Blogger vs WordPress. Which one should I choose?

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Are you confused, how to start a blog? Which platform to choose? Then, you are in the right place.

There are many content management systems (CMS) in this internet world. The most common CMS are Blogger/ Blogspot and WordPress. Other CMS are

And the list continues.

In the present era of high-speed internet, you have a bunch of options. But which one to choose is the real question. Right?

The preference varies from person to person. Everyone has his or her own choice. But if you are a novice writer and an ambitious blogger, then this article is for you. Read till end to have a complete and comprehensive idea about content management systems.

What is a content management system (CMS)?

In simple words a content management system is a web application which manages your web content. So, you can write, edit, and manage your blog information using CMS.

The content you input gets stored in a databased (Hosting server). Your CMS shows the same content in an organized manner with the help of some templates.

Blogger

Let me start with blogger / Blogspot. Blogger is a Google owned subsidiary which mainly hosts personal blogs. It was first developed by Pyra labs ion 1999.

The main domain is blogspot.com. All the accounts that you create in blogger are the subdomains of blogspot.com. Hence your blogger blogs contain blogspot.com extension in their web addresses.

A user can create up to 100 blogs per user account. You can create an account in blogger using your personal or professional Gmail account.

Advantages of blogger

Blogger is completely free! You can create any number of blogs using your Gmail accounts.

Blogger is a highly customizable CMS. If you are a techie and a web developer, you have no limits. You can redesign the entire template structure as you like. Moreover, you have a ton of free templates with beautiful designs available on net.

Blogger / Blogspot is completely integrated with google apps like Search console, Google analytics and Google AdSense. Hence you may not need any third-party integration apps or software to get connected.

Dis-advantages of blogger

Today’s competitive word need speed. This is where blogger loses its position. Blogger is comparatively slow when compared to WordPress.

Moreover, you do not have third party plugins to speed up your blog.

The blogs hosted on blogger are low on search engine optimization. There are very few templates dedicated to AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages). AMP is a HTML framework developed by google as a competitor for Facebook instant articles.

The Google’s ever-changing algorithm has included AMP enabled pages in their priority list. Hence Blogs powered with AMP are indexed fast compared to their counterpart.

Unfortunately, Google has not shown that interest in integrating AMP with blogger. Hence Blogs hosted in Blogspot lack AMP qualities. Moreover, it’s a tough task to run AMP pages on BlogSpot without errors.

Coming to plugins you have very few compatible apps that provide plugins to blogger. For example, for comment management, you have Disqus, which you can integrate into blogger in the place of its default blogger comments.

When we discuss about WordPress, you will have more information regarding these plugins.

WordPress

WordPress is an open source (Free to download and use) content management system (CMS) developed for a non-techie content writers and website runners.

It was first released in 2003 by Matt Mullenweg as a blog publishing platform. But through these years it has evolved into a much more complex CMS, where you can host all types of web platforms.

WordPress usually comes with 2 hosting platforms. One is free-hosting and the other is a paid / self-hosting.

The free hosting version is called WordPress.com and is owned by Automattic. It is more like Blogger or Blogspot.

On the other hand, Self-hosting version is called WordPress.Org. Almost world’s 38% on blogs run on WordPress.Org.

WordPress.com

WordPress.com is a free CMS for novice bloggers. If you are a newbie and yet to figure it out, I would recommend you to have your initial blogging set up on wordpress.com.

WordPress.com has many disadvantages over few advantages. Let us discuss them in detail.

WordPress.com is completely free. You can create a blog with beautiful free templates available with them.

Moreover, no technical skill is required to establish a wordpress.com blog. Just install the blog and customize it to your taste.

On the other hand, you might face lot of restrictions in nativizing your blog. As customization of blog’s outlook is extremely restricted, you might feel bored of using the same template.

You cannot add third party addons to wordpress.com blog. The blog widgets are limited. You might feel bored to blog after some time.

WordPress.Org

WordPress CMS as a whole is free to use, but you have to pay for hosting your blog and naming your blog with a custom domain.

As said earlier, most blogs and websites on the net are powered with self-hosted WordPress CMS. It is fully customizable and easy to edit.

You have tons of plugins available for your WordPress site. You can buy thirdparty themes, plugins and even form builders for your blog.

If you are an entrepreneur or want to start some blogging business, I would recommend a self-hosted WordPress site.

On the other hand, blogging with wordpress.org requires investment. You should buy webhosting and domain name for your blog or website.

Web hosting is an online platform where you store your files. Usually companies offer hosting services where you can host your files in their serves. The information you stored is available all the time for your readers.

On the other end, domain is like an address to your hosted files. As the files are stored in the server, you might require a specific web address to locate those files.

Both domain and hosting demand price and you should be buying the same on an yearly or monthly basis.

Here is a list of popular domain and hosting providers all over the world.

WordPress Vs Blogger. Which one is better?

Customization

Customization refers to how well you can design your blog. Every blog is unique and might require some customization which makes it different from its neighbouring blog.

Based on customization Blogger is a better platform compared to wordpress.com. As both are free blogs, the choice is yours.

A techie guy with good information on web designing, would prefer blogger as it has better customization abilities. You can easily modify the design ang functionality of your blog.

On the other hand, a non techie guy who is a first-time blogger, should go with wordpress.com, as you have less scope for customization.

But if you are a serious blogger, I would recommend you go with WordPress.org. A self-hosted website or blog has many advantages over the other two.

Skill:

Running a blog on blogger requires lot of skill and sound technical knowledge on coding and web designing. As blogger runs on python having good knowledge on python is an added advantage.

Forgot to say that, you can run a blog on blogger without any skill on coding. But your blog would be boring without any customization. A default blog with no customization is difficult to survive.

WordPress.com blogs are a bit better regarding skill requirement. You might require minimum skill to run a wordpress.com blog.

You will have full control over the blog when it comes to self-hosted wordpress.org blogs or websites. You can customize it as you like. You can create your own template for you blog with the help of web developers who are available at cheap prices in Fiverr.

SEO

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is a process of increasing your websites visibility to search engines like Google and Bing.

In simple words, search engines will collect data from your site and show them as search results when one searches for a specific topic (related to your blog content).

Search engine optimization is a core vital for blogging. If you are a serious blogger, I would recommend you concentrate more on SEO. It drives good traffic to your blog and makes your business prosper.

When it comes to SEO, I would say that self-hosted WordPress is a clear winner. You have third party plugins like Yoast SEO, One SEO, Rank math.

You must install any one of these plugins and make few modifications. Now your blog becomes SEO ready. Its as simple as that.

On the other hand, default blogger, wordpress.com blogs are similar in SEO terms. You may not have much scope to increase your SEO score.

AdSense

Are you running the blog for money? Then the best and ultimate option would be self-hosted WordPress.

Self – hosted blogs with custom domains have an edge over others in getting AdSense approval.

Through ad-sense is a google product and is integrated with your blog in blogger, getting approval is a tough task.

Reputation

In terms of reputation, a blog with neat and tidy out look gains good reputation. Usually blogs on self -hosted WordPress come under this category.

No-doubt there are good themes or templates in blogger and wordpress.com, but when a reader finds that the site is hosted from a blogger or wordpress.com platform, they tend to de-rate.

Support

These days, spammers also increase when your blog gets good traffic. They tend to increase your traffic exponentially for violating the standards of a blog.

As a result, you might be punished from the corporate search engines like Google and Bing. Moreover, you might be removed from AdSense community.

Such practices might hamper your earning capability from blogs if it is hosted by blogger or wordpress.com. Moreover, you might not get any technical support from google or wordpress.com. Google may even remove your blog content without any intimation.

Hence a self-hosted blog is superior in terms of support. You can save your blog from such black-hat spammers with the help of technical support from your hosting providers.

In addition to it, wordpress.org have tons of third party plugins (both free and paid) to protect your site from such spammers.

Third party plugins

A clear advantage of self-hosting sites compared to other platforms is availability of third-party plugins.

A default wordpress.org blog is almost like wordpress.com blog. But the difference lies in availability of 3^rd party plugins.

The WordPress plugins are powerful tools which empower your blog with lots of customization and functionality.

You can convert your entire blog into a book with one plugin. On the other hand, you might make your blog AMP ready with a simple plugin.

There are many functions with plugins, and wordpress.org comes with a variety of plugins. Some are free and some are paid.

The verdict

I think you read a lot and have gained good information from this read. By the end of this article, I will have a clear understanding on what you want.

The verdict is clear.

If you are a hobby blogger (blogging out of hobby), you should not be investing too much. Hence my advice is to go for wordpress.com or blogger.

Between them, blogger has an edge over wordpress.com when it comes to customization (If you know coding). But on the other hand, free WordPress blog has a clear advantage when it comes to outlook of your blog.

But the over all winner will be the self-hosted WordPress blog or site. Hope you like the post.

What do you think? Which one will be the best for you? I am eager to know your answer. Kindly comment below, so that your opinion can read me.

Blogger vs WordPress. Which one should I choose?

What is a content management system (CMS)?