Blogger and WordPress are two of the most well known and established platforms for publishing content online. Despite the huge differences between the two platforms, it’s common for newbie to feel confused regarding the one to use. This is why the debate regarding Blogger vs WordPress isn’t about to end anytime soon.
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To decide between the two, you need to understand their differences first, which include:
- Blogger owning the site, which you rent from it
- Blogger maintaining and controlling your website fully
- WordPress gives you total control over your site
- Maintaining the site (including security, backup and spam protection) is your responsibility
Google owns Blogger. Therefore, you must open a Google account to use Blogger. The beauty of Blogger is that it integrates easily with Google+ and Google AdSense. The biggest concern that most users have expressed is whether Google is committed to sustaining Blogger into the near future. The uncertainty is not good for users and the blogs that they operate.
Blogger and WordPress are two of the most effective and well-established tools for blogging. It’s difficult to imagine the difficulties that bloggers would be experiencing today without these two platforms. You can choose any platform, but only after understanding its pros and cons. It’s also advisable to understand how each platform functions before choosing it to run your site.
Before choosing between the two platforms, look at your needs. Choose the best platform based on the benefits it provides to you. For example, are you interested in monetizing your blog? Which platform helps you to achieve your goals? Do you value SEO? Which platform would make it easier for you to optimize your site for the search engines?
So, how are the two platforms different?
Domain Names
When it comes to domain names, you can use any on Blogger as long as you pre-registered it. An example of the sort of domain name that you can use on Blogger is yourname.blogspot.com. As for WordPress, users have to register their own preferred domain names. A registered domain name costs $13 annually.
Storage Space
In terms of storage space, you’re entitled to 1GB worth of free space when using Blogger. In addition to that 1GB, you can also connect the blog to your Google+ account thus enjoy more storage space. As for WordPress, the unlimited storage space that you get depends on whether you’re willing to pay $4.95, which is a monthly hosting fee.
Customization
Blogger gives you as much leeway as you need for editing the existing templates. You also have the freedom to enjoy advanced customization, though at a limited level. Blogger does not provide FTP access. WordPress offers all the control and freedom you need to customize your site as much as you want. Modifying and customizing is your prerogative with WordPress.
This is why WordPress is the most effective tool at creating beautiful and eye-catching blogs or sites. You can change the design of your WordPress blog or site whenever you want to. Through the thousands of themes and plugins, you can enhance the typography, colors and layout of your blog at any moment.
Design
Through Blogger, you have access to a limited selection of designs. Moreover, the platform allows you to perform the easy changes associated with the drag and drop feature only. With WordPress, you have access to limitless number of designs. With WordPress, you can make your website as beautiful and unique as you desire.
Plugins
Blogger, unfortunately, doesn’t come with plugins. However, the platforms contains a significant selection of simple gadgets that you can choose to develop a wonderful blog. WordPress is renowned worldwide for the huge selection of plugins that it has. Moreover, WordPress allows you to add any functionality as well as feature that you want.
Monetization
The fact that Blogger integrates easily with Google AdSense makes it a perfect tool for monetizing your site. You can monetize your blog with ads easily. For its part, WordPress accords you full control for running banner ads. What is more, you can monetize your WP site through affiliate links or any other tool.
Security
You cannot run a successful blog by ignoring security and backups. With Blogger, you never have to worry about the security and backups on your blog since Google takes care of everything. With WordPress, the security and backups on the blog are all your responsibility. What is more, WordPress is prone to hacking, but only if you’re not careful with the updates.
In addition to these qualities, the two platforms are good, ugly and bad in the following ways:
The Good
Blogger is free to use and simplifies the art or task of blogging. The fact that Google+ and Google AdSense are in-built in Blogger is wonderful news. After all, the platform was built specifically for blogging. On WordPress, your site is yours. You can push the site to the next level easily with WordPress.
The Bad
Blogger does not make your site different or special from the other. Blogger is replete with limitations and does not offer you the right to moderate comments. Moreover, the size of each web page on Blogger has a limit of 1MB. The picture storage that Blogger gives you is strictly limited to 1GB only.
WordPress requires too much time to learn. Secondly, if you’re not ready to do plenty of upkeep on your site, you should not use WordPress. You need to maintain your site through regular updates and backups. Updating the themes and plugins is mandatory. You need to spare enough time to moderate comments in addition to writing and editing posts.
The Ugly
With Blogger, you should forget self-hosting. This is because the platform is the property of Google, thus operating on Google servers. This means that Google has control over your site. This gives Google the right to switch your blog off anytime they want to without consulting you or offering an explanation.
As for WordPress, it’s worth noting that it doesn’t come cheap, especially when you need to use more features. The hosting fees can run into hundreds of dollars each year. The updates that you perform on your site can wipe it clean. Hackers have found ways of gaining total control over any WordPress site that they want by providing updates because WP is an open-source platform.
Therefore, the decision on the platform to choose in the battle regarding Blogger vs WordPress is your hands. Your needs and preferences determine the platform to choose. You can create responsive websites and blogs using either Blogger or WordPress. The former involves a much straightforward process, while the latter requires plenty of work.
