Even if you have a minuscule of information that will benefit others, then it’s worth sharing. And a great way of sharing is by blogging. Blogging has taken the whole world by a wave.
And there are two popular platforms, WordPress and Blogger by Google.
WordPress is the #1 blogging platform powering 38% of the blogs on the internet. It was started in 2005 and has been leading the market since then.
Blogger is the #2 blogging platform powered by Google. It comes with the security and reliability of Google powering 1% of the blogs on the internet.
In this article, we are going to look in-depth at these two platforms to help you choose the platform that is best suitable for your blog.
WordPress vs Blogger
Ease of Use
If you are just testing the waters with blogging, then ease of use is a must. Because creating quality content in itself is hard. You don’t want to be burdened with the blog set up too.
Blogger is a straightforward blogging platform. All you need is a Google account to get started. Which you will already have.
You have to sign up on the blogger platform with your Google account. Choose a theme from their list of themes. And you will be ready to publish your first blog.
You will get a sub domain for free. And you will have to pay to get a custom domain.
As for WordPress, you have to buy a hosting plan and a domain name to install WordPress into the website. Once you have done that the rest is a piece of cake.
You can choose from their ocean of free themes and plugins. You will have more resources if you add on third-party services.
But when it comes to getting started, then Blogger is the easiest. A beginner can get scared at words like hosting and domain name when it comes to WordPress. Even though they are not that complicated.
Design
There are millions of blogs out there. You cannot stand out with just unique content. You need a good design. You need an attractive interface. Let us see which platforms offer the best.
Blogger has a limited set of templates that are simple and functional. We can customize the colors and layouts of these templates. However, due to the limited set of templates, no template will be unique to you. You will probably find hundreds of blogs with your template on the platform.
There are some third-party designs you could import. But it can be tricky and costly. And comes with the same basic template.
On Contrast WordPress comes with an ocean of designs and templates. You can choose from thousands of free and paid designs and plugins suitable for your website.
You can search and find designs suitable for your niche. For example, if you run a photography blog, you can find themes best suitable for it. Unlike Blogger where you have a set of themes regardless of the niche.
There are 7400+ free plugins alone on the official WordPress website alone. In addition, you can import third-party themes with ease or you can design your own website.
It will also allow you to import extra features and options based on your requirement. Thus, WordPress wins hands down when it comes to designs and themes.
Analytics and reporting
Analytics is very important for a blog. It lets you define your audience and what they like about your content. So that you can improve the quality of your blog and thus grow it organically.
Blogger offers you all the necessary analytics like the gender proportions, the average age of people who visit your blog, the timing your blog gets more views, the performance of your blog based on the day of the week, etc.
WordPress also offers these basic analyses. And it offers more in-depth analysis with additional add ons. For example, you can check backlinks, title strength suggestions, focus keywords, the structure of the blog, etc. All this will help you make a better blog. With time and practice, your blog is sure to grow.
When it comes to analytics, WordPress has the upper hand again with its helpful suggestions and analytics.
Updates
When it comes to updates, WordPress is full of them. There is always a newer version of your current plugins. Some of them are auto-updated. And some of them you have to search and update before your current version goes obsolete. It needs research, learning, and automation.
Blogger automatically updates any new version released. However, Blogger has not updated its platform in any major way in the past decade or so. So it’s quite outdated.
We are always in search of the latest version, an easier version of our current service. If you are one of them, then WordPress is better suited to your needs. It rolls out unlimited updates for their existing plugins. And mostly they cost you nothing.
Flexibility
When it comes to blogging, there is no systematic or defined way to succeed. You have to experiment with stuff to find what works for you and what does not.
WordPress offers lots of flexibility to experiment with your blog. It allows you to switch hosting services and move your website around. It allows you to change themes and find the one that works for you. It allows a huge amount of plugins like social media share buttons, contact me buttons, add to cart buttons, etc. You can add these based on the nature of your blog.
Basically you can play with the look and feel of your blog if that’s your cup of tea.
However, Blogger is quite rigid. It is only hosted by Google so you can’t export it anywhere. You cannot import any third-party services into the website. You can change the themes as much as you wish. But there are an only a limited set of themes.
When it comes to flexibility, Blogger has almost none. And WordPress has so much flexibility that it can complicate things. But you cannot deny that WordPress is more flexible than Blogger.
Security
When we care about something, we check twice if it’s secured well. And blogs are subjected to various online attacks like hacking, plagiarism, etc.
And we all trust Google so much that most of us have an account. And Blogger comes with that trust and security. You don’t have to worry about backups and security. Google takes care of it all.
WordPress also comes with equal security and backups. But you as an owner will be taking care of it. However, there are many third-party services that will take care of the whole process for a small amount if you find it overwhelming.
But when it comes to recovery, you cannot recover your website if the Blogger platform is shut down. You will not have any version of your website.
On the other hand, you will have the last backup of your WordPress website. So even if your current website goes down, you don’t have to start from scratch. Your data is not completely lost.
Even though Blogger is easy to secure, WordPress allows you to secure and recover. Thus WordPress is a safer bet.
Ownership
When it’s your thoughts and your ideas, it’s more personal than anything and you want complete control and ownership over it.
Blogger is a Google platform. It is self-hosted. So the blogger belongs to Google and its accounts belong to Google. Even though you own the content, your account will always belong to google. It can suspend your account or the blogger platform itself whenever Google wants. It can go up in the air just like Google+. It’s like renting a house. It never really belongs to you.
WordPress is a self-hosted platform. That means you have to build the website step by step. You have to take care of hosting, storage, security, backup, etc. much like building your own house.
The process is complicated. But once done, the website is completely yours. Nobody can shut it down or suspend you. Your website is completely in your control.
So if you want to really own your site, then WordPress is the way to go.
Monetization
Blogs are a great way to earn money. Not all the contents have to be shared for free. While you provide value through your blog, you will want to receive a payment.
Blogs are a great way for making recurring Income. Let us compare the money-making opportunities provided by these blogging platforms.
WordPress offers a huge opportunity to make money on their platform. Some of the ways are:
- Build an online store.
- Publish a book and sell it.
- Sell an online course.
- By displaying ads.
- By creating a portfolio to get freelancing gigs.
And many more ways. All you have to do is select the right plugins and you will be all set to make money. And the big plus is you can receive the money you earn instantly using PayPal or Stripe.
Blogger is a completely opposite case. The only way to make money through Blogger is through Google AdSense. Even for that, you need a paid domain and a fixed amount of traffic. You can’t earn in Blogger unless you have decent traffic. Making money for beginners is not possible.
Thus WordPress has more way to earn an income from blogging than Blogger.
Support
When we are getting started on something we need support. No matter how easy a task it is, at first it will seem complicated.
Blogger has a clear set of documentation and a user forum to guide us. And they have clear tutorials on their help page to navigate the platform. And honestly, you will find all the support you need in that because Blogger is a pretty basic website. You won’t get personal or live chat support since it’s a free service platform.
This is the same case with WordPress too. However, WordPress has very active community support. You can tap on to people who have faced problems similar to yours. Or you can post your problems and get answers directly from the web developers or fellow users.
And based on your hosting services or website developers you can even get one on one support or live chat support.
And there is a ton of tutorials made by bloggers and developers available for free to help you better your blogging experience. On WordPress, you can find a solution for your problem no matter how small or big it is with just the resources that are available. And thus WordPress comes out a clear winner.
Pricing
Pricing is one of the crucial factors while starting a blog. You cannot start a lavish blog at the beginning. And here we will compare the cost of starting a blog in Blogger and WordPress.
Blogger offers a subdomain with free hosting for their users. And it is free for life.
If you want a custom domain with Blogger, it will cost around $15 per month. And it will only give you a custom domain and no extra features.
On WordPress, you have to build your own website. You have to get a custom domain, buy a hosting service, and a domain name for your website. It can cost as little as $6 per month and as costly as it can get based on your requirements.
The expense will add to the additional paid services you choose to do like security, backups, Shopify plugin, third-party themes, etc. Setting a blog in WordPress can be cheapest as well as be expensive based on the services we can afford.
Blogger allows you to run a blog for free. But when it comes to paid service, WordPress has more added value for the money than Blogger.
Drawbacks
Even though Blogger and WordPress are two blogging giants, both websites have some drawbacks we have to take into account.
The drawbacks of Blogger are:
- It is quite outdated. The platform has not been updated in any major ways in years.
- It is very rigid and thus it only allows limited customization. Thus making your website uniform and boring.
- It has limited monetization options. Even that is possible only if you buy a custom domain and have high traffic.
- It has no space to grow. After a level, there is a compulsory need to switch platforms if you want to grow further.
The drawbacks of WordPress are:
- It has quite a bit of a learning curve. You can’t just click some buttons and be done with it. You have to research the service you want on your website before starting it.
- You have to handle everything on your own like hosting, domain, security, and backup. Or you have to pay a sum to a third party. There is little automation involved.
- Getting the best quality service can be expensive. Most service providers cost a fortune for their top-tier service.
Conclusion
In the above, in-depth comparison, we can see that Blogger is simple, secure, and easy to use. While WordPress is more flexible, has more designs, more plugins, better monetization options, and good community support.
Based on this Blogger will be more suitable for beginners to test waters around blogging, to run a journal, or a simple kid-friendly blog.
But if you want a professional blog or you want to grow your business through blogging, then WordPress is better to go.
If you are new to blogging, then starting with Blogger and then upgrading to WordPress would be an inevitable option. We can’t deny that the future lies with WordPress and its rich resources.
