Blogging is on the rise these days and WordPress is the platform of choice for almost everyone. But what about the ones who have a hosting account on a Windows server and want to run a blogging engine based on ASP.Net? The answer is BlogEngine.NET which is an open source .NET blogging platform based on ASP.NET. BlogEngine.NET is highly customizable and takes advantage of the latest .NET features.

From the BlogEngine.NET official website:

BlogEngine.NET was designed using the current .NET framework and focused on simplicity, ease of extendibility, and innovative features. With BlogEngine.NET, we hope to create the natural blog of choice for all .NET developers world wide.

The BlogEngine.NET platform is 'Plug n Play' - that is upload the BlogEngine.NET files to your webserver and you are done, No database configuration! It supports AJAX comments, screenshot trackbacks, social bookmarks, OpenSearch, XFN tags, Gravatars, coComments, tag cloud, Google sitemap and other so called Web 2.0 features. You enter all your blog content using the bundled TinyMCE Editor. You might also like to see a detailed list of features.

You can extend BlogEngine.NET functionality and looks using extensions and themes. Since BlogEngine.NET is built from the ground up using nothing but C# and ASP.NET 2.0, if you are a .NET developer, you can write new controls and themes by using the skills you already have.