http://www.typepad.com/
Typepad is essentially a hosted version of Movable Type, with some differences
Pros:
- Easy to start
- Easy to customize without technical knowledge
- Spend your time blogging instead of messing with the guts
- Photo albums
Cons
- Limited templates
- Limited customization (in cheaper pricing schemes)
- No third-party plugins (?)
Pricing: http://www.sixapart.com/typepad/compare
- Basic - $4.95 / month
- 1 author, 1 blog, standard templates only, 100M storage
- Plus - $8.95 / month
- 1 author, 3 blogs, customized templates, 500M storage
- Pro - $14.95 / month
- unlimited blogs and authors, full html and css editing, 2G storage
- Free trial: 30 days
- Discounts to pay by year
Design customization is extremely limited at the Basic level and only fully accessible at the Pro level. If you want to run a group blog, or give some people editor access and others publishing access, you must go with the Pro account.
Typepad Plus and Pro do a better job than most blog software at allowing you to configure layout options without having to go into the templates.
Examples: