There are so many blogging platforms out there now days, how do you know which one to choose? I've spent many years writing blogs on WordPress and I've also recently started using has Hashnode. Here's my honest opinion on which one is best. Full disclosure: I've only been using Hashnode for about a week so I may not be aware of all the features it has to offer yet.
Layout
WordPress has a pretty intuitive block layout. It's very quick to pick up and it makes moving elements around on the page easy. It can be a bit fiddly for doing things like wrapping text around images but once you figure out how it's done it's easy to repeat.
The layout in Hashnode is created with markdown which is great if you already know it but is a bit of a learning curve if you don't. That being said, it is very easy to pick up and there's a helpful guide that's built into the editor. I find writing in markdown much easier for things like writing code snippets and embedding content but things like justifying and wrapping text around images are more difficult and not included in the guide.
Reach
Hashnode is created for the developer community and so it is easier to find readers on the platform that are interested in your content. I've already made some connections on the site in the week that I've been here. My posts are also getting seen by more people. I've had over 150 views in my first week whereas over on WordPress it was not uncommon for me to be getting around 20.
While we're on the topic of stats, the stats and analytics on WordPress are more detailed and give information such as the country the visit was from and whether it came internally from WordPress or a search engine. Hashnode has a much simpler layout with views broken down by days and blog posts.
Customization
When it comes to the appearance of your blog Hashnode has some basic ways of customizing how it looks. You can change the color of the header, upload a logo and favicon, and choose if you want a stacked, grid or magazine layout.
WordPress goes a lot further in the ways in which you can customize your blog. This shouldn't be surprising as WordPress is a website builder as well as a blogging platform so there are lots of options to change how your blog appears. WordPress also incudes 100s of prebuild themes which you can go on to customize.
Domain Name
One of the big advantages of Hashnode in many people's eyes is that it allows you to use a custom domain name. By default you will be given a yourdomain.hashnode.dev subdomain but you can also use your own domain to host your Hashnode blog with a yourdomain.tld domain. This frees you from becoming dependent on a blogging platform and allows you to build up your SEO over time. As a bonus, even if you are blogging on your own domain your articles will still show up in Hashnodes newsfeed which will allow you to grow your readership there.
Conclusion
WordPress is great if you want to build a simple website, or you want lots of customizable themes. It's also good for diving down into your stats if that's what you're into. I still have a blog over on WordPress where I share notes on non-fiction books that I've read. But as you can probably guess by the fact that you're reading this on Hashnode, I think it's the best platform for blogging about tech and programming.