Head to Head: Blogger vs WordPress
Posted on 16. Jul, 2009 by Isaac Yassar in Blogging
Good day mate!
Which one do you prefer for your blog, Blogger or WordPress?
Those two blogging platforms are the leaders in the industry and widely used by most bloggers in the vast blogosphere.
If you want to start a blog, perhaps you wonder which one you should use for your blog. Blogger and WordPress both serve as a functional platform for both free domain and custom / own domain.
In my opinion, the question is not “which”, but “when”.
Blogger and WordPress for free domain blogging
If you are interested in free blogging experience using WordPress, you can visit wordpress.com and sign up. You will get free sub-domains like yourname.wordpress.com.
Nevertheless, the drawback is that you are not allowed to monetize your blog. It is against their terms of service and your blog can be suspended because of it. Also, the depth of customization is very limited there. I had a blog on wordpress.com once, and up to now, I haven’t find any manual way to add a text on the sidebar (let alone codes) without changing the theme first, seriously.
For free domain blogging with Blogger platform, you can visit blogger.com and sign up. You will get free sub-domains of blogspot.com, such as yourname.blogspot.com. This popular free-platform offers incredible depth of customization, allowing you to customize almost every aspect of your blog. You are also free to monetize it, and that is why people love it.
If you are new to blogging and want to learn about it and try your luck first, I suggest using Blogger platform. The freedom of customization and monetizing is a great value you’ll certainly enjoy.
Blogger and WordPress for custom / own domain blogging
Blogger platform can also be used on custom / own domain publishing fellas. To do that, you need to sign up to blogger.com and set up a blog where you define your custom web address using a simple wizard. The drawback is that your site will never be autonomous. It will depend on blogger.com to publish new posts, edit appearance, change settings etc. If something happens to blogger.com then your site will be crippled.
WordPress is famous for its custom domain publishing. To use it, you need to download the platform (3Mb of a zip file), then install it on your domain storage (including database setting). Afterward, your site will be autonomous. It does not need any other site to run. If you want to publish new posts, edit appearance, change settings, etc, you just need to visit your own site and login there.
If you want to set up a new professional blog on a custom domain aiming at generating money, I suggest using WordPress. Its reliability and autonomous system will help you in your online business venture. WordPress platform + own domain = a better blog.
Well, which one is your favorite? Why? Feel free to share in the comment box. Have a nice day 
25 Responses to “Head to Head: Blogger vs WordPress”
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About Isaac Yassar
I am a part-time blogger who really loves blogging and WordPress.
I always want to be a better blogger and this blog is a journal for it. Read more on my about page.
Jeff
19. Jul, 2009
I think Blogger is the best for starting out. It’s simple to set up and your blogging in no time.
Once you get some experience, WordPress and a custom domain give you more flexibility.
Isaac Yassar
19. Jul, 2009
@Jeff
Then we’re in the same boat then
jwane
20. Aug, 2009
I started on Blogger in 2005 with a site called ‘The Build’ which is still up and running but I decided to start my new site with Wordpress. WordPress is much more versatile and I have more control over posting and editing. I agree with Jeff, Blogger is great to start with to learn the ropes and then you move up to WordPress for much more professional looking site.
Isaac Yassar
20. Aug, 2009
Me too. I blog on a blogspot blog for 7 months before I felt confident to start a professional blog on my own domain, this one
eldy
04. Sep, 2009
blogger is easy to use .. then 1 question = blogger.com is impossible to collapse !!
Isaac Yassar
05. Sep, 2009
Hi eldy, you mean 1 statement or 1 question? Because it doesn’t look like a question to me
Leif Andersen
20. Dec, 2009
I completely agree with you on custom blogging. In my opinion, it sort of seams like blogger is the once myspace of blogging. It seams like everyone there is generally out there to only have a free blog, to put pictures of their family/pets. With about the only exception being google’s own blog. On the flip side of the coin, wordpress seams to be the de-facto standard of people who want to blog for more (semi-)professional reasons, or at least to create a blog with more purpose than ‘look my two year old son did yesterday’.
With that being said, I am currently on a wordpress.com account, using my own domain name. I am there until I get enough visitors a day that I feel like it will merit me getting a blog and using the wordpress.org software. Yes, I like the idea of being able to monotize and to some extent customise on blogger, but it seams like most blogs on their are cartoony, not to mention there seams to be no way to get rid of that annoying Blogger bar at the top. I would use blogger, but I feel like I won’t be able to eventually expand if I use it.
Isaac Yassar
20. Dec, 2009
Interesting point of view buddy. Btw, I actually know 2 ways to remove blogger navbar. But I’m not sure if they still work now
Leif Andersen
20. Dec, 2009
Oh, cool. That’s currently the #1 reason why I’m still on wordpress.com, I want to try to build my own brand, not just extend Blogger’s. Although, after doing some searching, I think all I need to do is insert some HTML. (Another reason why blogger is better, although you already mentioned that).
Isaac Yassar
20. Dec, 2009
Did you mean WordPress.org ? WordPress.org + own domain rocks! None beats the combo
Kissie
21. Dec, 2009
Thank you for this post, I have to always come up with a reason (an excuse) for sticking with Blogger (with all its faults). It’s just so easy for me to use and I can maneuver so well that I don’t see the urgency is jumping ship. I do have problems, but when encounter the issues….it’s not hard for me to get help.
So, there you have it.
Thank you again for helping me to articulate why I stick with Blogger for my free domain.
Isaac Yassar
21. Dec, 2009
Moving to another domain is a big thing. Especially when we have never done it. It was quite tough for me to get my own domain after 7 months on blogspot because I never set up any domain before. But it was a step I got to take, and now I am happy I took it.
ileane
21. Dec, 2009
Hi Isaac,
You mentioned a couple of things about WordPress.com and I just want to make sure I understand your statement. I have added text and HTML code to the side bar of my WordPress.com blog and the theme that I am using is Ocean Mist. Here is my blog http://ileane.wordpress.com. You might not be able to do this with other themes, but I’m not sure because I have been using this one for awhile now.
I have adsense on my Blogger blog but I never make any money from it. Can you put other ads on blogger too? Let me know what your experience has been.
WordPress.com is my choice for now, but I will continue using Blogger also. I think that it’s good to have experience with both so that I can help others when they have questions. Eventually, I will migrate everything over to WordPress.org on my own domain.
Thanks for the post.
@Ileane
Isaac Yassar
21. Dec, 2009
Hi Illiane. Yeah, you can put many ads on Blogger, but the result still depends on the traffic you got. I personally think it is hard to develop a brand on a free domain, because I always think ‘great brand attracts great traffic’. And we need great traffic to monetize our site well.
pravakar
24. Dec, 2009
Users can also upload video directly into Blogger, without the need to upload it on YouTube or elsewhere, which is great way to keep the video on your blog
instead of infront of the public masses.
Isaac Yassar
24. Dec, 2009
Though I have never used it, it looks like a nice feature of Blogger. Nice addition mate!
ileane
24. Dec, 2009
Hey, that is a good one, but I’m not sure I understand whay you want to do that. When I go through the trouble of making a video I put it up on YouTube, iTunes, Blip.tv, DailyMotion etc. The more sites you add the video to, the more chances you can get traffic back on your blog.
Also, it’s funny that you bring this up because my friend uploaded her first video the other day and but I couldn’t see it, we finally figured out that it was my Chrome browser that caused the problem.
MrCyberSmart
26. Dec, 2009
WordPress- There really is not even any real contest- WordPress won the 2009 open source award for a reason. The Wall Street Journal, Ebay, Ford and many others, do not use Blogger for one reason – They have WordPress. “-)
Isaac Yassar
31. Dec, 2009
Yeah, all the pros use WordPress. The free platforms are only for newbies. No doubt that WordPress is the best publishing platform in the world.
dfian
26. Dec, 2009
bogger and wordpress both have advantages and disadvantages of each ..
good post ..
Isaac Yassar
28. Dec, 2009
Thanks buddy. Yeah, everything is like a coin with two opposite sides
Ann Christine Dennison
29. Dec, 2009
I started with WordPress in the beginning but just couldn’t get it to do what I wanted and changed to Blogspot. Blogger has it’s limits but has the potential to be made into a good site. As an artist, what bugs me most is the clumsiness of putting in many pictures which always end up at the top of the blog and have to be dragged down and the spacing adjusted afterwards. This can be time consuming and I frequently get impatient in my other blog (http://acdenn.blogspot.com/) while doing this, dreaming of a content management system. There again it is free of charge and that is great, so thanks blogger
It is clearly an advantage if a person knows some basic html to change the original template to suit their needs and blogger has improved since I started and access in putting extra elements in is much easier now.
Isaac Yassar
29. Dec, 2009
When I first blogged, I try 5 platforms including WordPress.com and Blogger.com . Then I found that Blogger.com was very easy to use and convenient so I stick to it before getting my own domain.
Your works are great Ann, why don’t you get your own domain? That will be more professional.
Ann Christine Dennison
29. Dec, 2009
Hi Isaac,
I have thought about getting my own website with a hotel and domain but have stuck to my blogs at the moment, partly because they are known by my contacts. It would be wonderful having control over my own site with a content management system that makes it easy to change things around. Maybe I will pursue this in 2010. Or I might just buy domain names for my existing blogs.
Have you ever tried Typepad? I have noticed that many artist bloggers choose this as their platform and cannot seem to work out their advantages in comparison to blogger through their homesite, plus they are pretty expensive to use as well.
I wish you A Happy New Year!
Christine
Isaac Yassar
29. Dec, 2009
Hi Christine. I haven’t tried Typepad yet. But it’s true that to run a website we need to prepare some bucks. I use WordPress platform (from wordpress.org), it’s free. But I pay for my domain and hosting. As I’ve done it, I can say that it is truly worthy.
In my opinion, the cost running a website is cheap and not a big deal. The big deal is the change. It was so difficult for me because I had never done it before. After I got my domain, install WP, and run it myself, everything is like a piece of cake, very easy. The second time is a breeze.
Happy new year for you too