A lot of people like to debate on which is better – Blogger or WordPress? For those not familiar with these two, you can skip the first part as I will give a little background on each.
Background of Blogger
Blogger started in 1999. In 2003, Google acquired Blogger. Most Blogger users are typically found on the Blogspot.com domain. This is a service that is totally online and done through Google. There are no free downloads to install.
Background of WordPress
WordPress started in 2003 and was forked off from b2/ cafelog as an open source software. In those days, it was merely called a blog platform, which some people today are still getting over the fact it is now a whole content management system. Users could download the full script and install it to their own web host. In 2005, WordPress also opened it doors at WordPress.com to mass hosting anyone that wanted their own website.
Side by side comparison chart for WordPress.com and Blogger users
| Feature | Blogger.com | WordPress.com |
|---|---|---|
| Themes | You can edit templates, styles and colors, or eveninstall an outside third party theme. |
No template editing. Style sheet editing is only available as a paid upgrade. Many of the 80+ themes let you upload a header image. Some have additional customization options. |
| Visitor stats | You can use outside tracking scripts | Dashboard shows 2 days of stats and daily, weekly and monthly graphs. |
| Import | Only from another BlogSpot blog. | Import from Blogger, TypePad, MovabIeType, Posterous, Vox.com, Livejournal, or other WordPress blog. |
| Image storage | 1 Gigabyte. | 3 Gigabytes. Users can purchase more space which allows users to upload different document types like .ppt, .doc, .odt and .pdf files (more file types with an upgrade). |
| Galleries | You can use Picasa Web Albums. | Add the gallery tag to any post or page |
| Static pages | Create up to 10 pages | Create posts or static pages. |
| Categories | Labels | Categories |
| Optional excerpts | Expandable post summaries | Depends on the theme. However, most users can use the more tag to create an excerpt |
| Post by email | Submit your posts by email. You can receive new posts by email too. | Can publish posts by email and even attach images. |
| Contact forms | None. | Yes |
| Domain names | Free domain name mapping | Only on paid upgrades |
| Private blogs | Yes | Yes, but only for 35 WordPress.com account users. Upgraded accounts can have unlimited amount of people to allow permission. Blog posts can be put to password protected. |
| Team blogs | Administrators and non-administrators only. | Administrator, Editors, Authors, Subscribers, and Contributors. |
| Comments | Yes, but comments cannot be edited. | Yes. Comment editing is allows and there is an anti-spam system available – Askimet. |
Summary
Although I have my own self-hosted install and find it very comfortable, I did try out both WordPress.com and Blogger.com. I found Blogger not as user-friendly as WordPress.com. Of course, I was already familiar with the WordPress admin panel, but it was annoying to have to feel like I was going the long way to do something.
I have an issue with Google gobbling up so many different products and smashing them together to work. I think better integration of Picasa would be nice.
My main worry is the fact that if Blogger goes down, that means even those who have full domains will suffer this issue. For those who are using it for their business, this would be a problem. It might be better to get away from Blogger and get hosting elsewhere.
The choices in templates are quite limiting and not as mature as a lot of WordPress templates out there that are available. In fact, a lot of Blogger websites I have seen have a lot of issues with coding. I have found a lot of widgets that did not work. It took 5 different tries to get a Twitter widget on Blogger to work.
I am annoyed that with WordPress.com does not allow you to include outside codes for tracking or some javascript codes in the widgets.
I like that you can import a lot of different places to WordPress.com. This is feature is also available to those who self-host their blogs.
I am a WordPress fan girl, so of course I am going to root for WordPress all the way, but because I wanted to honestly review these two services side by side, I had to look pretty deep. In the end, I found WordPress far more user-friendly. I am not totally ruling out Blogger. It is a pretty good tool, but it is kind of a damper that it can only be access by signing up. Perhaps Google might open source it? Maybe not… who knows.
What are your thoughts on Blogger and WordPress? Which one do you think is a better system for bloggers, and why?
It can handle many authors at the same time, and includes the possibility of adding new functions thanks to a very active developer’s community. WordPress Blog Hosting
There are a lot of web hosts out there that do a great job. I liked the WordPress.com version because of user-friendliness. They could have altered the backend and made it like Blogger, which I am glad they did not and kept it similar to the full self-hosted version.
Hi Niles. I have both Blogger and WordPress.com blogs. I'm with you, WordPress rules! But I think there is one reason many bloggers pick Blogger and that is ADS! No ads on WordPress.com (although you can run AdSense on your FeedBurner RSS) but that's not going to stop me from making it my home. Thanks for the chart it will be nice to linkback here on a future Blogger post.
My recent post Top 10 Ways To Improve My Blogspot Blog
I am not fond of the ads. I took a look at your site and I found it a bit overwhelming on the placement. There are people who do host people on subdomains for free. I do under my other domain pixelled.com. (example: your site would be illeane.pixelled.com or whatever subdomain name for "illeane")
Some of my hostees donate a few dollars every year, but that is never required. I just think there is a better way than what blogger does and the ads while are eyecandy for people wanting to make money, you cannot make money unless someone actually clicks on the ads. They are more to be deterred if they are obtrusive.
Hit me up if you might be interested. You would be able to use FTP, WordPress, and even have your own ads.
I assume you are referring to my Blogger blog. I also have WordPress.com (which is my main blog) and two blogs on BuddyPress at Blogging Wire. I have a question, what's the advantage of having a subdomain on another blog vs. using BuddyPress? Would I have Admin access to the cPanel and be able to upload plugins myself?
Personally I'm not a fan of ads either, but I must admit I see waayyy more ads on self-hosted WordPress blogs than Blogger by far. I visited 3 WordPress sites today that had nothing but ads "above the fold". I use the Readability extension for chrome – gets rid of all the ads and sidebars so I can read the CONTENT!
Thanks Nile.
My recent post Take Control of Your YouTube Activity Settings
Actually the subdomain would work on its own like a domain. I use to have my site on a subdomain back in 2005 and under a different name called Petals In the Wind (my web competition blog. I use to also help people and had a lot more web design tutorials up… on the html and php side.)
BuddyPress and WordPress are actually merging now. 3.0 will be the merge with MU… it will be just as good.
You would get a full individual WordPress install to yourself so you will be able to handle your own plugins. And NO… you would not get cPanel access. My full domain clients get that as they pay $25 per year.
You would though get your own email address and FTP account. Actually my server allows you to automatically install plugins and is optimized for WordPress.
Nile, thanks for explaining. Yes, I mentioned the news about WordPress 3.0 to the new owner of Blogging Wire (Brian from Blog Engage sold the site to Bishwajeet Mahato) and he is ready and waiting. I'm looking forward to it also.
This gives me something to think about.
My recent post Plugin to WordPress at Blogging Wire!
Talking about free service, I'll use Blogger and I still blogger for few blogs 🙂 Because like Ileane said, its about Ads and other codes that we can put on blogger.
My recent post Why We Need A Blogging Plan?
I think the ads are quite annoying on Blogger. I know people like them because they can make money, but the placement is very obtrusive and does interfere with a reader's experience.
I think it's because the blog owner doesn't know how to manage the placement, not because they use Blogger.
Concise post , it was really helpful for me , Im still getting used to blogging and stuff and hope to migrate to WP soon. Blogger is highly customizable.
My recent post linearIn: Solutions for Javabat:12
Blogger can be imported into WordPress… which is great…in my opinion.
Nice Post Nile. I've used both myself and currently using Blogger on my main blog. But the thing is I only used WordPress for a week or so, unlike Blogger I've been using for about a month. Blogspot isn't bad at all. But all the plugins are found with WordPress (quite annoying). You have to dig a lot deeper to find a widget for Blogspot, or sometimes you just get the raw code and run with that.
That said, I see the limitations of Blogspot so thinking of moving over, but the stress!!!
My recent post The iPhone Bootcamp Scholarship Interview
I do not think it is stressful at all. I have moved quite a few clients from Blogger to WordPress (self-hosted) and even Blogger to WordPress.com
As I mentioned in another comment… at least they allow you to import.
Use both of these platform still prefer wordpress however being used to coding in asp i tried Blogengine.net and stuck with it for a couple of years now any way nice comparison
My recent post Simple Writing Tips For Beginners
I have had a few people who like ASP, but I like PHP… a lot easier for me. Also considering I have had my hands in WordPress before it was even WordPress, I have gotten used to it. I have worked lightly with other blog platforms and CMS, but I have just found that WordPress has been the easiest to work with.
Blogger can be imported into WordPress… which is great…in my opinion.
I like that attribute too. 🙂 The other types of blogs that can be imported are an added plus.
As a professional blogger, I've had to use both Blogger and WordPress. I much prefer Blogger. I think it's simpler to navigate, with icons and directions that are more easily understood by non-technical users. I also like many of the Blogger themes better as well.
My recent post Burgers for Breakfast? What's Your Draw?
I did not find Blogger user-friendly. I was basically blind throughout it. The FAQ for using was not as helpful. I had to go out of my way to find good tutorials and some of them were a hit and miss.
I know there are people loyal to Blogger, but it was a fail on the user friendly end. As a web developer myself, I was a bit surprised by that aspect.
The company I work for uses Blogger, but they've been working with a developer recently to convert over. I'm not keen on it and I'm the one that updates it. I went to try out the free .com version to learn it and it was much easier. I'm on a busy schedule and have to get things done on time, so I look forward to using WordPress for my work.
Let's think about my journey. Free Blogger to free WordPress then went on to custom domain WordPress, shut everything down and hiatus from blogging. Now I restarted with a free Blogger account, considering to move back into custom domain WordPress. I hope my experiences ain't too little across the bandwidth.
I find that Blogger is extremely easy for startup blogs and non-technical users. If someone's is merely into simple blogging, Blogger works extremely well. For non-technical users especially, editing HTML codes (Blogger) is a lot easier than CSS codes (WordPress). HTML codes are still pretty simple to understand. The same can be said for CSS but unless you have been working on it for quite a while. Web developers should draw a line between a developer and a blogger. Does a blogger want to spend 1 hour tweaking codes or much prefer spend 1 hour writing posts? What a developer thinks is good is not necessary good for the end-user. That is why we have so many technological products that failed to gain traction among the critical mass of potential customers. It's like; every developer can be a blogger, but not every blogger is interested in web development.
Being able to upload your own themes and customize them without spending a single cent is one of the biggest attractions to Blogger, unlike WordPress that requires you to pay for every little upgrade. And considering the pricing of most of the upgrades, they are better off with one-click installs with hosting companies than buy them direct off WordPress. When I was still on my self-hosted WordPress, I saved a ton of money doing this.
Beyond that, if one is searching for a really professional CMS, WordPress is the way to go. One's able to make minor editing (like grammatical errors) of comments without having to delete the whole message. WordPress's spam protection is also a big draw which Blogger pales in comparison. A whole lot of additional widgets can be added, like user-ban etc, which are also lacking in Blogger. Multiple authors is a plus, but unless you are running a full online publication. For personal blogs, is there really such a need?
The key difference, a self-hosted WordPress. If we're comparing solely on free blogging, Blogger is better than WordPress beyond any doubts. Just on uploading customized themes alone, how fantastic to have a few millions free WordPress blogs looking all the same from the limited pool of themes? Downright boring. Blogger allows you to do so, and look at the variety we have on free Blogger accounts. Impressive. I have to agree with Jennifer that Blogger is pretty much a no-brainer navigator even for a beginner blogger. With so many WordPress themes being converted and ported over to fit into Blogger which now, we can customize them in Blogger but not WordPress, why would I want a WordPress free account? If I were to move over to WordPress, it will surely be a self-hosted one. Not a free WordPress blog with limited functions I can do.
Discussing WordPress vs Blogger/Typepad is like debating on Apple vs everything else.
My recent post Global Warming Or Global Conning?
I kinda like the community that blogger has. I felt like I was floating on my own island for a while on my self-hosted wordpress.org blog, until I started building up a reader base. I wouldn't go back though! Self-hosted wordpress all the way.
My recent post Embracing the pale
I was using blogger for 1 year untill i found that everyone was switching to wp , i too now have got wp and i am very happy with it 😀 In order for SEO that works , wordpress is the way to go !
My recent post Get huge traffic from Yahoo – SEO Ranking Factors
I was previously using Blogger for my business blog as the majority of my friends from Etsy also use Blogger, but had my domain pointing to a hosting account with a separate site on it. I recently moved from Blogger to a subdomain for the blog and a self-hosted WordPress installation simply due to the fact that the business blog was my only non-WordPress blog.
It is not that I do not like Blogger, but that at times editing the templates can be a daunting task. I learned how to do a few of the things I already knew how to do with WordPress themes but it took a lot of trial and error. Blogger has far too much proprietary code that you have to use when creating a new template for Blogger blogs, while you can pretty much use straight HTML and CSS coding for WordPress themes.
I truly do think that WordPress is the best way to go.
I'd still avoid WordPress.com due to several crazy experience. They deleted my blog without any noticed and upon asking, they said, i violated their terms while i never knew which term i violated. Compared to them blogger is always way better. It is true there are certain limitation too. However i prefer selfhosted blogs compared to free hosts.
I will have to agree on self-hosted is better.
When using a free host, always be aware of their terms of service. I know it might be boring, but it is really important. Many services WILL delete or suspend if you violate their terms and are not obligated to contact you, including Blogger. I have seen a lot of complaints on the Blogger end for the same thing too. Not to sound mean, but if you read through, you might be able to realize what was violated. I have met a lot of the core developers and I help in the support forums… they do not take deletions lightly.
So, as I said… when using a service you cannot control, always read their TOS so you never have to fear violating any of their policies. Also, keep up to date by reading at least twice a year as companies online are always updating.
I use them both.. lol.
WordPress has its advantages, and so does blogger. It depends on what you really want. Thanks for the matrix! It sure highlighted the difference of the two.
I liked blogger at first then I switched on over to wordpress. I dont know how I feel about blogging on these web 2.0 self hosted platforms. If something happens, there goes everything!! Why not just buy your own domain and host it for 8 bucks a month
Hey Nile,
I had no idea Blogger could be imported into WordPress. I’m just now trying to use a new premium theme and it’s a monster learning curve for me. I’ve used blogger for ages and I became so comfortable with it, I’d get annoyed when the admin panel would change. WP takes me out of my comfort zone…And, it gives me lots of options. In any event, I still use both!
If you are serious about bloging spend some bucks for your own web host and domain, install WordPress and don’t forget about backups!
Excellent comparison. But i like to have blog on wordpress because as far as i think wordpress is best for blog and it takes care of blogger by offering effective and useful plugins.
I lie WordPress more than blogger. This is because of some reasons.First WP provide me lots plugins for any type of task. And second one is I personally fell WP easy to use than the Blogger.Thanks for this nice comparison.