What it is and how to join it

Tumblr combines microblogging, which focuses on text and multimedia posting, with some aspects of social media. Content posted to Tumblr is generally longer and richer than what is shared in a single Twitter post. In this way, Tumblr is more like Blogger or Medium that focuses more on creating a personal page. Tumblr posts can include text, photos, video and audio, live streaming content, and more. Because of its focus on multimedia, Tumblr is often used by writers, artists, musicians, and other creatives to share their work.

Users can comment on posts. Tumblr makes it easy to share someone else’s posts, often with comments or additional content added by the person doing the sharing. Blogs can be public or private, and users can have more than one blog.

Users can follow each other’s blogs, and then the latest updates from the blogs being followed are displayed in a dashboard interface similar to a timeline on Twitter or Facebook.

How many people use Tumblr?

Tumblr doesn’t provide much information about how many people are using the site. Tumblr claims there are over 500 million blogs on the platform (although a user can have more than one blog), but not much more. Some estimates put Tumblr as high as 375 million monthly visits. For comparison, the same estimates say that Facebook gets about 11 billion monthly visits.

Does Tumblr ban adult content?

No, but with some exceptions.

For many years, Tumblr was a free-for-all platform that allowed almost all types of legal content, including sexually explicit content. In 2018, the platform banned adult content while owned by Verizon. This decision sparked a significant backlash from users and contributed to a decline in usage of the platform, with some users even deleting their Tumblr accounts.

In 2022, Tumblr’s new owner — Automattic, which also owns blogging platform WordPress — reversed that decision, allowing nudity and other adult content but maintaining a ban on explicit sex.

Individual blogs can be flagged as adult or adult content, and users can set their preferences to filter out such content.

How do I join Tumblr?

Just go to the Tumblr login page and create an account using your email address, Google account, Apple ID or Twitter ID. Once you’ve done that, you can start creating blogs, commenting on other people’s posts, and more.

How much does Tumblr cost?

In general, Tumblr is free. You can create your own blogs, read other people’s posts and generally use all the major features of the platform without paying for it.

Tumblr is mostly ad-supported, but there are some paid features. Users can pay to remove ads from their experience. The site offers “important blue internet ticks” — which mocks Twitter’s account verification system but doesn’t seem to do much. Tumblr Blaze lets you pay to show your posts to users who wouldn’t otherwise see them. Users can also purchase credits, which can be given as recognition for users live streaming content.

How does Tumblr compare to Twitter?

So is Tumblr a social media site?

While Tumblr isn’t a direct replacement for social networks like Twitter, it’s a rich, full-featured platform with a sizeable community. The combination of audience and features, especially the emphasis on multimedia, makes it a great choice for users who have more to say than Twitter’s 240-character limit.