WordPress vs Blogger: Which Is Better?

When the term blogging is mentioned, what easily comes to mind of blogging enthusiasts and active bloggers is WordPress and . No doubt this are the most popular blogging platforms in the world today. So in this post I will compare WordPress vs , which is better and which one of them you should use.This post contains the pros and cons of WordPress and also the pros and cons of blogger. With this critical review, you should be able to make the best choice that suits your need.

WordPress or Blogger: Which One Should I Choose?

The history of blogging started late 1980s and continued to early 1990s when the term (blog) was coined out of (weblog) and in late 1990s, the likes of Online diary, Life Journal, Slashdotstarted defining blogging for what it has become today. WordPress or blogger? Which one is better is one of the most asked questions among blogging enthusiasts and even active bloggers who most times consider migrating to another blogging platform. The fact is WordPress and are really good blogging platforms which defines a world class blog publishing platform. Even with all the great features this blogging platforms have to offer, there are still flaws which might be scalable depending on the bloggers choice or routine. In my view both WordPress and blogger have the yes nod from me as good blog publishing platforms that can take your blog career to a greater height, if well properly explored and managed.

What Makes A Good Blogging Platform?

A good blog publishing platform should have all the factors that meets the demand and characterises of the modern day blogger. So in other words , blogging platforms should evolved to meet new realities and lifestyle. This, I believe WordPress and have lived up to. There are some very important factors that defines a good blogging platform, This includes;


Security: Security really matters when it comes to your site contents as the war against spam, hacking is an ever evolving one. So better security means better web contents.

Ease of use: One the major contributors to the popularity of WordPress and is the ease with which you can start blogging and manage your blogs on this platforms.

Accessibility: You don't need to break the bank or travel to the moon to start using either of WordPress or blogger. They are always there and free too. You can easily download and start blogging. Its as simple as that.

User friendly interface: You don't need to be a Facebook programmer to qualify to use either WordPress or blogger. With little or no knowledge of basic programming languages you can start blogging on WordPress or blogger. Its more like WYSIWYG kind of platforms. Very straightforward and self explanatory.

Suiting scalability: Now if you are not really sure you want to commit your money into blogging. You can start for free and upgrade later. Its very scalable on both platforms.

All this qualities can be found in both WordPress and , so no doubt they are good blogging platforms.

Why Should I Choose WordPress?

WordPress has evolved over the years to become one of the most popular blogging platforms.What you can do with WordPress is almost endless. You are only limited by your ideas. So before you go for WordPress, it's important you know the pros and cons of WordPress before deciding to start your blog on the platform.

WordPress Platforms

WordPress has two platforms on which you can stat blogging right away, the free and the self-hosted WordPress. You can either start a blog on http:// for free of start a blog on http://wordpress.org which you will host yourself.  So let's do justice to this post by checking out both the pros and cons of the free and self-hosted WordPress.



Just like there is the Google blogger which is absolute free to start a blog on, WordPress has two versions, a free version and a self-hosted version. The free WordPress version is quiet popular amongst newbie bloggers and can serve a good number of purpose like show casing your portfolio, connecting with business associates or just starting a personal blog. Well starting your blog on has some advantages as well as disadvantages. Let's take a look at some of the pros and cons of

Pros



Its free, you don't have to pay a dime to start your blog on

With little or no knowledge in basic programing languages you can easily manage and administer your blog from the dashboard.

There are quantum number of themes you can choose from .

You don't need to worry about spam as its already taken care off for you.

You also don't need to worry about your site being hacked.

You can easily publicize your post to social networks through Jetpack which is also owned by Automattic the company that created WordPress.

You can signup for the WordPress contextual ads network known as wordads and make money from your blog.

You will never need to worry about bandwidth usage even as your site traffic surges higher.

You don't need to worry about losing your site files as the regular routine backup is done for you.

There are scalable upgrades you can purchase to rebrand your site. You can checkout all the a available addons on .

Its easy to start a blog on , within about ten minutes your blog site is live and running online.

You don't have to sumbit your site to search engines as its readily indexed by search engines.

Cons

Choosing to start a blog on also comes with some disadvantages which might not suit your plans for your dream blog. Below are some cons of choosing to blog on .


You don't really own the site. This is one big disadvantage of choosing free hosting. It's not totally free. You must abide by there policies , if you go against the terms or policy you might loose your site.

You don't have access to ftp to upload files to your site.

You can't use third party services like the very informative Google analytics since you don't have access to ftp.

You can't use custom codes in your templates, maybe to change the appearance of your site or otherwise.

You can offcourse map out your existing domain name to your WordPress site,but you can do that at about $13 which is not good. It's free on blogger.

Ads will show sometimes on your blog without your authorization. simply means you don't actually have the absolute control over what shows on your site.

You can't download the best and very useful plugins on WordPress. Plugins is actually one of the main reasons why WordPress has become a very popular and successful project.

You can't upload sitemap to your WordPress site.

There is limitation on disk storage. You are only allowed to use about 3GB after which you will have to upgrade to get more disk space. This is not good for music sites, photography sites that need more disk space.

You can't monetize your blog with third party ads like Google AdSense.

You can't change or customise the post link structure which is very vital in SEO.

WordPress.org

We have seen most the pros and cons of choosing to start a blog on , which is the free version of WordPress. Now let's checkout some of the pros and cons of choosing to start a self-hosted site on the award winning WordPress platform.

WordPress is a very versatile and can be used to build any type of site all thanks to extensions like plugins. Most of the worlds top brands like New York times use WordPress. Its as professional as you want it to get. WordPress is good for anyone that wants to really dive deep into blogging or other site projects.

WordPress.org Pros



You own your site and also in full control over what shows on your site.

You have access to ftp to upload files to your site.

You can choose from the thousands of free themes in theWordPress themes directory or you can go for a premium template.

You can also download and install any plugin you deem necessary to your site from theWordPress plugins directory. Plugins extends the functionality of your WordPress site.

You can add custom codes to your post and even to your templates to alter its appearance.

You can use third party ads network like Google AdSense on your site.

You can also use third party services like Google analytics on your WordPress site to monitor traffic stats.

Its easy to start a blog on WordPress.org even for newbies who have little or no knowledge on basic programing languages like HTML, PHP.

The WordPress dashboard is easy to understand. For first timers it might seem too complicated, but with time you will get to understand and familiarize the dashboard.

You have total control over how to implement SEO on your site, ranging from onpage SEO to offpage SEO.

You can build any kind of site with WordPress like eCommerce site, forum site , business site etc WordPress being an open source software has evolved, moving from originally blog software to an all-round software that can be used to build any kind of site.

WordPress is an open source software which is licensed under the GPL. This means anyone can download and use WordPress without paying a dime. Also the general public can also contribute to the development of WordPress, which is why we have thousands of plugins, themes .

Another good advantage of using WordPress is that you never get stalked without getting a solution. There are thousands of blogs where you can get help on some of the most common WordPress issues. Like this blog gives tutorials on WordPress . There is also a dedicated WordPress support forum.

You choose how you want to monetize your WordPress site, by third party advertising, your own ads, other personal services, affiliate marketing.

WordPress.Org Cons

Just like you have the good sides of a self-hosted WordPress, there are also some negative aspects of using a self-hosted WordPress. So let's take a look at some disadvantages of a self-hosted WordPress.


If you are on a self-hosted WordPress, then you must take care of the hosting cost. This can be high depending on your site traffic or the king of WordPress site you manage. Sites like photography , music, video sites will spend more on diskspace. You will also take care of domain name cost.

You will have to fight spam attacks on your site by yourself.

You will also have to battle against the millions of hackers roaming the internet all by yourself.

You will have to take care of regular backup of your site in case of the unexpected like hacked site, loss of files.

You might find little difficulties in managing your WordPress site, especially if you don't have any little knowledge in basic programming languages.

Besides some of the above not so serious disadvantages, starting off on a self-hosted WordPress site is totally awesome.

Why Choose Blogger?

Google's Blogger seems to be very popular amongst new bloggers, this can be attributed to the fact that it is free, simple and easy to start a blog on blogger. To help you make a better decision, let's check out the pros and cons of starting a blog on Blogger Since its inception in 1999, millions of individuals across the world have chosen the platform to start their blog. We will be taking a critical study of the pros and the cons of the famous blogger.

Blogger Pros

Google's blogger has lots of great features that makes it one of the best blog publishing platforms.  Let's take a look at some of the great features of blogger.


To start a blog on blogger is totally free. You don't have to pay any dime to start your blog on blogger.

You can setup a custom domain name for your blog free of charge. E.g www.myname..com to www myname.com.

You can map your existing domain name free of charge.

With little or no knowledge at all of basic programming languages, you can setup and manage your blog effortlessly. Its really easy to start a blog on blogger.

You can add custom codes to your template to alter the appearance of your blog or add additional functionality to your blog.

You can choose from the good number of templates on blogger or upload your own custom templates.

There are thousands of blogs to get help regarding blogger blog issues. Moreover there is adedicated blogger support forum. I also write blogger tutorials to help bloggers find solution to challenges they might encounter on blogger.

You can customize the permalink of your blogger blog post to be SEO friendly.

You can also change the permalink of your blogger blog pages to be SEO friendly.

You don't have to ever worry about spam attacks as Google takes care of that.

You don't have to ever worry about growing cost of increasing bandwidth as your blog traffic increases higher.

You don't have to worry about hackers hacking into your site as Google takes care of that.

You can be sure of at least 99.9% uptime of your blog as it is powered by Google server.

You can monetize your blog with the famous Google AdSense.

You can also monetize your blog by other means like other third party advertising, your own ads.

You can choose to remove or leave the (powered by blogger ) credit attribute at your blogger blog footer. Learn how to remove the powered by blogger attribute.

You can auto publicize your blogger blog posts to social media networks.

It's very easy to manage your blogger blog.

You don't need to start submitting sitemaps to Google as your blog pages and post are automatically indexed by Google.

There is no limit to the number of post or pages you can have on your blog.

You don't need to worry about regular backup of your blogger blog as Google takes care of that for you.

You can also upload files like music files, videos to your Google drive and link to it in your blog. The Google drive serves as an alternate to disk storage space. Though its capped at 15GB. Learn how to upload files to your Google drive and share it in blogger.

You can use third party services like Google analytics on your blog.
to monitor site traffic.

Blogger Cons

You have seen some of the great features Google's blogger has to offer, now I think we should also take a look at the cons of starting a blog on blogger.


While you have so many privileges on blogger, you don't totally own your blog as it can be taken down and an all your rankings and earnings gone if you go against Google policy. This was the case with Nigeria popular blogger, Linda Ikeji whose blogger was taken down over petitions on plagiarism. Though it was latter resolved, but earnings were lost.

Blogger doesn't have that professional look as you can get on WordPress.

Blogger is not open source and as such is not extensible. You can't extend the functionality of your blog the way you want.

You don't have access to ftp to upload files to your blog.

You can't build a whole list of different kind of site on blogger as its primarily a blog publishing platform.

You can't host files like PDFs, videos, music directly on your blogger blog except through uploading it to Google drive or hosting on another server and linking to it.

My Final Verdict

There you have it the pros and cons of WordPress and also the pros and cons of blogger. No doubt this two platforms are very nice blog publishing platforms.

So Blogger or WordPress: Which Is Better?

Both blogger and WordPress are good for starting your new blog. The better platform depends on what type of site project you want to start. Blogger is really the best choice for you right now if;


You don't want to pay for hosting cost and still want to start blogging.

You want to start a personal blog about your life experiences.

Create a small blog for your business.

While, WordPress is the best choice for you, if;


You want to start a more professional looking blog.

You can cover cost for hosting and domain name.

You are ready to dive into realtime blogging, maintaining you blog, backups, battle sites hacks and otherwise.

You want to go beyond blogging, to building any other kind of site.

You want to build professional eCommerce, forum, business etc sites.

You want to enjoy total freedom with no rules to break .

Conclusion

The ball lies in your court. I believe this post has provided enough information to help you make the best choice that suits you blogging needs.

Source: http://herokeys.com/article/402-2/

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