Best Blogging App For Mac

[This is part of the Developing Great Blog Content Series.]

MPEG Streamclip: (Free Mac app to compress video files. I will do a tutorial in the coming days.) The above list provides must-have blogging apps for your Mac. If you are using any other blogging apps on your Mac OS which are helping you with your blogging, I would love to know about them. Share you tips with me in the comments.

Update: I’ve built my very own desktop publishing app: Desk PM!

Great content is born out of your head, your hands, and the apps that you use. Many of us choose to draft directly into our blog applications (which can be dangerous) while others choose to use a number of different applications to draft and write in.

Honestly the best blogging application for you to use is the one that you love the most and that’ll encourage you to write more! It doesn’t matter to me as long as those two elements are there!

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As such, here’s a list of a number of applications that you should consider trying as you solidify your blogging and writing workflow. These apps specifically connect to your blogging platform so that you can publish directly to them without ever having to login!

I’ve broken them out into apps for Windows, Mac, and those that are Web-based for your consideration… and even a few bonus ones for Linux:

Windows Blogging & Writing Apps

Here is a list of blogging apps that you might want to check out if you’re a Windows user that are specifically designed to connect to a blogging platform, such as WordPress, Blogger, etc. Enjoy!

Windows Live Writer

This is one of the more generally accepted desktop apps that many people have used with success.

It’s capable of connecting to WordPress, Blogger, and many more apps so you won’t have to worry about compatibility issues.

I’m not a mega-uber fan of Microsoft but this product isn’t half-bad.

Get it here.

Raven by Zoundry

Top photo editing apps for mac. Retouching options include the usual dodge, burn, clone, patch, blemish, and red eye tools, but there’s also an inpainting brush and liquify feature.Other key features:. The professional corrections and adjustments tools rival any other app out there and it has a great noise-reduction filter.

This Windows app is currently open source and wants to be the “best” publishing platform out there.

It’s not there yet but it’s a good try and perhaps you can even make it better if you’ve got the coding skills to help out.

From what I can understand it’s functional and works quite well. Give it a go why don’t you?

You can get a copy of it here.

BlogDesk

A totally free app for you to use it interfaces with WordPress, Drupal, Movable Type, ExpressionEngine, and more.

It’s got an image editing wizard and even sports some support for multiple languages.

And heck, it’s even got a spell-checker? Fancy that.

Best Blogging App For Mac 2017

Get a copy of it here.

wBloggar

wBloggar is a free app that has a few neat features like importing data, posting to multiple blogs, and even set up your FTP to upload images and more.

You can even edit in HTML mode so that you can see what you’re doing in the raw.

Get a copy here.

Apparently they are still working on a refresh of their webpage so you can check out their FAQ for more information.

BlogJet

BlogJet has been described as being a blogging desktop application for Windows on steroids:

BlogJet is a posting screen on steroids. And even that description understates the power of this program. BlogJet is not free […], but its features are worth the price to many power bloggers.

The cost is a bit prohibitive for the average blogger but it’s worth sharing for those that might find it quite useful.

Check it out here.

Qumana

Qumana, besides the different name, is a robust blogging application for both Windows and the Mac although it’s more well-known in the former context than the latter.

Hey, it’s even available for Linux if that’s your kernel of choice.

One of the neatest things about it is the ability to add advertisements right into the system so that you can monetize your blog.

You can check out a copy here.

Rocket Post

This app is currently having some serious website issues but the app itself has been historically robust.

One of the best features from this premium desktop app for Windows is the fact that it can download your entire blog so you can quickly (and locally) edit posts and more.

Now if they could only get their website working properly so you could check it out… Ah, the features page works.

PerfectJournal

This app is built specifically for Blogger (Blogspot) so if you’re looking for a WordPress-specific app then you can just skip over this one.

But, if you’re a user of Google’s Blogger then you might consider this app in the lineup. It integrates well with Blogger and it’s free.

The fact that it enables you to draft while offline is definitely a nice catch.

Check it out here.

WebStory

Take away the pretty bare looking website and you actually have a really decent publishing application!

It has a fairly large following and is used by a number of bloggers.

I personally haven’t tried this one but if the screenshots are true then it might be one of the better ones out there!

Give it a try here.

Thingamablog App

This simple app that’s a bit older is still a goodie and works well for many bloggers. All you need to have is FTP/SFTP access and an internet connection to get started.

It doesn’t necessarily have any significantly-unique features that would call it out above the rest but if you’re interested in trying everything then here’s one more for your list.

Get a copy here.

Post2Blog

This app is very similar to the previous app in that it’s not supported much any more but worth a look if you’re interested in testing out multiple different apps.

It’s free to download and try and can even help with image uploading from Flickr and even insert affiliate links from Amazon.

A nice touch, if I do say so myself.

Get a copy here.

WB Editor

Another windows-based app it sports a WYSIWYG editor and let’s you save offline drafts.

You can even moderate comments via some of the supported blogging platforms.

It’s not free so that’ll stop many people from using it but it’s worth a shot if you’ve got a few bucks to spare.

Check it out here.

NewzCrawler

This app is somewhat different in that it’s both a blog client as well as a RSS Reader client. You can get updates from your favorite new sources and then write about them.

But, it only supports Blogger, MetaWeblog, MovableType, and LiveJournal at this point in time. Not a big problem if your a WordPress user since I believe there are better apps out there.

Take a look if you’re interested.

Mac Blogging & Writing Apps

If you’re a Mac user like me (Macbook Air all the way!) then you might want to try some of these apps listed below for your writing needs that specifically connect to WordPress, Blogger, etc. Check them out!

Desk

This one is the app that I always wish I had… and so I eventually built it myself!

It combines the power of a fully native desktop publishing client with the focused writing interface that helps you concentrate on what really matters: Writing.

I hope you love it as much as I have enjoyed building it!

Get it here!

Ecto

This app is one of the top Mac-based apps that you could get to help you manage and create content for your blogs.

It supports the major blogging platforms that you’re using and feel comfortable knowing that tons of people have been using it with satisfaction.

It’s not a free app but it might just be money well spent.

Get it here. And guess what? It’s also available for Windows.

MarsEdit 3

This app is a close competitor to Ecto listed above. It supports your favorite blogging platform and the interface is intuitive and clean.

I’ve had many people convert to this application simply because of the UI, by the way, and so if that’s a big deal then you might have found a winner.

And hey, you can’t beat that logo, right? Personally I felt like this app edged out Ecto slightly in my use of it.

Check it out here.

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Blogo

One of the nice things about Blogo, another very competitive product for your desktop blogging needs, is the ability to do full-screen writing.

Other than that it’s very comparable to MarsEdit and Ecto in form and function. Actually, I take that back – the form is a bit different (and that’s why some people like it better).

It’s not free but it’s worth it if you find that you love it.

Get it here.

MacJournal

This app is another great app on the list that many have found to do everything they need to do and more. A much more robust app than just a blogging system you might find use for it in other contexts.

The screenshots can paint a larger picture of what you will be getting with this much larger desktop app.

It’s not free but it might be worth it.

Check it out here.

RapidWeaver

This app is generally know for helping people create websites and the like and has won a number of outstanding awards for it’s great feature-set and easy-to-use interface.

But, someone has been clever enough to create a plugin that allows you to publish to WordPress and a number of different blogging platforms.

I won’t necessarily recommend buying RapidWeaver for just your blogging needs but if you need the other features that RapidWeaver offers then it might be a good buy.

Check it out here.

iBlog

This is one of those apps that looks pretty sweet but I wish they’d update it since I feel it’s a bit outdated.

But it’s worth mentioning in this comprehensive lineup as a free alternative.

The screenshot on the homepage gives you a good feel of where you might be taken with this app but I’d recommend one of the paid apps above before committing to this app wholesale.

Check it out here.

Web Apps for Blogging and Writing

Love the web way too much to give a desktop-based application any love? Then you’ll want to try these neat services that can connect directly to your blog.

ScribeFire

This web-based app is seriously impressive allowing you to blog directly in your browser and connecting to your blog seamlessly.

It’s available for every major web browser too (except IE, sorry!) and you’ll be able to blog with speed very quickly.

You almost have to try it at least once to appreciate this work of art in an app!

Get it here.

Deepest Sender

This app is very similar to ScribeFire listed above but is just Firefox specific. The interface is quick and functional and for some people this is exactly what they need.

It has some unique features like Music Detection that can detect if a song is playing and insert the details of the song for you.

Pretty neat. Download it here.

Best Blogging App For Mac Download

Bonus! Linux Apps

Why not, right? Here are a few that you might want to check out if you’re a Linux user.

Gnome Blog

This is pretty much your most stripped-down and bare blogging app that lets you just publish with speed.

It’s got a WYSIWYG editor and that’s about it.

If you’re fan of simplicity this might be the king! Get it done quick and easy. Sweet.

Get it here.

QTM

QTM is also another Linux app that’s pretty barebones. You will need the QT graphical user interface to use this app, so just an FYI.

If you’re up for it give it a try – you might just have found a new love.

Or maybe not.

Get it here.

Drivel Blog Editor

Drivel is a GNOME client for working with blogging platforms like LiveJournal, Blogger, MovableType, WordPress and Drupal.

Simple, elegant design as well as a simple feature set make it a good choice to review.

Best Blogging App For Mac Software

One of the nice things is an automatic recovery if it crashes. That’s pretty sweet but hopefully you’ll never have to use it, right?

Get it here.

BloGTK

This open source app is a weblog client that allows you to post to your weblog from GNOME without the need for a separate browser window.

BloGTK allows you to connect with many weblog systems such as Blogger, Movable Type, WordPress, and more.

BloGTK is written using Python and PyGTK, and is designed to be fast and simple to use.

Check it out here if you want.

KBlogger

This is a blogging application for the K Destkop Environment. With integration in the KDE Kicker and it is also available as a standalone application for KDE 4.

It can connect to Blogger, WordPress, MetaWeblog API, MovableType, and more.

It’s currently in “Alpha” so don’t bank on it forever.

Check it out here.

Got any that I’m missing? Please let me know!

And, of course, which ones do you use?

[This is part of the Developing Great Blog Content Series.]

By some metrics, WordPress powers just over 25% of the world’s websites.

That’s not too terribly surprising; WordPress is a flexible content management system (CMS) that can power anything from a blog to a company website, including those with e-commerce components.

In fact, this very website runs on WordPress, as does my own blog. I’ve used it for years to manage these projects, websites for freelance clients, and more.

Over the years, WordPress’ backend has become much easier to use. I can log in to my website from any browser in the world to publish new articles, add content to pages, and upload media to share.

However, I’m a Mac user through and through. I spend most of my workday in front of a 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display, and would rather use a rich, native macOS app than a web app any day of the week.

Thankfully, there are several WordPress clients for the Mac. These apps allow me to write and publish articles directly from macOS without the need to fire up a browser. These applications won’t surface things like WordPress’ widget or menu settings, but should make publishing new content as frictionless as possible.

Wait. There’s a Bonus….

Custom Productivity Templates

We have a set of custom productivity templates that work well with the iPad app, GoodNotes. And if you want to try them out, we’ve put together a free guide that can help you.

We’ll show you…

• How to create and save custom page templates in GoodNotes.
• How to use those page templates to transform GoodNotes into your own productivity notebook (or any other type of notebook replacement).

Plus, we also have included a couple of our custom productivity templates for you to get started with. These templates are right out of our popular productivity course.

The custom templates and the guide are available for FREE to our email subscriber community. And you can get it right now. By joining the Sweet Setup community you’ll also get access to our other guides, early previews to big new reviews and workflow articles we are working on, weekly roundups of our best content, and more.

Things to Consider

In looking at which WordPress client is the best, there are several criteria to review:

• Design – A good WordPress client for the Mac should be a good Mac app. It should be fast, stable, and conform to system norms found in other macOS applications.
• Flexibility – WordPress can be configured in a bunch of different ways, and a WordPress client should be able to adapt to different installations easily.
• Price – I’m not super concerned with price for this review. I’m willing to pay for an application I will use numerous times a day. In fact, I’d rather pay for something I depend on than have it disappear or fall out of date because the developer can’t afford to keep it going.

A Quick Sidebar

The universe of WordPress can be broken into two main worlds:

• WordPress.org: This is the free, open-source software that you can install on your own server. It’s often referred to as “self-hosted” WordPress, and it’s what The Sweet Setup and many other independent websites use.
• WordPress.com: This is what is called “hosted” WordPress. This is more akin to something like Squarespace or Tumblr, where your website and all of its content are hosted by the company that made the platform. While the self-hosted WordPress software is free, a WordPress.com website can be as much as $25/month.

Different WordPress clients treat these two worlds differently, and that will be noted throughout the rest of the review.

Our pick: MarsEdit

MarsEdit is a name that has been around the Mac world for a long time. Originally part of NetNewsWire, the application has been part of Red Sweater Software for many years.

MarsEdit supports numerous blogging platforms beyond WordPress, including Blogger and Movable Type. We’ll be focusing on the first, but its ability to work with different content management systems is impressive.

Best Blogging App For Mac Pro

Setup

Getting started with MarsEdit and WordPress is simple. At first launch, the application will prompt you to log in with your blog’s credentials.

For WordPress, this is the same user name and password you use to log in to your website on the web. (You will be asked to provide the URL of your website, too.) This login information is stored securely in your Mac’s keychain, and is never synced to another device or server.

If you don’t yet have a WordPress site, MarsEdit can direct you to setting up a WordPress.com account.

Once logged in, you will be presented with a list of your most recent blog posts:

If this looks familiar, it should. MarsEdit’s user interface isn’t all that unlike macOS’ built-in Mail application. That’s a plus in our book.

Creating a New Post

Posting a new blog post in MarsEdit is as simple as composing an email.

Clicking New Post from the app’s toolbar will bring up the post editor:

Note: MarsEdit allows for rich text editing, like Mail. If you use bold text in the editor, the text will be bold on your website and so on. However, the application will also take HTML text if you prefer to write in HTML or Markdown, as I do. When you start your first new post, you will be asked which the program should use.

In the main section of the window, you’ll enter the post’s headline, any tags you wish to use, and then of course, the content.

You can write directly within MarsEdit, or paste content in from an external editor, such as Byword.

Down the right side of the window, you’ll see your blog’s categories. These are fetched from your website, and if you opt to create a new category within MarsEdit, it will be added to your blog automatically.

Under the category list, you can set several other parameters for your post:

• Featured Image: If your blog’s theme supports it, you can add this image here directly via drag-and-drop
• Post status: Draft, Private, Published
• Author: Select a writer for your post, if your site supports multiple authors
• Comments: None, Open or Closed. If you have comments visible on your blog, it’s important to select the correct option.
• TrackBacks: This notifies other WordPress sites that you have linked to them within your post.

Once you have your content in, you can preview the post by clicking the Preview toolbar item.

To add a photo to a post, click Media in the toolbar, and MarsEdit’s Media Manager will open. Here, you can select images from your Mac’s hard drive to upload with your new post:

Once your desired image is selected, you can tell MarsEdit how to style it (left-align, right-align, etc), and you can change the file name and Alt. Text as desired.

Additionally, you can set the size of the image. You can set the width, and the height will be automatically set. If you select Treat as Retina image, MarsEdit will halve the size of the image, as explained in this support document:

If you want a 400×400 image on your blog to look nice on Retina displays, just supply an image at least 800×800 and check the Treat as Retina image checkbox. MarsEdit will produce the expected HTML and upload the image at twice the width and height.

Very clever.

Once everything is just right, publishing to your WordPress site is as simple as pressing Send to Blog. Alternatively, a post can be saved as a local draft for completion later.

Editing an Existing Post

Editing an existing post is also simple.

Clicking on a post will preview it in the main window; double-clicking will open it in its own window.

Once the editor opens, you can change any text and hit Send to Blog for your changes to be applied to the web.

Advanced Options

Out of the box, MarsEdit will work nicely with most WordPress installations, but if you’ve customized your blog, the program can be adapted to just about anything.

To see your blog’s settings, right-click on its name in the main window, and a new pop-up will open.

I won’t walk through all of the possible setting here, but I think a few are worth mentioning:

The latest version of MarsEdit includes an automatic Dark Mode that follows the macOS preference. It’s subtle, but we like that MarsEdit matches the rest of our windows in Dark Mode now.

In the Editing tab, I’ve told MarsEdit to use Markdown when rendering the post preview. Since I write and publish in Markdown, this assures me that I haven’t missed an asterisk or a line break somewhere.

Best Blogging App For Mac Windows 10

For a while, I was publishing posts, having forgotten to set a category. In the Posting tab, I’ve now told MarsEdit to warn me if I try to post without a category selected.

On 512 Pixels, I use a custom field to link to an external source from my post’s headline. This post is a good example:

To make this work, I have a custom WordPress plugin that looks for a URL in the “linked_list_url” field. This is just a little bit of metadata, and MarsEdit can let me add it directly from its new post interface.

Pricing

MarsEdit can be purchased from the Mac App Store for $49.95. The developer also sells the application directly on the web and offers a free 30-day trial. It requires macOS Sierra or later.

The Runners-Up

While MarsEdit has been around a long time, it is not the only WordPress client for the Mac.

Blogo

Blogo offers not only a free Mac app, but an iOS app as well. A monthly subscription of $6.99 unlocks several pro features:

• Support for multiple blogs
• Media search
• Ability to reply to comments from the app
• Syncing drafts with Evernote
• Support for custom fields
• Audience Booster, which will copy your content to Medium

Blogo is laid out well with posts and pages in a single, filterable column, a main content window, and then publishing settings:

As it has an iOS app, it’s easy to think about Blogo as an entire blogging system above or around WordPress. As polished as the user interface is, I find its lack of fine-grained settings frustrating. MarsEdit’s settings panel may be overwhelming to some, but if you’re publishing to a blog, those options are important.

Desk

Desk can be used with self-hosted WordPress accounts as long as you also have a free WordPress.com account set up and associated with it. If you use the popular plugin Jetpack installed, you’re already good to go.

While the app’s interface is certainly more modern looking than MarsEdit’s, I find it to be much more confusing.

Instead of taking a Mail-like approach, Desk wants to create a separate document for each individual post.

Once a new document has been created, it is added to the main timeline, along with other published posts:

(I’d much prefer my drafts and published articles be separated.)

To publish a new post, click the export arrow in the upper-right corner. A new panel slides in, offering several posting options. Unlike MarsEdit, Desk doesn’t offer much in the way of customization here, and lacks support for advanced features like custom fields.

I should note that I had Desk crash repeatedly on my iMac, which was running the most up-to-date version of macOS Sierra.

Desk can be picked up in the Mac App Store for $19.99. If you want something simple, it does look nice, but it’s not for me.

WordPress for Mac

WordPress offers a first-party application. It’s a free download from their website, and is basically a wrapper around the WordPress.com website. If you’re using that option, you’ll be all set, as the Mac app offers almost everything present in the online back-end.

If you have connected your self-hosted WordPress site to the company’s service, then you’ll be able to access your site here as well.

If your WordPress site is close to stock, this is a nice way to publish and edit posts and pages, see site traffic, manage users and plugins, and more.

If you rely on more advanced options like custom fields, this app isn’t really an option.

In Closing

If you’re like me and would rather use a desktop application than a web app to manage your WordPress site, MarsEdit is the best route. It’s full of features, easy to use, and feels right at home on macOS.

Wait. There’s a Bonus….

Custom Productivity Templates

We have a set of custom productivity templates that work well with the iPad app, GoodNotes. And if you want to try them out, we’ve put together a free guide that can help you.

We’ll show you…

• How to create and save custom page templates in GoodNotes.
• How to use those page templates to transform GoodNotes into your own productivity notebook (or any other type of notebook replacement).

Plus, we also have included a couple of our custom productivity templates for you to get started with. These templates are right out of our popular productivity course.

The custom templates and the guide are available for FREE to our email subscriber community. And you can get it right now. By joining the Sweet Setup community you’ll also get access to our other guides, early previews to big new reviews and workflow articles we are working on, weekly roundups of our best content, and more.