflare workers, Next.js, Laravel, Symfony
No ads and interruptions
Hyvor Blogs doesn’t show ads and interrupt your users, never. On the other hand, Tumblr shows ads.
Easy to set up with essential tools
As a blogger, you may run ads, set up data collection forms, marketing tools, etc. For example, Google Adsense, Google Analytics, Typeform, Mailchimp, ConvertKit, Memberstack, etc. So, working with those tools is way too easier with Hyvor Blogs.
Here are our guides to essential tool integrations.
Developer-friendly
Hyvor Blogs is completely developer-friendly.
Data API - Access public data of your blog as JSON using our Data API. For example, you can use it to get the latest posts on your blog. The Data API makes Hyvor Blogs work as a headless CMS for an alternative front-end.
Delivery API - Delivery API allows you to host your blog within a subdirectory of your web applications, with the help of Webhooks.
Console API - This is the same API we use in the Console. Automate some of your administrative tasks, or you can even build your own console.
Webhooks - Ping a URL when something happens on your blog (ex: when a post is created).
Not only that but also HB supports web framework integrations such as Symfony, Laravel, Cloudflare Workers, Next.js, etc.
Additionally, Hyvor Blogs comes with in-built syntax highlighting with support for 134 languages and 28 VScode themes. Line highlighting, focusing, numbering, and highlighting are supported out of the box.
Pricing
Hyvor Blogs does not offer you a free plan but offers you a 7-day trial and paid plans with compelling features to try out. Its pricing is based on the number of admin users (writers) on your blog and the total amount of Storage used. There are no feature limitations. See pricing for up-to-date information.
Starter Plan - $9/month
Growth Plan - $19/month
Premium - $49/month
Team Plan - $299/month
Business Plan - $699/month
Enterprise Plan - $1299/month
Note that you don’t have to pay for any of the features or themes.
Unlike Tumblr, which offers a free version but includes ads, Hyvor Blogs provides an ad-free experience even on its paid plans.Â
Hyvor Blogs vs Tumblr
Feature | Hyvor Blogs | Tumblr |
Multi-language suported | ✅ | ❌ |
Custom Themes | âś… | âś… (Limited) |
Blog Ownership | ✅ (You own your blog) | ❌ (Tumblr owns it) |
User-friendly powerful blog console | ✅ | ❌ |
Full control of your blog | ✅ (Only you have the control) | ❌ (Not only you but also Tumblr has the control) |
Custom Domains | ✅ | ❌ |
Ads-free | ✅ | ❌ |
No annoying popups | ✅ | ❌ |
Real-time built-in SEO analyzer | ✅ | ❌ |
Real-time built-in Link analyzer | ✅ | ❌ |
GPT (AI) for content creation | ✅ | ❌ |
Rich text editor | ✅ | ❌ |
Team collaboration | ✅ | ❌ |
Developer friendly | ✅ | ❌ |
Powerful API | âś… | âś… |
Free commenting system | ✅ (Hyvor Talk: starting from the Growth Plan) | ❌ (only Tumblr in-built comments) |
Newsletter feature | ✅ (Hyvor Talk: starting from the Growth Plan) | ❌ |
Membership feature | ✅ (Hyvor Talk: starting from the Growth Plan) | ❌ |
Why Choose Hyvor Blogs Over Tumblr?
While Tumblr is great for casual blogging with a social media vibe, Hyvor Blogs offers a professional, feature-rich platform for serious bloggers. Whether you want privacy, customization, or advanced integrations, Hyvor Blogs ensures you can create and manage your blog with ease and confidence.
2. Medium
Medium is also a Tumblr alternative. Let’s see why.
Medium is a minimalist blogging platform. Tumblr is more popular among young individuals who enjoy visual stuff. Professional writers and those in the media field, on the other hand, favor Medium. In contrast to Tumblr, it places more emphasis on high-quality content than looks.
Here are the key features of Medium.
Minimalist design with no customization options or themes.
Focuses on quality content with a clean and distraction-free interface.
Built-in audience to help writers gain traction.
No ads, making it an ideal platform for pure content writing.
Analytics to track article performance.
If you want to publish without the trouble of starting up a blog, attract visitors to your existing popular site, and grow your Twitter following, use Medium. Medium is also being used by a number of businesses as a content marketing tool. You also won’t have to worry about page rankings, search engine results pages (SERPs), backlinks, or anything else. It’s entirely free if you just focus on writing high-quality content. The key drawback here is that you don’t entirely own your content.
You must adapt to Tumblr’s very distinctive format in order to be successful. Tumblr’s algorithm favors posts with lots of pictures and little text. If you want to utilize Tumblr to create long-form posts without images, you’ll have a hard time growing a following. Tumblr, on the other hand, is better suited to aesthetically appealing brands with high-quality photos to distribute. So if you are not very much into media but into article content in blogging, then Medium may be the right choice for you.
If you have good articles or if you are a fresh writer Medium is the best because it is easier to get traction with Medium rather than on Tumblr.
Pricing
Blog writers can use Medium for free. However, readers must pay a $5/month or $50/year subscription charge if they wish to view Medium's content indefinitely. Unlike Tumblr, Medium does not show you ads in the free plan.
Why Choose Medium Instead of Tumblr?
Medium is the best option if you are a journalist, professional writer, or someone who appreciates simplicity and wants to concentrate solely on producing excellent posts without worrying about layout. Compared to Tumblr, this platform makes it simpler to get viewers for serious content. Medium may not be the best option for long-term blogging, though, because you don't entirely own your work.
If you are not happy with Medium, you can search for Medium alternatives.
3. Blogger
This is also can be recognized as one of the Tumblr alternatives. Blogger is the oldest blogging solution founded years ago.
Here are the key features of Tumblr.
Free platform with Google integration
Easy-to-use interface suitable for beginners.
Built-in AdSense integration for monetization.
Multiple contributors can work on a single blog.
Allows adding third-party services and customizations using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Blogger is free to get started with: of course, it is free to set up an account in Blogger. Unlike Tumblr when it comes to Blogger, there are no ads by default. On Tumblr, you should pay them to get rid of ads. As you’d expect from a Google product, Blogger is simple to set up and use. You can pick from a number of different site themes and use the drag-and-drop page builder.
Blogger also has Adsense built-in, allowing you to instantly monetize your site. Google also takes care of security, upgrades, and upkeep as a hosted blogging platform, so you can focus on creating content. Tumblr has way too many data security issues. In Tumblr, you do not own your blog and you do not have complete control over your blog. When considering that Blogger is one of the good choices among Tumblr alternatives. Because Blogger kinda gives you some privacy but not completely like Hyvor Blogs.
In Blogger, multiple people can contribute to your blog. But with Tumblr that is not possible. So if you have multiple people to contribute to your blog, then Blogger is for you. Just as same as Tumblr Blogger has some limitations in customizing. However, Blogger is better when compared to Tumblr because Blogger lets you add third-party services and other customizations for your blog.
In Blogger Javascript snippets and widgets (such as Pinterest widgets) can be used in posts and sidebar items. This distinguishes it from WordPress.com (free WordPress hosting), which does not enable javascript plugins. So that is an advantage of Blogger that you cannot gain from Tumblr. Blogger has a function that allows you to have different pages of your blog. Tumblr is ideal for creating bite-sized pieces of content like infographics, quotes, and photos rather than long-form content. So, Blogger is ideal for making blogs with long-form content.
On Tumblr, there are several pre-designed themes and you can customize them using CSS and HTML. There are a bunch of pre-made Blogger templates available from well-known designers. Just make sure you select a mobile-ready or responsive theme to avoid losing SEO points as a result of Google’s latest mobile-geddon! Blogger also has blog ownership issues too. That means you do not own your blog completely.
Pricing
You can use Blogger for free as mentioned earlier. But, a custom domain and third-party plugins or templates could cost money.
Why Blogger instead of Tumblr?
If you want a simple blogging platform with alternatives for making money, Blogger is perfect. Compared to Tumblr, it provides greater privacy and versatility. Blogger's connectivity with Google services makes it an excellent option for bloggers seeking simplicity and functionality, even though it might not have Tumblr's social media-like participation.
However, see your goals, purposes, and requirements for blogging and then choose Blogger or any other Tumblr alternative because choosing an alternative depends on your needs and requirements for blogging. If you are not happy with Blogger, you can search for Blogger alternatives.
4. WordPress
WordPress is open-source software you can use to create a beautiful website, blog, or app. This is one of the Tumblr alternatives.
Here are the key features of WordPress.
Open-source platform offering complete control over your blog.
Thousands of customizable themes and plugins.
Gutenberg editor for easy drag-and-drop content creation.
Advanced SEO tools and integrations.
Suitable for all types of websites, including blogs, portfolios, and e-commerce sites.
Things aren’t the same on Tumblr as they are on WordPress. One of Tumblr’s unfortunate restrictions is that you do not own your blog and content. But in WordPress things are different. As you set up and host the blog on a server that you pay for, you completely own your blog. Not only that you completely have control over your blog. Nobody at WordPress has it. With Tumblr, you cannot have such privileges.
When it comes to customization, WordPress has a lot of options when compared to Tumblr. Even the dashboard of WordPress is much user user-friendly than Tumblr’s. As soon as you come to the dashboard of WordPress, you can get an idea of what is going on with your blog. WordPress has a plugin repository where you can choose plugins and install them to your blog: these plugins help you to improve the functionality of your blog. For example commenting plugins, spam detectors, SEO plugins, etc.
Rather than long-form content, Tumblr is best for providing bite-sized pieces of content like infographics, quotes, and photographs. But WordPress is much more versatile in blogging. You can create any type of blog you want with WordPress. Not only that, WordPress gives a bunch of themes for you to customize and use on your blog. But with Tumblr, you do not have many custom themes available.
WordPress’s editor, Gutenberg editor, not only has the same formatting options as Tumblr’s editor, including the ability to embed pictures, videos, and GIFS, but it also has blocks for adding columns, buttons, image galleries, tables, and shortcodes to your posts and pages. It’s also a drag-and-drop editor, so you can create posts and pages faster.
Pricing
Both free and paid options are available on WordPress. The free plan on WordPress.com is perfect for simple blogging, but it comes with a WordPress subdomain and advertisements. Custom domains and ad-free blogging are included in the $4/month paid plans, but more sophisticated services like e-commerce integrations cost $45/month. With self-hosted WordPress.org, you have to pay for hosting, which usually starts at about $3 per month and gives you full control over your website.
Why WordPress over Tumblr?
For bloggers seeking professional features, scalability, and flexibility, it's ideal. WordPress can adapt to your needs, whether you want a basic blog or a fully complete company website, unlike Tumblr. And for users who expect e-commerce needs, can choose WordPress.
If WordPress is not your Tumblr alternative, you can always check WordPress alternatives.
5. Squarespace
This is another Tumblr alternative you can find on the internet. Squarespace is another user-friendly blogging platform after Hyvor Blogs and WordPress.
Here are the key features of Squarespace.
Drag-and-drop editor for easy website creation.
Professionally designed templates optimized for mobile and SEO.
Built-in analytics and marketing tools.
Supports e-commerce, blogging, and portfolios.
Customizable without needing coding knowledge.
Squarespace has a drag-and-drop editor which allows you to design and maintain your blog very easily. You do not need to customize your blog using CSS and HTML in Squarespace. Of course on Tumblr, you have to use them. So, if you are a blogger seeking the easiness Squarespace is for you.
In Squarespace, there are several themes carefully built by their team for you to choose at your own choice. You can also check them by using the demo version so that you do not have to activate it to see what it looks like. Things are so much easier with Squarespace than Tumblr when maintaining a user-attractive blog. Squarespace has a custom WYSIWYG editor, unlike Tumblr.
Pricing
Squarespace offers premium plans with a 14-day free trial to get started. The Personal Plan starts at $16/month, suitable for blogs and portfolios, while the Business Plan at $23/month includes additional tools like analytics and e-commerce. For online stores, the Commerce Basic Plan costs $27/month, and the Commerce Advanced Plan is $49/month, offering features like advanced shipping and subscriptions
Why Squarespace over Tumblr?
Squarespace is a fantastic Tumblr alternative if you're searching for a polished, one-stop shop to build an eye-catching website. Squarespace excels in building elegant, functional websites that are appropriate for portfolios, businesses, and more, but Tumblr is suited for informal blogging.
Conclusion
Hyvor Blogs, WordPress, Medium, Blogger, and Squarespace, all of them are Tumblr alternatives in various ways. Choosing one of them depends on the kind of blog that you wish to do, your purposes for blogging, your requirements when choosing a platform, etc. Let us know if you have any questions, or suggestions by commenting down below. Happy Blogging!
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