Are you looking to start a blog? Not sure if you should use WordPress vs Blogger for your blogging platform? We’ve got you covered.
Blogger and WordPress are 2 of the most popular blogging platforms. They’re very popular for their ease of creating a blog. Although seemingly similar, they still have some differences. In this article, we’ll discuss it all and help you choose the best one for yourself.
We’ll compare Blogger vs WordPress side by side, make a list of their pros and cons, and explain how these platforms actually work. We hope that this will help you decide on a better blogging platform.
What to Look for in a Good Blog Platform?
Because of the variety of blogging platforms, it can be tough to choose the best blogging platform. Different blogging platforms have different features and work differently.
Here, we’ve enlisted some important things to consider before we get into WordPress vs Blogger comparison.
- Ease of use: You need an easy to use platform that you can set up and configure easily. Easy to use platform helps you be more efficient.
- Flexible: A good blogging platform requires a good set of features and the ability to add more as your blog grows.
- Support: Your blog changes and grows over time. You want your blogging platform to keep up with your growing blog and have support for a long time.
- Reliability: The reliability and security of your blogging platform are very crucial. You would want your content to be safe and under your control.
- Monetization options: If you are thinking of becoming a full-time blogger and earning from it, then you have to choose a platform that offers better monetization options. Most blog sites may allow you to monetize your blog, however, the options may vary.
- Cost-efficient: You want your choice of blogging platform to be under your budget while fulfilling your requirements. Going above your budget for a few additional features might not be a good decision.
Also, you need to look for design options, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) opportunities, and many more factors while choosing a blogging site for your blog.
With that said, let’s get into WordPress vs Blogger comparison.
WordPress vs Blogger – Introduction
What is WordPress? – Full-featured Website Building Platform
WordPress is the #1 most popular blog software that powers over 35% of the websites on the internet. It is a full-featured Content Management System (CMS) for building a website.
WordPress is available in mainly 2 different flavors: WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
WordPress.com is a fully-hosted blogging platform where you can simply sign up and start creating your blog. Whereas WordPress.org is a self-hosted platform. To learn more, read this article on WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.
In this article, we’re going to compare Blogger with the self-hosted version, i.e. WordPress.org.
If you want to know its difference with fully hosted version, then read another article WordPress.com vs Blogger.
WordPress.org or the WordPress software is the free open-source website creation software. You can use it to create websites, blogs, online stores, or any other type of website.
As a free open source software, you’ll get the freedom to use WordPress on as many sites as you want, modify the software, and even redistribute the modified version with others.
To create a WordPress website, you’ll need to choose a web hosting plan and get a domain name. You should check our guide on how to create a website for step by step guidance.
What is a Blogger? – Simple Way of Creating a Blog
Started in 1999 by Pyra Labs, Blogger is a free blogging platform currently run by Google since it acquired the company Pyra Labs in 2003. It is a simple blog site that lets you create and immediately publish your blog online.
Blogger is one of the first blogging platforms on the internet. It is a free blog hosting service and also gives you a free Blogspot subdomain.
Your free blog’s address will look like www.yourblogname.blogspot.com.
You can also connect your blog with a custom domain. You’ll need to register it from a third party domain registrar company for that.
Check out Best Domain Name Registrars for your domain needs.
Ease of Use – Blogger vs WordPress
Whether you are a beginner or a professional writer, web development might not be your strong point. You might want to focus on writing authentic, interesting and quality content rather than having to learn code to make your blog design look better.
Passionate content writers are often not tech-savvy. Therefore, they search for a platform that doesn’t require much coding or technical skills. As a result, a platform that doesn’t require much technical knowledge is sought after by many writers.
WordPress – Ease of Use
WordPress is probably the most user-friendly CMS platform available on the market. It allows anyone to create powerful websites and blogs easily without hiring a developer.
The WordPress platform is simple, however, the process of setting up the WordPress blog for the first time may require some patience. That’s because you need to buy a web hosting account and domain name.
But thankfully, all the top web hosting companies nowadays offer both these services as a package so you can buy both of these services at one place. Even better news is that some companies like Bluehost and DreamHost offer free domain at the purchase of a web hosting plan.
Once you’ve a web hosting account and domain, you can install WordPress and set up your site. It’s an easy process that anyone including beginners can understand and get used to it with a simple guide.
You can check our guide on How to start a WordPress blog Step by Step and you will have your WordPress site in no time.
After WordPress installation is complete, you’ll be able to access the WordPress admin area AKA dashboard easily. This is where you get features like adding posts and pages for your blog, editing your blog, and more. Most of these options are available in a simple one-click button.
You can change your theme and appearance of your blog very easily. You’ll also be able to download and install different WordPress plugins to improve your blog’s features like drag and drop builder.
Blogger – Ease of Use
Blogger is a very simple blogging platform. It provides a free blog hosting service, so you only need a Google account and you are good to go.
To get started, go to the Blogger website and click on the ‘Create Your Blog’ button. After that, you need to sign up with your Google account.
Once signed in, you’ll see options to set your blog title, address and to choose a theme. It provides a free blog address with blogspot.com subdomain. Your blog’s URL will look like this: www.yourblogname.blogspot.com.
You can also use a custom domain but you need to get it from a third party domain registrar.
Once setup is complete, you can access your Blogger dashboard. Adding posts and pages to your blog, configuring settings, and more features are present just click away.
Setting it up is a very simple process. Although it is easy to do some basic customization, if you want to customize your blog further then you will need some HTML skills.
Bottom Line: Both WordPress and Blogger are very easy to learn and use. Any beginner can start using them in no time.
Flexibility and Functionality – Blogger vs WordPress
One of the most important things that you need in your blogging platform is its flexibility. For your growing blog, you should be able to control all the functionality and add more features to your blog.
WordPress – Flexibility
WordPress is a free open source program. Adding and customizing features as you like is pretty easy. You can almost add any kind of functionality to your WordPress blog with plugins and third-party integrations.
It provides you with over 55,000+ free plugins in the WordPress.org page that you can integrate into your blog and thousands of premium plugins. You can add different features and make your blog best for you.
You can add stores, create different forms. Add different SEO tools and many more. Not only that, you can also create custom plugins if you’ve coding skills.
There are thousands of free and premium themes that you can use to make your WordPress blog look much more professional. You can customize your blog’s appearance with an easy drag and drop tool.
There are themes for just about every kind of website you want. Those high-quality themes can be modified to your liking. You can also integrate high-quality themes from third-party providers.
Blogger– Flexibility
Blogger is a writing-focused service with a minimal number of tools. The customization and flexibility of Blogger are minimum compared to WordPress.
Blogger provides some limited number of templates which are very basic and common. You’re able to modify the layouts and color to some extent but you can’t create your own layouts.
Themes and templates for Blogger are hard to come by and they are not as high quality and flexible as WordPress.
Blogger has some basic features like adding ads, subscription links and forms in its gadget but those are about it for the features. They have limited functionality and Blogger doesn’t have a huge number of plugins as WordPress does.
Some crucial options like popups, eCommerce functions, and more are missing from the Blogger platform. As your blog grows, you will feel the lack of those features and it will affect your blog’s growth.
Bottom Line: In terms of functionality, flexibility, and customization, Blogger falls way behind WordPress.
Support – Blogger vs WordPress
You need a blogging platform with a good support team. No matter how easy your blogging platform may be, you sometimes run into issues that you can’t fix.
Having a strong dedicated support team at the back lets you solve the issues instantly and get your blogging journey going.
WordPress – Support
There is a great active support community in WordPress. There are forums for questions and answers for each theme and plugins and for any problems that the user might run to.
The paid version of WordPress products can get you more dedicated support. With 24/7 active support community and service, support is taken care of no matter the condition.
Blogger – Support
The support for Blogger is very limited. The community is not very active and your choices for the support are very limited. There are some helpful tutorials for basic problems but not for a more advanced problem.
You can query your problems and question on the internet and forums but the response is not guaranteed. You can use the Help option in blogger but it covers basic support.
Bottom Line: Between the 24/7 active support community of the WordPress vs the limited tutorial support of Blogger, the support for WordPress is better than the support for Blogger.
Reliability – Blogger vs WordPress
The blogging platform should have a reliable system to help you out whenever you need it. Having a reliable system and good security is crucial in choosing the best blogging platform.
WordPress – Reliability and Security
WordPress is quite secure but the security and backups depend on you as it is a self-hosted system. But there are many plugins that you can use to make it easy for you to manage it.
Since it is an open-source project, the future update is not dependent on any one company or any individual. It’s managed by the public community and the updates are focused on the desire of the public.
Blogger – Reliability and Security
Blogger, being a service provided by Google, comes with the advantage of its robust, secure platform. You don’t need to worry about managing the server’s resources, securing your blog, or creating backups.
On the contrary, there’s no guarantee of how long you can have your Blogger blog running. Since Google owns the Blogger, it can shut down the service anytime when it wants to. There has been a lack of major updates for some time so there is a lack of reliability for updates.
Bottom Line: Although the security of WordPress is dependent on you, the plugins for WordPress makes it very easy for you. Compared to the open-source WordPress with constant updates, Blogger is far behind WordPress in terms of reliability.
Monetization Options – Blogger vs WordPress
If you’re planning to become a full-time blogger, you need a blogging platform that has good monetization facilities. Different platforms have different restrictions and different conditions for monetization. You have to be mindful of those to get the most out of its facilities.
WordPress – Monetization
Since self-hosted WordPress is a free service that is controlled by you, you have the freedom to display different ads. You’re not restricted to show ads and monetize your blog as you see fit.
You can use different free and premium plugins for monetization purposes. You don’t have to share any revenue you get from the ads that you host. WordPress can also be used to create an online store to sell your products and services.
Also, you can create membership sites, affiliate marketing blogs, online learning websites, and earn money.
Blogger – Monetization
Blogger lets you add Google Adsense to your blog and earn money from it. For that, you have to apply for Google Adsense first and upon verification, you can show ads on your blog. You can also monetize your blog by affiliate marketing.
Blogger lacks some features to monetize like online stores or eCommerce features so you can’t have a store selling your products like in WordPress.
Bottom Line: WordPress is better than Blogger in terms of monetization as there are many eCommerce features.
Cost-effective – Blogger vs WordPress
Starting a blog on a good platform is very crucial but you should also be mindful of what it costs to set up a blog. If you’re not comfortable with the expense of starting a blog on any particular platform, then building your way up from a less expensive platform is a great idea.
Cost for WordPress
WordPress is a free open source software but you need a domain name and hosting service. This might cost around $15/year for a domain name and around $8/month for hosting.
For starting bloggers, there are some WordPress hosting companies like Bluehost and Dreamhost that provide cost-effective plans. These hosting companies offer plans at discounted prices and also free domain names at the purchase of hosting plans.
For example, you can get WordPress hosting for $2.75 per month and get a free domain name from Bluehost. Similarly, Dreamhost also offers WordPress hosting for just $2.59 per month and a free domain name along with it.
For more information, you can check out our list of the best WordPress hosting services.
Cost for Blogger
Blogger is a fully free of cost blogging service. It provides free blog hosting and a free Blogspot subdomain. The features like themes, gadgets and other options are also free of cost.
If you want to have a custom domain, then you need to buy it from a third-party domain registrar company. A domain name normally costs $15 per year.
Blogger is very cost-effective but it lacks many crucial features that a growing blog needs.
Bottom Line: If you are not looking for a custom domain, then Blogger costs almost nothing. So, it is a cheaper option.
Pros and Cons – Blogger vs WordPress
To simplify all the stuff that we learned, we have a pros and cons list for WordPress vs Blogger.
WordPress
Pros
- Getting your blog started with WordPress is pretty quick and easy.
- The platform is beginner-friendly and you can learn to use it very easily.
- You can create blogs and websites very easily.
- There are tons of customization options and thousands of plugins and themes.
- You can also add custom plugins with some coding knowledge.
Cons
- You require a hosting plan and domain name to get started for WordPress.org.
- Responsibility for backups and performance is on you.
Blogger
Pros
- Very quick and easy to set up.
- Creating and posting blog posts are no hassle and easy to learn.
- You do not need any money investment. They take care of hosting.
Cons
- Basic functionality. You are limited to the only blog.
- Limited features for customizations.
- You don’t fully own the blog as it can be canceled anytime Google wants.
Conclusion
WordPress and Blogger are 2 of the most used blogging platforms. They power thousands of blogs all over the internet. The choice between them both comes down to the purpose of your blog.
If you want a simple personal blog where you can share your stores, then Blogger can be the simple platform you are looking for.
But if you want to make your blog professional and monetize it to earn a living, you need a platform that is reliable and capable of it. WordPress is the best choice for that.
You can add a shop to your blog, have membership options and many more.
We hope this article helped you figure out the difference between WordPress vs Blogger and which is the better blog platform.
You might want to check our article on the types of blogs that you can write about in 2021.
