WordPress vs Blogger: Which is Better for Blogging?

You may have started blogging or may have started planning your blogging career, and one important aspect which needs to be decided is which platform to use for your blog site. The platform is an essential element when talking about blogging, as all the other factors are interlinked with the type of platform you decide to go with.

We are going to shed some light on the two most popular blogging platforms, that is, Blogger.com and WordPress.org. Both have been in the market for a long time and have seen many changes in the blogging industry. There are many factors in which we are going to compare both platforms.

By the end of the guide, you will surely have an understanding of which platform you should go with.

WordPress vs Blogger: Popularity

WordPress was initially released on 27th May 2003 and has since been growing to become a good competitor of the Blogger. It is a content management system (CMS) developed by the WordPress Foundation.

WordPress powers around 32% of all the websites on the internet. This shows how much market share it holds and what impact it has on the users around the globe. According to the stats on BuiltWith, WordPress is at the top position among 1 million websites on blog usage distribution.

The accessibility and popularity make it possible for users to get into using the CMS with not much problem.

On the other hand, Blogger has quite a huge difference in its blog usage distribution. Blogger is in the second position, yet it fails to reach the numbers of WordPress. Blogger is a blog-publishing service that still has a huge audience, and many professionals still blog on the platform. It was launched on 23rd August 1999 and was then bought by Google in 2003.

The Google trends show how popularity has shifted towards WordPress. We can see how, around December of 2009, both were at par with each other. However, around 2010, the difference started to increase.

Key Takeaway: As of now, WordPress is way more powerful than the Blogger platform. The number of users migrating from blogger to WordPress is increasing significantly and no doubt WordPress is more popular today. If you are looking at the popularity, WordPress is easily the winner here.

WordPress vs Blogger: Ownership Rights

Blogging requires you to invest a lot of time and assets into it to yield benefits from it. As a result, it becomes crucial that the written content you create is yours and yours alone. Otherwise, there can be many royalties and extra expenses you may have to pay for your content. Therefore, it is advised that you first research everything about a platform before you start writing on it.

Blogger is a free service provided by Google for blogging. You can blog freely and use numerous features to make your blogs rank high and climb the success ladder. However, the assets, content, and any other data that you publish in your blogs can be seized by Google at any time. In other words, you do not own the content that you created, and Google can shut it down at will.

This sounds horrifying as your investment and hard work could be taken over in seconds. People could use their web hosting service up until 1st May 2010. But then all of the domains had to be rerouted to either the blogspot.com subdomain or Google’s servers. Also, users have a website limit of 100 per account on Blogger.

On the other hand, WordPress users have the power to choose between their web hosting service and WordPress hosting. Moreover, there is no issue of ownership rights with WordPress. You own the data you create, and no one has any right over your property and assets. As a result, this makes your blogs easy to monetize, and you can start to earn a good income from them.

Also, there is no privacy concern as you are the only one who can decide who can have access to your data, and no third party has any rights.

Key Takeaway: While Blogger is entirely free, it does come with a price. Price of your content. Google having the content rights of all content published over does gives WordPress a point here. With WordPress, all of your content is yours only. No one can take it down without that easily.

WordPress vs Blogger: Control Over Blog

To decide a platform, you must know about the features it provides. The tools and features will help you decide your future projects and help you expand your reach. Therefore, investing time in understanding the ins and outs of service is extremely essential.

Blogger has built-in tools that help a blogger get the job done. There are layout options like subscription button, AdSense feature, social share button plugin, etc. You cannot find the latest options like pop-up ads and other eCommerce tools in Blogger. In short, the features in the Blogger are just enough to get the job done, quick, and simple.

However, in the growing market, it is needed that you keep changing your style as per the market demand. Alluring the audience is a very important and difficult task as there are several competitors in the market. In addition, when you concentrate on the quality, you may fail at the presentation.

To avoid this, good control over all the features is necessary.

On the other hand, WordPress is open-source software that has several plugins to help you build your site. Open source has a lot of freedom as any developer can build a plugin and use it or share it. The variety thus increases, and each blogger can use personally customized plugins to support his blog.

Moreover, it helps users follow the latest trend in the market, which will benefit from maintaining an up-to-date blog.

Key Takeaway: You do not feel restricted with WordPress at all. Since WordPress is an open-source program, you can find a solution to almost every problem out there. While Blogger does restricts you from taking full customization power over your blog.

WordPress vs Blogger: Flexibility in Design

The design of your blog site is a very important factor in attracting the audience. It also shows professionalism and helps users find the info they are looking for with ease. It is simply not possible to get a huge audience if your interface and design are unorganized.

The design includes themes, images, layout, structure, menus, social share buttons, pop-ups, etc. All these have to be managed by you, and they should be placed with a motive to allure and help the visitors.

Blogger has some of the above options, but it is not optimal for an attractive website. Nowadays, it is not possible to pull the audience with the simple layouts which worked earlier in blogging.

In other words, the blogs in Blogger look generic, and the layout has been used excessively by many sites.

Meanwhile, the users of WordPress have a huge variety of layouts, themes, plugins, pop-ups, etc. This works wonders as the audience feels the fresh face of the blog site instead of the outdated structure. Moreover, it helps you structure the content according to the tools you have at your disposal. You have a variety of layouts, which your niche requires to present the content in a better manner.

Customized design

A blogger probably would not feel he is restricted in regards to control of his own website’s design. When it comes to customizations to your website, you can use themes, plugins, and can even custom code your website if needed.

One of the plugins is the Blog Designer plugin. This plugin allows you to create a custom layout for your website easily without touching a single line of code. There are dozens of theme layouts and designs that you can use to create the website design you desire. With the customization options in the backend, you can literally customize your website layout to almost any design you want. If you want to take a look at various designs that you can make, you can take a look here.

Key Takeaway: For your website customization, the blogger is nothing compared to WordPress. You can customize your website easily on WordPress with tools like Blog Designer without touching a single line of code.

WordPress vs Blogger: User-Friendly

There is always a question of which platform is easier to use. The more user-friendly a platform is, the more you can focus on generating content instead of worrying about learning the platform.

Blogger is quite easy to use, and setup takes only a few minutes. You will need to make a Google account and sign up on the Blogger website. The interface does not contain difficult procedures, and any person can get started in minutes. Moreover, the user can even set the design and organize his website and start the process of blogging very quickly.

Similarly, WordPress has the same point-and-click method of installing the software. Setting up themes and plugins is quite simple, and you can easily drag and drop any tools on your page. Moreover, you do not need any type of coding to build your website.

Both are quite simple and efficient, but due to several options available on WordPress, one may find better options as compared to Blogger while building their blog site. If you are focusing on competing with others in the market in creating your authority, then WordPress can make that very easy for you.

Read Next: 6 Reasons Why You Should Choose WordPress

Key Takeaway: When it comes to User-friendliness, you get more organized and easy to access the dashboard on the WordPress platform. Blogger has almost the same layout and is easy to navigate but offers fewer functionalities.

WordPress vs Blogger: Terms of Security

Security is one of the most important factors in deciding on a platform. When you build your site, you would want all your data to remain secure and safe. No one wants their data to be destroyed or tampered with. All your investment and revenue could go to waste if any type of attack blocks your progress.

Furthermore, you are also responsible for the reader’s and subscriber’s data you collect as any misuse of the data could result in a huge community uproar. When you include the credit card/payment details of your customers, this situation seems much direr.

Blogger has the support of tech giant Google, and its name is enough to trust that your data will be secure. Google can handle managing the server’s resources and creating backups of your site. There is hardly any downtime with Google’s servers, so it is quite a good option in terms of security.

WordPress is also secure, but you do have to take care of which hosting you are choosing. This decision could cause a problem, as your choice could be unreliable. However, this can be avoided by researching all your options and choosing a service that is popular and reliable.

You can install plugins to take a backup of your data regularly. WordPress does make security an easy task to handle, thus making you feel relaxed in all situations.

Key Takeaway: Blogger comes with the support of Google and comes with basic requirements for any casual blogger. WordPress, on the other hand, offers you the option to explore which hosting and security you want to go with. Real examples of various popular websites that are driving millions of users are in fact running on WordPress.

WordPress vs Blogger: Customer Support Options

Managing a blog is very difficult, and many problems can occur at the most crucial time. Therefore, you must get customer support from the service providers.

Blogger has only a couple of options to get the problem fixed. You can use the forum to discuss the problem and get feedback, but there is not much else you can do about your problem. If someone is unable to help you out in the forum, then your chances are slim to find a solution. Documentation can help you out for some simple queries, but any other hurdle will restrict you from getting further.

On the other hand, WordPress has an active community that helps you out in a short time. Many people have good knowledge about the software and can thus direct you on the right path. The community forums have active members, and you will have multiple answers to your queries so you can be sure that at least one of the solutions works out.

Moreover, each plugin or theme developers provide constant support to give you a hassle-free experience. Apart from the community, it is also possible to find related problems on chatrooms, Reddit threads, and many groups where users experience the same issue.

Key Takeaway: When it comes to Blogger, you have limited support options. With WordPress, you have various support channels and support forums that can help you. If you are using a good hosting provider, you will get live support for the same as well.

WordPress vs Blogger: Ease of Migration

Let us assume something went wrong, then you may need to migrate your website to another platform. You should have the freedom to port your blog anywhere else.

In Blogger, though it is possible to export your blog to another platform, this process is a bit complicated, and there is a huge risk that you will lose your website’s ranking. All the efforts put into optimizing your site will go to waste.

The process and management of porting of the blog site are quite simple in WordPress. You can change your hosting, domain name, change your content management system from WordPress to any other, quickly and easily. You can also rest easy about the ranking of your site as WordPress handles SEO very efficiently.

Key Takeaway: Migrating on WordPress is very easy. You do not have to go through any complicated processes and if you wish you can use any of the popular migration services out there.

WordPress vs Blogger: Pricing of Packages

Blogger provides a free service. Its hosting is free and will also provide you with the Blogspot subdomain. The tools, design, themes, templates are all free and easy to apply to your site, and you can get started in no time.

Moreover, if you wish, you can even go for your custom domain, which you have to purchase through domain registration companies.

In WordPress, you have to buy your domain and hosting, the software itself is free. You can find many services that provide good hosting and domain registration on the net for WordPress. You could even use WordPress’s own hosting.

The part where your funds will go depends upon the use and purpose of your blogging. If you purchase third-party plugins and themes, your expenses will go up. Otherwise, WordPress has a plethora of options to choose from, and you can get started in no time with minimum investment.

The key point to consider here is what you get for the price you are putting in. If you are planning on blogging casually as a hobby then blogger is a good option. But if you are planning on starting a blogging journey as a career option, then WordPress is your only way to make it happen. The next point will be good to convince you.

Key Takeaway: While blogger is free, you might need to invest a small annual amount for the domain. For WordPress, you need to pay for the domain as well as the hosting for your website. But the features and capabilities you unlock with the price you pay for the domain are worth going for.

WordPress vs Blogger: Monetization Options

To become a successful and professional blogger and make good revenue from your blogging, you must be aware of monetization.

 You can monetize your blog in several ways, but Blogger does not provide the modern means to earn from the blogs. Since it lacks the tools and plugins, it becomes a little difficult to provide the readers with a good payment method.

You do not get the freedom to give readers a good idea about the products you are selling, and you are restricted from the lack of eCommerce options.

WordPress has several tools and plugins which help bloggers choose and decide what to present to the customers. Readers get to see different eCommerce tools that can help them decide what they want to purchase. Moreover, WordPress provides several payment methods for customers.

Read Next: How to Monetize Your WordPress Blog

Key Takeaway: There is no doubt when it comes to monetization makes more sense with WordPress. There are tonnes and thousands of websites making money with WordPress installed and there are barely a handful of websites that are trying to monetize with bloggers. The monetization capabilities of WordPress are way ahead of Blogger.

WordPress vs Blogger: Future of Platform

For a long-term project, you require assurance that the platform will keep supporting you in the future.

Google owns Blogger, and every decision it makes can change the way your blog is presented. Therefore, it has the risk of being in the hands of one company, and the administration could shut it down at their will. Google is a tech giant and has enough resources to handle Blogger, but as a company, it can change things according to its needs while not giving any value to your opinion.

Huge advantages of WordPress

WordPress is an Open Source software, and anyone is free to use it without any restrictions or any higher body controlling it. It will die when the community and users stop supporting or using it. Therefore, it has a high chance of surviving for a long time in the market.

Moreover, since its inception, WordPress has seen massive growth and is projected to be the only prime CMS out there. While the blogger has been around since the beginning, it has not shown any better growth. Since Blogger is company driven project, there is no surety it will see the same fate as Google+.

Key Takeaway: When it comes to a website, you need to make sure the platforms you are using stay for as long as possible. WordPress is a community-driven program and with the popularity, it is gaining, there is no way WordPress will see a fall in at least the next decade.

Conclusion

Both platforms have a good market share and are amongst the most used blogging platforms. There are many pros and cons of using any of the two. Therefore, you just have to focus your attention on what you want from your blog and where you want to see it going.

A simple blog about your stories and personal life could use a platform like Blogger because it does not require much adjustment and tools to operate. Usually, bloggers who take blogging as a passion and a hobby, go with Blogger as they do not require such features.

WordPress is the best platform when you have a motive to become a professional blogger. You get several themes, plugins, and tools that help you in competing with others in the market. Design and layout play a very important role in attracting the audience, and nothing can give you these many options.

You can sell your products and have several methods to pitch your products to your readers. WordPress increases your conversion rate as viewers get to know the product in a better manner. Navigation through your blog becomes an easy task for your audience, and this makes sure that all your content is accessible to the readers.

Read Next: How to Start Your WordPress Blog

It has several plugins that make sure that users can perform safe and secure transactions.

In conclusion, your needs decide your choice on the platform, but when you go with WordPress, you will see that your tasks become easy to perform, and it will give you more return on your Investment.

Make sure to leave your comments on which platform you like the most and why.

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