livedoor Blog
Depends
Confidence: Medium
A fine free pick for casual, Japanese-language personal blogs and hobby communities.
Comparison
livedoor Blog and Hatena Blog both land on Depends.
A fine free pick for casual, Japanese-language personal blogs and hobby communities.
Buy it if you write in Japanese and want a free, low-fuss blog . it's the default choice for Japan-focused writers.
| Compare | livedoor Blog | Hatena Blog |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | Casual personal blogs in Japan | Japanese-language personal bloggers |
| Who it's not for | Businesses needing content ownership or portability | Global or English-first brands chasing mass reach |
| Privacy | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.⁶ | One takeover-risk finding flagged by researchers; no public security page; no known CVEs. |
| Support quality | No support evidence in sources. | No support evidence in sources |
| Public sentiment | Sources show a low iOS rating with user complaints, while the platform remains widely used in Japan's blogging scene.⁴ | Users and analysts treat Hatena Blog as the reliable free default for Japanese writing, but niche rather than mass-market.15 |
| Biggest gotcha | Defamation or spam comment removal goes through formal requests, not self-serve moderation⁵ | Hatena Group was shut down entirely in 2020 . platform sunset risk is real |