Here is an excellent chart summarizing the features of various blogging platforms.

As author Wendy Piersall explains, it focuses on business blogs, or blogs that need customization and will likely carry advertising.

Blog platforms included are:

Wordpress.org
Movable Type
TypePad
Wordpress.com
Blogger
Expression Engine
Squarespace

Wendy also recommends a few hosting companies that she has tried. Critical to her recommendations is that the hosting company has the blogging software and database pre-installed. I also recommend the company that hosts this blog: LivingDot

Features on Wendy's comparison chart include:

Hosting company support, if applicable
Costs
User help features
Ability to add/customize advertising
Statistics
Various sidebar features
Domain mapping (if you can use your own domain name)
Static page creation