Tumblrvs
Pinterest
Pinterest: If you want visual discovery and planning rather than a blogging and reblog culture
Tumblr
Blogging and fandom platform owned by Automattic after being sold off by Verizon for a fraction of what Yahoo paid for it
As of 1 September 2026, Tumblr is free to use. A microblogging and fandom-community platform that survived being passed between owners and is now run by Automattic, the company behind WordPress. Softwr lists it under Social Media. Tumblr is made by Automattic, available on iOS, Android, Web.
Overview
What Tumblr does
Tumblr lets users run short-form blogs mixing text, images, GIFs and reblogged content from other users, with a strong culture around fandom, art and niche interest communities that has persisted even as the platforms broader relevance has declined. Following, reblogging and tagging form the core interaction model rather than a strict algorithmic feed, though algorithmic recommendation has been added over time. The fact that matters is ownership history. Yahoo bought Tumblr in 2013 for about 1.1 billion dollars, Verizon inherited it through the Yahoo acquisition, and Verizon sold it to Automattic in 2019 for a reported price in the low single-digit millions, a steep drop that reflected years of user decline, partly triggered by a 2018 ban on adult content that alienated a significant part of its community. Automattic, which also runs WordPress.com and acquired Day One and Pocket Casts, has run Tumblr as a smaller, more stable property rather than pushing aggressive growth. Buyers of this fact are users and communities, particularly fandom, art and niche interest groups, who value Tumblr specifically for its culture and want to understand that it is a maintained but not growth-prioritised platform under its current owner.
What people use it for
- A fandom or fan-art community that has stayed on Tumblr specifically for its reblog and tagging culture
- A writer or artist wanting a free, lightly customisable blog rather than a full website
- Someone researching how a platform behaves after a steep ownership devaluation and reduced investment
- A brand targeting niche fandom or subculture audiences that remain concentrated on Tumblr rather than mainstream platforms
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Tumblr.
- User growth has been flat to declining for years, and the platform receives comparatively little product investment relative to competitors, so new features arrive slowly.
- A 2018 ban on adult content drove away a significant part of the user base and community trust that has not fully recovered, even after some policy softening later.
- Discovery and reach for new accounts is weaker than on algorithm-first platforms, so building an audience from zero is slower than on Instagram or TikTok.
- The sharp drop in Tumblrs sale price between 2013 and 2019 signals real risk around long-term platform stability and continued investment under any given owner.
- Moderation and safety tooling has historically lagged larger platforms, which matters for anyone running a brand presence that needs reliable content moderation support.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Tumblr
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- TumblrvsX
X: If you want real-time public discussion rather than a slower blogging format
Pricing
What Tumblr costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Tumblr
Free
- Free blogging, following and reblogging
Ad-Free Browsing
$4.99 /mo
- Removes ads from the browsing experience
Capabilities
Features
Reblogging
Content propagates through reblogs and tags rather than a pure follower feed
Tumblr Blaze
Paid post promotion tool for boosting reach
Ad-free browsing
Optional paid subscription removing ads
Custom blog themes
HTML and CSS level customisation of a blogs appearance
Community labels
Content warning and community label tools for sensitive content
Post editor
Rich text, image, video and audio post types
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Who owns Tumblr now?
Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, which bought it from Verizon in 2019.
Is Tumblr still free?
Yes. An optional ad-free subscription and paid post promotion, Tumblr Blaze, exist, but the core platform is free.
Why did Tumblrs value drop so much between 2013 and 2019?
Years of user decline, accelerated by a 2018 ban on adult content that alienated a large part of its community, left it worth a small fraction of what Yahoo paid.
Keep looking
Where to go from Tumblr
- Tumblr alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Tumblr pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Tumblr badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Social Media softwareThe full category
- Best Social Media softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Social Media software for
Compare Tumblr with
- X
- Snapchat
- Sprinklr
- Synthesio
- Khoros
- DALL-E
- Brandwatch
- Runway
- Midjourney
- Determ
- Opus Clip
- Rival IQ
- Shapr
- SocialPilot
- Khoros
Other Social Media software
The renamed and restructured Twitter, now merged into Elon Musks xAI, with paid verification and metered API access
Free plan10 researched notesVisual discovery and bookmarking platform monetised through advertising and shopping links, run as an independent public company
Free plan10 researched notesEnterprise social intelligence platform owned by Ipsos, with market research methodology behind it
Pricing on request12 researched notesEnterprise social media management and branded community platform, now owned by IgniteTech
Pricing on request13 researched notesMedia monitoring and PR intelligence with published European pricing and unlimited users on every plan
From €99/mo12 researched notesAI tool cutting long videos into short vertical clips with captions for social
Free, then $15/mo11 researched notesCompetitive social media analytics and benchmarking with published, self-service pricing
From $239/mo12 researched notesSocial media scheduling and management for agencies and small teams
From $20/mo11 researched notesMeta's social network app, free to use and monetised entirely through targeted advertising
Free plan9 researched notesEnterprise social media management and branded community platform, now owned by IgniteTech
Pricing on request13 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Tumblr, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Tumblr
Tumblr alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Tumblr pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Tumblr
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Tumblr badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best Social Media software alternatives
The renamed and restructured Twitter, now merged into Elon Musks xAI, with paid verification and metered API access
Free to use, paid X Premium tiers and metered developer APIVisual discovery and bookmarking platform monetised through advertising and shopping links, run as an independent public company
Free for users, advertising revenue from businessesMeta's social network app, free to use and monetised entirely through targeted advertising
Free, funded entirely by targeted advertisingEnterprise social media management and branded community platform, now owned by IgniteTech
quote
Social media publishing, inbox and moderation with rule-based comment hiding built in
Per user per monthCompetitive social media analytics and benchmarking with published, self-service pricing
Per month by tracked company count
Social listening with published prices and no per-seat charge on the top tier
Per month by mention volume