はてなブログ (Hatena Blog)
Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
はてなブログ (Hatena Blog) is a Japanese blogging platform run by 株式会社はてな (Hatena Co., Ltd.). The free plan gives you a full-featured blog carrying the platform's own ads; the paid «はてなブログPro» (Hatena Blog Pro) removes those ads and unlocks a custom domain.
The platform describes itself this way: «はてなブログは、無料でしっかり書けるブログサービスです» — "Hatena Blog is a blogging service where you can write seriously for free". The service's slogan is 「思いは言葉に。」 ("thoughts into words").
What sets it apart from Western platforms is that Hatena Blog is built into the company's own ecosystem: はてなブックマーク (Hatena Bookmark) bookmarks, はてなスター (Hatena Star) "stars", the はてなフォトライフ (Hatena Photolife) image host and topic groups. Monetization, on the other hand, is pushed outside — it runs through the third-party service codoc (コードク).
Who's here
Hatena Blog publishes no audience figures on its public pages: we found no MAU, no blog counts and no country breakdown. That should be said plainly — the platform says nothing about its audience.
There is effectively no language choice: the home page, the feed and the editors' picks are all in Japanese; an English version of the site exists (a switcher in the footer), but the feed content stays Japanese. One indirect sign of how local the platform is comes from its domain restrictions: the platform states that because of limitations in the infrastructure it uses, it has suspended accepting new domains in the Russian.ru,.su and.РФ zones, and promises to resume accepting them once that becomes possible.
Who writes here is visible from the sections: the editorial team picks entries daily, and there are interest-based groups, a weekly theme and topic-based collections.
Getting started
The sequence is described in the guide to paid entries and works for any start: first you create a はてなID (Hatena ID), then you confirm registration via a link in the email, after which you land on the blog creation screen.
The terms of use define user statuses: registered users are split into individuals, legal entities and "group" users — the last category is registered by a representative of an unincorporated association in their own name. No age threshold is given as a number, but there is a rule: a minor must obtain the consent of their legal guardian, and completing registration is treated as such consent. Each person is entitled to one main account plus a number of additional ones set by the company.
The number of blogs depends on the plan: up to 3 on the free plan and up to 10 on Pro.
What you can publish
Text, images, embedded posts from third-party services. For illustrators and comic artists the platform specifically calls out the pixiv integration for embedding your own work and buttons for X (Twitter), Facebook and Tumblr. The same page mentions a feature you rarely see elsewhere: «検索避け» ("kensaku-yoke", search avoidance) closes your blog off from search engines with a single button.
The numeric limit worth keeping in mind is the image upload allowance: 300 MB per month on the free plan and 3 GB per month on Pro. Revision history is kept differently depending on plan: the last 5 versions for free and 50 on Pro. Standalone static pages (自己紹介, links) are a paid-plan feature.
The prohibitions are gathered in article 6 of the terms: infringement of copyright and patent rights, invasion of privacy, defamation and insult, fraud, pyramid schemes, unauthorized access to other people's computers; listed separately are discrimination on the grounds of race, nationality, beliefs, gender, social status, place of residence, physical characteristics, medical history, education, property and income; pornography, prostitution and anything connected with the adult entertainment industry.
An important point for marketing: advertising and commercial solicitation are prohibited, except in cases specifically provided for in the help pages and the guidelines of a particular service. In other words, commercial use of a blog is allowed not by default, but under the rules of the relevant section.
How to grow
The platform does not disclose how ranking works. On what helps growth it speaks in general terms: a system that takes SEO into account, and readers arriving from the Hatena community. The specific channels it names are interest-based groups, the "theme of the week" and topic sections, plus the daily editors' picks on the home page.
For paid plans the platform promises something practical: the platform's ads are hidden, so your own ad blocks become more prominent. The requirement for those running Google AdSense: use a "naked" domain with no host name, or a www subdomain. Separately, the company grants Pro for free to open source communities, schools, non-profit organizations and libraries.
Path to monetization
Hatena itself does not pay authors and takes no cut of their earnings — because there is no income inside the platform. Paid entries and subscriptions are built through a partner: the feature for selling entries and creating your own "membership" works in tandem with the codoc service, where anyone can sell content.
The sequence is this: in your blog's external integrations section you link Hatena Blog to a codoc account; in the editor you choose "sell this entry" and place a blue line — everything below it becomes paid; then you set a price for a one-off sale or create a subscription billed monthly or yearly; revenue is visible in the "sales management" section. The two modes can be combined.
The commission is taken by codoc, and codoc publishes it: the usage fee is 0 yen, with no setup or monthly charges; the sales commission is 15 % of the sale amount, payment processing fees included; payout of revenue costs 300 yen per transfer, and you choose when the transfer happens. The service also has a paid plan: codoc pro — 9,800 yen per month, which removes the limits on gifting content and messaging buyers, gives you buyers' email addresses, a private account, a test environment and API access.
The cost of Hatena Blog Pro itself: 1,008 yen for the monthly plan; 8,434 yen for the yearly one (30 % off, about 703 yen per month); 14,400 yen for the two-year one (40 % off, about 600 yen per month). Payment is by credit, debit and prepaid cards.
Tools and automation
There is an official programmatic interface and it is documented: はてなブログAtomPub — an implementation of the Atom Publishing Protocol through which a developer can retrieve, publish, edit and delete blog entries. Supported operations are retrieving the list of entries, creating an entry, reading, updating and deleting an individual entry, the same for static pages, retrieving the list of collections and the list of categories.
Authorization is OAuth, WSSE or Basic; OAuth requires the read_private and write_private permissions, while for Basic the username is your Hatena ID and the password is the API key from the blog's advanced settings. Working with static pages via the API is available only to blogs on paid plans.
Export exists, but it is incomplete, and the platform says so honestly: the export comes in MT (Movable Type) format in UTF-8 encoding and contains only the text of entries and the comments; photos and illustrations have to be saved separately. When moving within Hatena, bookmarks and "stars" do not carry over, and all comments become guest comments.
Limits and rules
- Images. 300 MB per month for free, 3 GB on Pro.
- Blogs and history. 3 and 10 blogs; 5 and 50 saved versions.
- Custom domain. Paid plans only; the .ru, .su and .РФ zones are not accepting new connections.
- Advertising. Commercial solicitation is prohibited except in cases specifically provided for.
- Design. The terms prohibit changing the position and appearance of the standard header, footer, ads and copyright notice, or hiding them, without the company's permission.
- Accounts. One main account per person; inflating bookmark counts and rigging polls from multiple accounts are prohibited. The company has the right to change prices without prior notice.
- Money. The commission on content sales — 15 % at codoc, not at Hatena.
Who it's for
It suits you if you write in Japanese and want a blog you don't have to look after: updates and security are the platform's job, and the two-year plan works out to about 600 yen per month. It suits illustrators: the pixiv integration and the search-avoidance button were built with them in mind.
It suits those who need programmatic access: AtomPub covers publishing and editing, which is enough for scheduling from your own tool.
It is not for you if you are counting on a non-Japanese-speaking audience: the platform's content and its community are Japanese. It is not for you if full export matters: the export does not include images. And it is not for you if you want to earn without an intermediary — the money goes through codoc with its 15 %.
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
About the platform
the platform describes itself this way: «はてなブログは、無料でしっかり書けるブログサービスです。日々の生活から感じたこと、考えたことを書き残しましょう。»
Self-description: this is the platform's claim about itself, not an independent assessment
source, checked 2026-07-28
the operator is 株式会社はてな (Hatena Co., Ltd.); the terms of use are concluded with it
Copyright notice on the service's pages: Copyright (C) 2001-2026 Hatena
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform describes itself this way: «はてなブログは、無料でしっかり書けるブログサービスです» («Hatena Blog is a blogging service where you can write seriously for free»); slogan 「思いは言葉に。」 («omoi wa kotoba ni», «thoughts into words»)
The platform's claim about itself
source, checked 2026-07-28
Account and access
no minimum age is given as a number; a minor must obtain the consent of their legal guardian, and completing registration is treated as such consent
source, checked 2026-07-28
Business terms
advertising and commercial solicitation are prohibited, except in cases specifically provided for in the help pages and the guidelines of a particular service
Commercial use of a blog is allowed not by default but under the rules of the relevant section
source, checked 2026-07-28
Content
the export comes in MT (Movable Type) format in UTF-8 encoding and contains only the text of entries and the comments; photos and illustrations have to be saved separately
When moving within Hatena, bookmarks and «stars» do not carry over and all comments become guest comments
source, checked 2026-07-28
a custom domain is available only on paid plans (Pro, Business, はてなCMS, for DevBlog); no server rental is needed, the author buys the domain themselves; all blogs on a Pro account (up to 10) can have their own domains; the domain name must not contain the string «hatena»
Setup is an A record for a «naked» domain or a CNAME for a subdomain; delivery via Amazon CloudFront
source, checked 2026-07-28
for illustrators and comic artists the platform advertises the pixiv integration for embedding your own work, buttons for X (Twitter), Facebook and Tumblr, and the 検索避け feature («kensaku-yoke», search avoidance) — one button closes the blog off from search engines
source, checked 2026-07-28
Promotion
the platform does not disclose how ranking works; the growth channels it names are a system that takes SEO into account, readers arriving from the Hatena community, interest-based groups, the «theme of the week», topic sections and the daily editors' picks
The platform publishes no ranking rules
source, checked 2026-07-28
Advertising
to install Google AdSense you must use a «naked» domain with no host name, or a www subdomain
On paid plans the platform's ads are hidden, which makes the author's own blocks more prominent
source, checked 2026-07-28
How the money works here
paid entries and subscriptions work not inside Hatena but through the third-party service codoc (コードク): you place a blue line in the editor and everything below it becomes paid; you can set a price for a one-off sale and/or create a subscription billed monthly or yearly
Hatena itself does not pay authors and takes no cut of their earnings
source, checked 2026-07-28
codoc's commission on content sales is 15 % of the sale amount, payment processing fees included; there are no setup or monthly charges; payout of revenue costs 300 yen per transfer, and the author chooses when the transfer happens
KEY CATEGORY FIGURE for Hatena Blog monetization: the 15 % goes to the partner, not to Hatena
source, checked 2026-07-28
Paid subscriptions
the company provides the paid Pro plan free of charge to open source communities, schools and educational institutions, non-profit organizations and libraries
source, checked 2026-07-28
Pricing
はてなブログPro (Hatena Blog Pro): 1 008 yen for the monthly plan; 8 434 yen for the yearly one (30 % off, about 703 yen per month); 14 400 yen for the two-year one (40 % off, about 600 yen per month)
Payment by credit, debit and prepaid cards
source, checked 2026-07-28
Limits and restrictions
free plan versus Pro: image uploads 300 MB per month versus 3 GB; revision history 5 versions versus 50; number of blogs 3 versus 10. Standalone static pages, collaborative editing and a custom domain are Pro-only
source, checked 2026-07-28
without the company's permission it is prohibited to change the position and appearance of the standard header, footer, ads and copyright notice, or to hide them; each person is entitled to one main account; inflating bookmark counts and rigging polls from multiple accounts are prohibited; the company has the right to change prices without prior notice
source, checked 2026-07-28
Restrictions
acceptance of new domains in the .ru, .su and .РФ zones is suspended — the platform explains this by limitations in the infrastructure it uses and promises to resume accepting them
A country-specific detail that matters for Russian-speaking authors
source, checked 2026-07-28
prohibited are infringement of copyright and patent rights, invasion of privacy, defamation and insult, fraud, pyramid schemes, unauthorized access to other people's computers; discrimination on the grounds of race, nationality, beliefs, gender, social status, place of residence, physical characteristics, medical history, education, property and income; pornography, prostitution and anything connected with the adult entertainment industry
Article 6 of the terms of use
source, checked 2026-07-28
API access
the official programmatic interface is はてなブログAtomPub (an implementation of the Atom Publishing Protocol): retrieving the list of entries, creating, reading, updating and deleting an entry; the same for static pages; retrieving the list of collections and categories
Working with static pages via the API is available only to blogs on paid plans
source, checked 2026-07-28
AtomPub authorization is OAuth, WSSE or Basic; OAuth requires the read_private and write_private permissions; for Basic the username is the Hatena ID and the password is the API key from the blog's advanced settings; encoding is UTF-8
The documentation gives no numeric rate limits
source, checked 2026-07-28
Languages
the interface language of the home page: ja
The language is taken from the markup attribute, the versions from hreflang
source, checked 2026-07-28
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