Tistory

Tistory is a free service for publishing blogs, portfolios, and websites, best suited to creators who want a public blog with custom design and domain options. Its useful publishing and team tools come with meaningful constraints around sign-in, advertising, and video.

Overview

Tistory brings publishing, public posts, comments, feeds, and search together, so readers can discover blogs as well as individual posts. Custom domains and code-based skin customization give site owners room to shape a distinct presence without a subscription. That flexibility is most valuable to publishers comfortable adjusting a skin; those seeking a fully separate account or an unattended long-term archive should weigh the Kakao sign-in requirement and three-year inactivity policy.

The service transferred to AXZ Co., Ltd. on December 1, 2025. Accounts with no login for three consecutive years are withdrawn, and their blogs are closed and data deleted. That policy makes regular account access important for anyone using Tistory as a lasting publication.

Key features

Publishing and site design

Members can create blogs, publish content, read public posts, and comment on other members’ work. Owners can connect a custom domain and customize skins with code. Tistory’s skin system applies blog data through design variables, and users can choose from Tistory skins or user-created ones. This offers more control over presentation than a fixed design, but the code-based approach is better suited to people willing to work with site design than to those looking for purely visual, no-code adjustments. Plugins can add functions beyond the built-in blog features.

Team publishing and discovery

Team blogs provide owner, administrator, editor, and author roles, giving collaborators distinct responsibilities. Scheduling and blog analytics support planned publishing and readership tracking. On Android, the app supports writing posts with photos and videos, editing, and spell check; its home tab, feed subscriptions, and search also make it possible to discover blogs and posts from a phone.

Monetization and video

Tistory may place ads and sets their formats, positions, frequency, and revenue attribution. That gives the service control over how advertising appears on a blog, a significant trade-off for publishers who want full control of the reader experience or ad revenue. New Kakao AdFit connections closed on June 29, 2026, while Google AdSense, Dable, and Tenping remain available to connect. The announced AdFit approval criteria for new connections included a blog at least 30 days old, 20 public posts in the prior three months, and an average of 500 daily page views.

Direct video uploads ended on February 23, 2026. Publishers can embed videos hosted on services such as YouTube, but a workflow built around uploading video directly to the blog no longer fits.

Pricing

Tistory costs nothing. The free plan has no stated price or usage limits, and it includes the platform’s publishing, custom-domain, skin, scheduling, analytics, and team-blog features described above. This is a strong fit for creators who want to start without a subscription; there is no paid tier described for readers who need additional capacity or service levels.

Platforms

Tistory is available on web, Android, and iOS. The Android app requires Android 8.0 or later; its listing says data is encrypted in transit and users can request data deletion. Mobile writing and discovery are supported on Android, while the service is also accessible through the web and iOS platforms.

Who it's for

Tistory is a good match for independent writers, portfolio owners, and small publishing teams who want a free public site, a custom domain, and control over skin code. Scheduling, analytics, and defined team roles make it practical for publications with a regular workflow. It is a weaker choice for people who do not want a Kakao account, want direct video hosting, need complete control over advertising, or may leave an account unused for three years.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Free access with custom-domain support gives creators a way to establish a distinct site without a subscription.
• Pros: Code-customizable skins, plugins, scheduling, analytics, and four team roles support more than basic solo posting.
• Pros: Web, Android, and iOS access is complemented by Android tools for composing posts and discovering blogs.
• Cons: Kakao account sign-in is required, which rules it out for users who want a separate login.
• Cons: Tistory controls its own ad formats, placements, frequency, and revenue attribution, limiting publishers’ control of monetization.
• Cons: Direct video uploads have ended, so video publishers need an external host and embeds.
• Cons: Three years without a login leads to account withdrawal, blog closure, and data deletion.

Alternatives

Among Blogging Platforms, WordPress.com is a reasonable alternative for someone who wants a free plan with 1 GB of storage, unlimited pages and posts, and basic stats for seven days; its free plan is available on Android and iOS. Hyvor Blogs suits a solo blogger who prefers a paid annual commitment: its Personal plan is €5 a month, billed annually at €50/year, for one user, one blog, and 1GB media storage, with custom domains. Writizzy may suit a creator who wants a free blog with explicit media, analytics-event, and newsletter-subscriber quotas: its Free plan costs nothing and includes 100MB media storage, 10,000 analytics events/mo, 100 newsletter subscribers, and one blog.

Tumblr is an option for publishers who want a service available on Android, iOS, and web, with a paid Tumblr Premium plan at $6.99 a month that renews automatically until canceled. Publii is a free, open-source desktop option for people who prefer Linux, macOS, or Windows software licensed under GPL-3.0. Edublogs has a free plan with 256 MB storage, 50 posts and pages daily, and a 30 MB maximum file size, which may suit users who can work within those caps. Hatena Blog offers a free plan with three blogs, 300 MB monthly photo uploads, and five article revision histories. WordPress is free, open-source self-hosted software for people prepared to provide their own hosting and domain.

Verdict

Choose Tistory if you want a free public blog with custom-domain support, code-level skin control, and useful tools for scheduled or team publishing. The strongest reason to look elsewhere is the combination of Kakao-only sign-in, Tistory-controlled advertising, and the end of direct video uploads; that makes it a less suitable home for publishers who need independent account access, full ad control, or native video hosting.