thanks @McWimmish , I looked at Ghost but could not quite understand their pricing model. Since I do not intend to use the blog to generate any income but I am conscious of how much I need to pay for the blog myself.
The web site mentioned that the starter plan is $9/months based on 500 members. However, as I am just starting, there would not be anything like 500 members, would they pro-rated the charged according to the number, say $0.9/ month for 50 members?
Iām comforted that Micro.blog was created by well known developers in the Mac community. I think iām going to do the trial.
No, I use Ghost and donāt have 500 members. Iām on the $ 9 plan and for me it is just the fee for using the Ghost as a SaaS product (platform + hosting). For me it is worth the price. They offer a trial period. I can help you when you have questions about the platform.
thanks again, let me look into more details about Ghost versus other option. Much appreciate the help
Nice summary. Would only quibble with WP being a one guy operation. On the open source side, the working groups operate independently and Matt only influences them if he pops into a chat to weigh in. Not all of his suggestions are equally good. On the commercial side, Matt may be protecting them from a bad acquisition, but theyāve overall taken money from good investors. IMO theyāve grown far past Tumblr, which was acquired in relatively early days and never had an open source side keeping the whole org honest.
Good point. But if Automattic goes south, those of us looking for an easy, no-fuss blog hosting solution then have to choose among WordPress.org hosting options.
This is all hypothetical. Automattic seems to be in great shape. And Matt seems young and in the prime of health. Long may that continue.
I really wish WordPress.org offered native support for untitled posts, like micro.blog does.
sorry one more question about Ghost. Does your followers have to paid for subscription to your blog unless you grant them a free subscription (every year). So this is not like micro.blog that free users can view / follow other bloggers?
I figure Iām only a one-person operation myself, who might not be here tomorrow, so Iām willing to take the gamble on micro.blog. We will see who falls off the planet first! 
Micro blog isnāt any cheaper than Wordpress com. It also seems more expensive if you want your own domain and that you will need map yourself so you than have to add domain hosting and purchasing to the cost, plus the knowhow on how to map the domain.
You decide if a post is free for everyone, only for subscribers (paid & free) or only for paid subscribers.
this is what I found from their site, seems that the $5/month plan already included own domain nameā¦
Late to this one, but have you looked at silvrback. It is USD35 per year. It is mostly for writers, and one of it advantages is that it only has three templates - so you donāt do that wordpress thing and fiddle and fiddle and fiddle with the theme 
You just get on and write
nick
Bearblog look great, but then I like the simplicity of it.
You might also check out https://write.as/ - it has a streamlined UI, is considerably priced (6$) and has been around for quite some time (7 years). They even offer a 5 five plan that brings down your monthly costs to 3$ (Write.as: 5 Years).
This is what I found in their site:
Map your own personal domain name to your microblog.
Micro.blog
This is their $5 pricing tier. That tells me you need to have purchased your own domain and map it to micro blog. I may be wrong and perhaps someone who uses micro blog can make some comments on this.
The $3 pricing is very attractive but during the trial I run into a few snags
May be someone can point out how I can get around some of the issues I mentioned above
Not sure how much price is a consideration but itās being discussed soā¦
Years ago I settled on MacHighway to host my websitesā¦ around 2005. Iāve had very few issues hosting there in the 17 years since. $2.95/month if you pay for a year. Domain is free the first year I think and then usually $10-$20 per year. Iām currently hosting 16 websites there. Uptime has been nearly 100% and anytime Iāve had an issue itās been relatively minor and resolved quicklyā¦ unrelated to WordPress.
Installing WordPress has almost gone flawlessly for me with just one or two taps and setting username, etc. In my experience getting the initial, functional WordPress site up is just minutes. How complex you choose to make it after that is up to you!
I think the benefit of WordPress is that it can be relatively simple if you donāt fiddle. If you want to fiddle you can. But setting up a blog and setting a few options is easy. The web interface works well on most devices as does the app. They keep the app updated regularly and the WordPress installation on the server letās you know when an update is available.
Thatās a good deal, but it looks like you might be grandfathered into that pricing? Theyāre asking $7/mo to host more than five sites. Someone hosting one or two could still pay $3/mo.
Yeah, my reply assumed just a single site as I assume thatās the norm or at least applied to this case specifically.
Thatās it right there - if you donāt fiddle. If you stick with a stock theme from Automattic or a widely-used paid theme, and avoid installing tons of complex plugins, then updates and such become far less problematic.
The problems come when you have lots of plugins and they donāt play well with others - especially at update time.
