Blogger and WordPress are the two most popular blogging platforms used today but we’re sometimes faced with the question of which is better between the two. This question got me going from one blog to another way back in 2009 when I wanted to start blogging, desperately searching for an answer. I got lots of confusing answers but had to settle with blogger when I weighed out my options and considered what I actually needed. The first blog I started with was a wordpress.com sub domain which i abandoned just a week after my first post because I couldn’t run my own ads.
Now, just for the purpose of clarification, I’ll be referring to self-hosted wordpress blog (which you can get the script from wordpress.org) as opposed to the free wordpress hosting provided by wordpress.com that I earlier told you I abandoned. Yes, I abandoned the free wordpress blog I had because I was sort of handicapped. I couldn’t run google adsense unless I upgraded and the given price wasn’t so friendly back then. I also realized I would have to buy a premium theme and all that. As a newbie, I got scared and settled for blogger which I don’t regret. Really, if all you’re looking for is a simple blogging platform to just express your mind and do nothing else, wordpress free hosting is just what you need. There are certain things there you can spice up your blog with including social plugins and so on. Free wordpress hosting doesn’t allow you to run your own ads though unless you upgrade whereas you can run google adsense with a blogspot sub domain. Also, you don’t have much control over your blog’s design as you can’t edit your template HTML source like blogger.
A self-hosted wordpress blog has lots of advantages over blogger, that’s a fact, but that doesn’t imply that blogger is that bad either. With a self hosted worpress blog, you can do whatever you like with your blog because you have total freedom and not limited in anyway.
*You have to have some experience on webhosting, know what FTP (file transfer protocol) and cPanel are all about before thinking about owning a wordpress blog. This isn’t the case with blogger, you can be a complete noob and still have a nice looking blog.
*A self hosted wordpress allows you to host files for download and attach it with your blog posts but you can never do this with blogspot. The only types of files allowed are pictures and videos except you host your files on some other server and hotlink it.
*Blogger is totally free unless you want to use a custom domain which costs around just $10 per year but you need to pay for hosting and a domain name for a wordpress blog.
*Blogger offers you unlimited bandwidth which you’re not even paying for. This makes your site available all year round. If you’re on a limited hosting plan, your wordpress blog might become unavailable when you have too much visitors and exceed your bandwidth.
*It’s always been said that WordPress is much more SEO friendly than blogger and this seems true.
*In some sense, wordpress seems easier than blogger. For instance, you only need to add new features to a wordpress blog by installing a plugin but the case is different with blogspot, you have to edit your template every now and then.
*Failure to comply with google’s terms of service might get your blogspot blog deleted, hence, you have no choice but to comply (and sometimes get limited) by google’s TOS. Like I said earlier, hosting your own wordpress gives you total freedom unless you have problems with your web host.
*Using blogger saves you the trouble of worrying about malwares and viruses and you still have some security except your google accounts gets hacked which is unlikely if you can take basic security measures. You should know a bit of internet security to protect our wordpress blog as any loophole might make you lose your blog.
Now, if you’re still wondering which one of the two blogging plaforms is better, you need to read all over again, take a critical look at your skills and what you actually need a blog for. This site is hosted with blogger but I might be moving over to wordpress someday (just a thought). Right now, I’m still loving it with blogger and you can start a free blospot blog now if you haven’t.
