If you are planning to start your blog, there are multiple options. But the most popular options are Blogger and WordPress. Both the websites are good and have their pros and cons. In this article we will compare Blogger vs WordPress so you can easily decide which one you need to choose.
What Makes A Blogging Platform Good?
When you plan to start your blog, you must look for some characteristics in your blogging platform. Before we start Blogger vs WordPress comparison we will se what makes a best blogging platform.
Beginner Friendly: A platform should be easy to use for all. If a platform is too hard to use, it may not be a good option.
Features: A good blogging platform should give options to customize the blog easily.
Monetization Options: If you want to earn money from your blog, you may look for easy monetization options.
Support: The blogging platform should provide support to the user, if times of need.
Other than the above, you also need to look for other factors like platform pricing, SEO optimization, security.
Table Of Contents:
Overview Blogger vs WordPress
Both WordPress and Blogger are popular sites for blogging. But which one should you choose? It depends upon a some factors like amount of money or time you want to spend.
Blogger
Blogger is a free blogging platform, it was developed by Pyra Labs in 1999. It was acquired by Google in 2003. You only need a Gmail account to use blogger.
You need to provide your website name and URL. You will be given a free subdomain URL, which looks like www.yoursitename.blogspot.com.You can later change it to a private domain like yoursite.com, by purchasing the domain.
There are a handful of free themes provided, but you can download other free themes by searching google. I personally would suggest you to download 3rd-party themes as the themes provided by blogger do not provide good appearance and functionaility.
WordPress
WordPress in a CMS (Content Management System) which means it can be used to make multiple type of websites other than just a blog. It was launched in 2003 and was primarily used for blogging. WordPress is used in 43% of the websites today, which makes it a popular platform.
To make a WordPress website and use its full potential, you need to have a hosting plan and a domain. It might seem a bit technical, but most popular hosting providers give one click installation for WordPress.
| Platform | Easy-To-Use | Ownership | Control | Design Options | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blogger | Easiest | Not fully owned by you | Lesser control | Few design options | Completely free |
| WordPress | Harder than Blogger | Fully owned by you | Full control | More design options | Requires to buy hosting and domain |
Easy To Use – Blogger vs WordPress
Blogger
Blogger has a very clean design. Any beginner who want to start blogging, can easily use blogger.
Create a Gmail address, go to blogger, sign in with your Gmail address. Select a website name and choose a .blogspot URL and your site will be live.
You can go to NEW POST to add your first blog post. If you need to change the theme of the site, you can go to themes and select a theme. Or you can download a theme from 3rd party sites and go to restore > upload to upload a new theme. You also get the option to edit the full html of the site.
WordPress
WordPress gives a lot more features and ways to customize your site than blogger. You need to have a hosting plan and a domain to use WordPress. After purchasing the hosting plan, most providers give one click installation for WordPress. After installing WordPress, you may choose some recommended plugins for the site and a good theme.
It may seem a bit tricky for beginners, but as you get used to it, you will enjoy using WordPress.
Result: Blogger is a lot more beginner friendly, I would choose more Blogger as more easy to use blogging tool.
Ownership – Blogger vs WordPress
It takes a lot hard work to start your blog. What if your work is not owned by you? Ownership of the blog is a vital factor to check for the best blogging platform.
Blogger
Blogger is owned and operated by Google. Blogger is like a social media where you can post blogs like Facebook, Twitter. Google has full control over your blog. Google can stop you from accessing you blog, or delete you blog completely.
WordPress
WordPress is a free CMS software, which you host. As you have your own hosting provider and domain name, you are the owner of your blog. If at any point, you are not happy with your hosting provider, you can change your hosting provider. But with Blogger, you can not change your hosting provider.
So, if you are using WordPress, all you data is secure with you.
Result: WordPress preserves the ownership of your blog, so WordPress is the winner.
Control – Blogger vs WordPress
Does you site allow you to make changes and add features easily to your website?
The amount of control you have over your site also plays an important role to choose your best blogging platform.
Blogger
Blogger is a simple and easy to use blogging platform. It limits blogger to have advanced features.
Blogger has all the basic tools you will need for your blogging site, like AdSense, forms, subscriptions, these all are provided by Google. You have no other alternative other than to use them.
With Blogger you can not use advanced features like ecommerce plugins, it limits the potential of Blogger.
WordPress
WordPress is a open-source CMS software. WordPress has thousands of plugins, which adds up any feature you can imagine. Apart from the official plugins, there are several plugins by small contributors which boosts the functionality of your website.
Like you can create a ecommerce store using WordPress, add popup messages, membership pages and a lot more.
Result: WordPress with its plugins helps customize the website it a lot possible ways, so WordPress is the winner.
Design Options – Blogger vs WordPress
Blogger
Blogger provides only a handful options to design your site. The blogger officially has very few themes you can choose from. I personally feel those themes provided are not up to the mark.
There are some unofficial 3rd party themes, some free but mostly paid. Finding a proper theme for your site becomes difficult for shortage of options.
Moreover, you do not get any website builder plugin to design how you website looks.
Lesser choice of templates, limited customization options makes blogger fall behind in terms of choices.
WordPress
WordPress has several thousands of themes, free and paid, providing a lot options to choose from.
You can go to Appearance > Themes. you will find the warehouse of themes, you can install and activate on your site. With the search bar provided, you can also select the exact type of theme required for you site.
There are WordPress website builders, you can just drag and drop elements to make you site.
Result: WordPress with its vast number themes, page builders provides a lot designing options, WordPress wins.
Security – WordPress vs Blogger
Another important factor to consider while choosing the best blogging platform is security. If your website security is not good, and if the site is hacked, you may lose all your years hard work.
Blogger
Blogger is owned and operated by Google since 2003. If you use blogger, you are a part of Google’s robust security. You need not really worry about security if you use blogger.
But if some say your site is down or blogger is hacked, a lot websites using blogger will be under this threat, and you have not options to look for.
WordPress
WordPress is a opensource CMS software. You can install WordPress into your own hosting service. Security depends on you if you use WordPress, like you may or may not use SSL certificate or some security plugins.
If your site keeps going down or you are not happy with your hosting service, you can migrate your site to some other hosting provider.
Result: Tie
Pricing
As a beginner blogger you may not want to put a lot money on your blog, also you may not want to be the ‘free only’ user.
Blogger
If you are planning to use Blogger, it is completely free. You will be given a .blogspot subdomain and free hosting. There are all basic tools and themes required. Though you can pay to 3rd party developers if you want more customizations.
You may also want to choose a private domain like .com or .org domains. You can typically get you domain for $15 a year.
WordPress
WordPress is a free to use software, but you will need a hosting platform to set it up. You can choose BlueHost as your hosting service. BlueHost is recommended by WordPress itself. The WordPress hosting typically starts from $2.75 per month with a free domain for starters.
Result: Tie
Conclusion
When it comes to blogging, there are two best options: WordPress and Blogger. Blogger lacks a lot features, but is good if you have very less budget. WordPress has a lot more extras to offer like a better site design or having more control over the site.
If you want to make a simple blog to share stories, you can go on with Blogger, but if you need some extra features and a advanced website WordPress can be your choice.
