Is there a good / acceptable blog-publishing application on Mac OS X?

Question

On Windows, there is the pretty good Windows Live Writer. I have always been told that there is no equivalent on Mac.

What would be the best alternative?

Some details about pros/cons, missing features, cool tips would be appreciated. I will make this question community wiki.

Answer 1

One of the best applications is MarsEdit (40$) by Red Sweater Software. It supports many blog types (including Tumblr), and allows both HTML and Rich Text editing. I think it also allows editing Wordpress pages and not only blog posts. It handles image uploading, editing of posts and supports multiple blogs.

Some of the cons of MarsEdit are its HTML editing shortcuts and macros which are a little uncomfortable and a bit too little.

If you're comfortable with HTML, then the known TextMate text editor can also be used as an editor for blog posts and then you can either copy/paste from there or use a blogging bundle which will let you upload from there. TextMate can also show you live preview of your HTML in a separate window.

Of course, being a specialized application, MarsEdit is more feature rich in the blogging sense but TextMate has a better editor (obviously).

Answer 2

Blogo, which was discontinued earlier, is back again. If you are on a Mac looking for a blog editor app, you should try it. You can download the beta for free at:

http://www.getblogo.com

There is also a cross platform solution called BlueGriffon that looks promising.

My current recommendation and favorite is Blogo.

Easily publish text, images, videos, slideshows and more. With a simple, intuitive interface and support for Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad, Typo, Drupal, Joomla, and Expression Engine, Blogo is the best way to maintain your blog and spread the word with Twitter, Ping.fm and other supported services.

It also supports Twitter.

The closest to WLW would be Ecto, but active development seems to have stopped.

Answer 3

I have heard great things about MarsEdit, but have never used it myself. One that I have used quite a bit is MacJournal, which I know has blog-publishing support (in addition to functioning as a journal and/or notebook, which is what I mostly use it for). Without having put a lot of effort into figuring it out, I do feel like formatting posts can be a bit of a hassle in MacJournal, but I have used it for LJ publishing with okay results. All in all, I have probably heard more good things about MarsEdit for blog-publishing, but figured MacJournal deserved being mentioned, at least, as an alternative.

Answer 4

Byword 2

In Byword 2, you can publish your Markdown content directly to blogs such as WordPress (both self-hosted and WordPress.com), and Tumblr.

Answer 5

Qumana

This simple desktop editing tool allows you to write and save posts to your hard drive, while also posting to any of your blogs, anywhere. Never lose a post again.

Thingamablog

A cross-platform (Linux, Mac, Windows), standalone blogging application that makes authoring and publishing your weblogs almost effortless. Unlike most blogging solutions, Thingamablog does NOT require a third-party blogging host, a cgi/php enabled web host, or a MySQL database. In fact, all you need to setup, and manage, a blog with Thingamablog is FTP, SFTP, or network access to a web server.

PixelPumper

With PixelPumper, you can now create, edit and publish your blog posts directly from OS X in a beautiful retina display interface. It doesn't matter if you host your blog on WordPress.com or self-host, PixelPumper allows you to post to either.

Just like Live Writer helps you update your WordPress blogs easily while still being inside your desktop environment and not opening the browser. The app is available for free in the Mac App Store and measures only about 4.8 MB in size.

Edit

Also of interest is Ghost:

More information about it can be seen from its Kickstarter campaign and Official website.

Answer 6

If you are using Markdown, you can try WordMark. It supports publishing to Wordpress, Ghost, Evernote, Blogger, and so on..

Answer 7

SmartXBlog is desktop blog editor for both Windows and Mac. It has WYSIWYG editor, image editor, online content search and RSS feed available from nearly 100 popular websites and you can even add your own RSS and drag and drop your result to editor. I think it is best available blogging desktop editor for Windows and Mac.