WordPress vs. Blogger is a choice that should be made preferably before you begin blogging. It is possible to change your blogging platform, but making a decision first would save you time and money.
Here is a list of the pros for both WordPress and Blogger:
WordPress –
- Because of plugins and continued upgrades, you have a lot of flexibility with your blog. Plugins allow you to create and change the appearance of your blog, the data you collect, the type of comments you allow, and much more.
- When you have a self-hosted WordPress blog on its own domain it looks professional. You are investing money into your business.
- Your comments can be backlinks to other blogs, especially if you use plugins, such as KeywordLuv, to allow them to be. This will encourage more comments on your blog.
- There are so many free themes or templates to choose. You can change the look of your blog with just a click.
- Paid themes are available also. Most often those themes are SEO enabled.
- Easy to use after you have your blog set up. You may need assistance with this. Once you sign into your wordpress dashboard, just follow the directions to write, edit and post.
- Options for post permalinks. You can choose to include the date, a numeric or a custom permalink. This choice is important for search and SEO.
- Options for your home page, including your header, widgets, links, etc. With plugins, there are more options.
- Categories are easy to create.
- There are many blogs and forums to assist you with your WordPress blog.
Blogger –
- It is completely free to use.
- It is simple to use especially for a newbie.
- Blogger themes are free. You can purchase customized themes also.
- Since Blogger is hosted by Google, it is indexed within 24 hours of beginning your blog.
- You can customize your own domain name or purchase it through Google. You do not own the domain name, Google does.
- There are many blogs and forums that can assist you with your Blogger blog.
Please note that the term WordPress means a self-hoted blog on its own domain, not WordPress.com. This is another free blogging platform and has restrictions on selling ads and making money. The Terms of Service are very clear about this.
The battle goes on over WordPress vs. Blogger. There are fans for both. Often a newbie will begin with Blogger in order to save money and while deciding if blogging is something they want to continue. Monetizing blogs often creates the need for a change too. What platform do you use and why do you like it?
ConnieFoggles
22 comments on “WordPress Vs. Blogger”
I use blogger, though I wish I had started with WordPress. As you stated, a selfhosted wordpress blog looks much more professional, and there are so many add ons that I am jealous of. Now, almost two years into my blogging career, I know I’m here to stay. Though I’m nervous of switching to wordpress. I know the ins and outs of blogger, I can customize any template using html to meet my needs…I guess I’m scared of starting over.
Though I would love for someone to come up with a comment form for blogger that shows the last post of the person commenting.
While I do use WordPress AND Blogger sites, my primary choice is Drupal. I do my own web admin, so I can handle it technically, and I like all the different capabilities it offers.
I am your arch-typical newbie aspiring to build an internet business, initially in affiliate marketing.
I choose wordpress mainly because of it’s autonomy, it is mine not flooded with third party adverts and the range of tools is huge.
Although being self taught it has taken me only one month to achieve page 1 on Google with one keyword but for other newbie hopefuls who may be reading this is only the first step of a marathon. I still have no traffic; major problem but hope springs eternal and with superb support from WordPress.org and countless
Youtube tutorials traffic will eventually flow.
I started out with Blogger and still miss it – it was user friendly and SIMPLE to learn.
WordPress has never been easy for me to use or understand even though I’ve used it for a couple of years. The whole ‘FTP’ thing is too complicated (for me) and I tend to stay away from making changes to the setup, or trying to add plug-ins unless they are absolutely necessary. The FAQ’s and directions are long and involved and only raise more questions that I can’t figure out – LOL – aren’t you glad you asked???
I would never recommend WP to a newbie blogger although it is the best way to go if you want to monetize your blog.
I have used Bloggers in the beginning of blogging, but I runaway to WordPress.com , I feel more comfort… then I jumped to self-hosted WordPress.org blog … Now.. it feels like home 😉
Just a quick correction. I have been using blogger for over a year and this week I moved to self hosted WP. I had my own domain name customized in blogger and that belongs to me. If you have your own domain and use blogger’s feature to use it, then that is yours. The only thing that blogger is the owner of is if you use their free “blogspot” sub-domain name. I have written many tips on how to better exploit blogger. That said, with this minor exception, the comparison looks good and as I said, I did finally opted to “look” more professional.
@jen: you can use “intense debate” commenting system. They have embeded “comluv” and that should provide you with want you are looking for.
WordPress is vastly superior to blogger and I strongly recommend that new bloggers use it or at least the free version at WordPress.com. That way you only have to learn everything once and it will be easier to migrate.
All blogs can be migrated to WordPress but it can be tricky. I can recommend several people who have experience moving blogs from Blogger, Typepad and elsewhere to self-hosted WordPress.
If you use Blogger PLEASE turn on the option for commentators to use their name and URL. That will gain you far more comments. I almost never comment in blogger blogs that require logging in because it often fails to work and wastes my time which is in short supply.
Another decision that will really make a difference to your blog is whether to join the DoFollow CommentLuv KeywordLuv community. You can read about that in the post I’ve linked to this comment.
I think starting off on Blogger is okay but eventually you will want to have more control and flexibility that the self-hosted WP blog provides. There are a TON of very useful WP plugins as well.
I visit the posts and visit the links mentioned above and have great solution of mine problems.Thamks
When it comes to flexibility, I think wordpress is the winner because of the plugins that we can use to make it more functional and interactive. Blogger on the other hand is advisable for beginners.
i forgot, base on my experiance and it is base on me. I would say that wordpress was the winner. i mean in blogging tool base on cms.
Overall I would have to say that WordPress trumpes Blogger when it comes down to customization and ease of use. Blogger is nice for people who are just beginners to the web, and not looking to get serious. I would recommend WP over Blogger anyway, even to someone just starting in the blog world. WordPress is just a much funner experience, because of the endless possibilities it creates with thousands of free plugins and themes.
I have used Blogger and WordPress for a long span of time. The thing with blogger is that, it is pretty straightforward to use, while wordpress is a little complex for beginners, but u can do a hell lot of things with wordpress.
Also wordpress gives you everything for which you have to fight for on Blogger..!
WordPress’s blog is indeed very good, but I prefer the direct use of registration services they provide, if I want to buy their own virtual host, then, will lead to increases in expenditure.
Whoever said that WordPress trumps Blogger on ease of use is dead wrong. Blogger is much easier to use. I’m a computer programmer and I think that WordPress is kind of a pain in the rear. It’s user interface is not intuitive at all.
If anyone is just getting started, then I would recommend using blogger with the one caveat that you purchase and use your own domain name instead of a “blogspot” domain. That way it will be easier to migrate to something else in the future and not lose all of your serps, backlinks, and seo value.
Hi Jen,
Andy from CommentLuv already created a CommentLuv version for blogger. You can read about it here: CommentLuv for Blogger and that links to the Intense Debate CommentLuv plugin.
If you ever want to migrate to WordPress there are members of our private Blog Collaboration who have the skills to assist you.
Join now and meet them and when the time comes you’ll know who can help you.
While programmers often love Drupal, for those of us who prefer to focus on writing and not learning technical skills WordPress is an easier option because there are so many people who know how to use it who are willing to assist new bloggers.
Hello daiarian,
The fastest path to more traffic is collaborating. I encourage all bloggers to join us in BloggerLuv and Secret Blog Club.
Hi Heather,
You know that there are tons of us willing to assist anyone with WordPress challenges? I agree with you that the technical aspects of blogging are too complicated and my take is that bloggers don’t need to handle all that techie stuff themselves. I don’t.
Many bloggers would be better off focusing on content and promotion and having those who have the skills handle the technical details for them.
For those who can afford to hire it done it is well worth it and if you can’t but you are serious about blogging you have something valuable to offer in trade.
I encourage bloggers to join our collaborations and develop relationships with other bloggers. The more we work together the stronger we all become.
Andrew Rondeau has a very good course that is worth considering. Even Kristi and I are taking it. Details in the CommentLuv post I’ll link to this reply.
What is easy for one person can sometimes be challenging for another because we do not all think alike. Windows was easy for me but Apple’s Operating System was confusing. Photoshop is the one program that still boggles my mind but I can easily pick up most anything that is not graphics related.
It would be easy for someone to find out for themselves which one is simpler for them to figure out. Sign up for a free account on each system and look around.
That said, if you’re going to blog seriously right now WordPress is the platform of choice for most geeks and non-geeks alike.
I think wordpress is the winner. There is more functionality.
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