Mac Blogging Applications: Comparison and Recommendations

	ecto	Frequency	viJournal	BlogStudio	iBlog	Tangelo
Current Version	1.1.5 (May 26, 2004)	2.0 (April 6, 2004)	1.2 (May 12, 2004)	1.0.4 (April 27, 2004)	1.3.6 (April 12, 2004)	1.0b4 (May 25, 2004)
Cost	US$17.95	US$19.00	US$10.00	US$20.00	US$19.95	n/a
Compatibility	Blogger API, metaWeblog API, Movable Type API	Blogger API, metaWeblog API	Blogger, LiveJournal	.Mac	.Mac, WebDAV, FTP, AFP	FTP

Of the six blogging applications in this review, three were classified as Standalone Blog Applications, while the other three were classified as Weblog Client Applications. Since these applications exist for different purposes, it is not feasible to compare between the two categories. I can, however, compare within each category.

This category included BlogStudio, iBlog, and Tangelo. Tangelo is the newest of the category, and in fact is still in its initial beta testing stages. Because of this, we can't fairly compare it to the other applications. However, it did manage to hold its own in terms of ease of setup and use. BlogStudio and iBlog had similar feature sets - iLife integration, graphical management of the blog's look and feel, and the ability to upload to remote services. BlogStudio is only capable of working directly with a .Mac account, while iBlog can also upload its blog files to FTP, WebDAV or AFP servers, or save them to your local drive. BlogStudio, on the other hand, offers a more iLife-like interface, particularly when it comes to creating new entries with music or photos. I believe that Mac users will be most at home with BlogStudio, so I would recommend it if you have a .Mac account, and would like to set up your own blog. However, if you do not have a .Mac account, or for some reason do not want to host your site on .Mac, iBlog would be your next best bet. In the meantime, keep an eye on Tangelo, as it looks promising.

This category included ecto, Frequency, and viJournal. viJournal's blogging capabilities are not integrated well enough into the application for us to recommend it. Although this may be by design, it nonetheless severely limits its usefulness as a blogging application. Frequency may be useful if you need a solution that works exactly the same on Windows and the Mac OS, but its feature set was fairly limited, and it did not have a Mac-like look and feel which many Mac users would expect. ecto stood far above the other clients in this category with its powerful feature set, great Mac OS interface, seamless management of blogs and blog entries. I would highly recommend ecto to anyone looking to manage a remote weblog.