I just got an email with a great question and figured there must be a lot of people wondering this same thing.
Which is better? Blogger or WordPress?
This is a tricky question because it depends on what you consider better and what you are personally looking for.
For this post, I am considering Blogger as it is and WordPress as a self-hosted site, as opposed to a .wordpress.com free site. If you’re going to be using a free platform to blog, stick with Blogger. This article is explaining the difference between a Blogger hosted site and a self-hosted WordPress site.
Initial note: if you are on Blogger, get a premium domain name. I believe it is $10 and it’s super easy to do. Companies will take you a lot more seriously if you remove the “.blogspot” from your url. This is not to say you won’t get opportunities if you don’t do it, but you will come off as more serious about your business if you have a premium url. In Blogger, click “settings” and look for your url. Right under that, there will be a link labeled “+ Add a custom domain name”, click that and follow instructions and you’ll be off and running!
If you are looking to increase your following…
Unfortunately for WordPress, the “Join this site” that Blogger blogs have is not available on WordPress sites. Since this is the most commonly used “following” mechanism on most blogs, you are at a slight disadvantage when it comes to gaining followers. However, you can do things to get that advantage back. Set up a BlogLovin account, make sure your social icons are prevalent so you gain followers that way and be active on social media. A great example of someone who is on WordPress, but has a huge following is Hungry Runner Girl. She’s a WP site, but has a tremendous following, getting 80+ comments on every post (she posts twice a day). She has her social icons right at the top of her site in addition to being at the end of every post. She has over 6,000 Twitter followers and almost 5,000 fans on her Facebook page! So while WordPress sites cannot have the GFC follow option, there are definitely other ways to grow your following on WordPress. You just have to decide if you’re ready to lose the GFC Follow option.
If you are looking to increase your income stream…
Blogger used to have restrictions on what kind of ads (mostly Google only) you could place on your Blogger blogs. They don’t anymore. However, if you are going to be placing any ads other than Adsense, you’re going to have to know a little bit of HTML code. Adsense ads are easier to place on Blogger. Any other kind of ads are just as easy to place on WordPress as they are on Blogger. It should be noted that Google can change their rules as to what kinds of advertising can be placed on Blogger blogs, while there are no restrictions with your own WordPress site.
If you are looking for ease of use…
When starting out, running a website can seem daunting. HTML code is a frightening thing at first. So Blogger takes the hard to learn stuff out and makes it very easy for anyone to set up and run a blog. This is great for people who are just starting out or who don’t want to learn the nitty gritty behind websites. However, if you get to a point where you want more features from your site and more customization, WordPress then becomes the best option.
An additional bonus of Blogger is that it is the most cost effective platform to run. You don’t have to pay for hosting. The thing is, with companies like BlueHost offering hosting for $7 per month (sometimes even less!), it’s not going to cost a fortune to have a WP site. So I pretty much ignore the financial aspect. What I like the best about Blogger is that you will have virtually NO downtime. Any site hosted on another host may “go down” or become unavailable to access due to server errors, updates or any number of reasons. Blogger blogs stay up all of the time. I will say that in my years of owning and operating websites on their own hosting plans, I’ve only experienced downtime a few times and they have lasted for just minutes each time.
If you’re thinking long-term in general…
Wordpress all the way! When you are on Blogger, you certainly do own your content, but while it’s on a Blogger server Google (they own Blogger) can reproduce, modify, publish and distribute your content however they want. Additionally, as I touched on earlier, you are at the mercy of Blogger’s changes. WordPress has updates as well, but they never change the appearance of a website to your readers. It’s all stuff on the back end of the site. I should also note here that there are a few people out there who have literally had their Blogger accounts shut down in the blink of an eye for seemingly no reason. The thing about being on Blogger is that you are at the mercy of someone else. If you are on WordPress, you own your domain, you choose whatever host you want, so you are much more in control.
Additionally, WordPress has a much more complete array of useful plugins and add-ons that will be come useful as your blog grows. There are plugins that make post-by-post SEO a breeze. There are better comment spam protections available. There are plugins that literally solve just about every problem or want you could have on WordPress. Also, once you do get your feet wet in HTML editing, you’ll find that WordPress is easier.
My preference.
I prefer WordPress. For anyone who is thinking about starting up a site, I encourage WordPress. I have blogs on both platforms and there is nothing wrong with either, it’s all a matter of personal preference. I prefer WordPress because I have a moderate knowledge of HTML and like how easy it is to make HTML customization (once you know HTML, of course).
What I think speaks volumes about the argument is how often you hear “I’m making the switch to WordPress” and how you never really hear, “I’m making the switch to Blogger.” Generally, people consider a switch to WordPress as taking their blog to the next level. As I mentioned earlier, this is because they then have full 100% ownership and rights to the site, content and whatnot. Also, they now have flexibility in every aspect of their site. The more deep you are willing to dig into the nuts and bolts of your site, the more you will appreciate WordPress. If you’re looking for ease of use, Blogger is probably your best bet.
Hi Zack! Great post! I have Blogger… but actually I bought a years subscription at Bluehost/Wordpress a few weeks ago because I like the layout options better. I was planning on transferring my blog over to WP, but I got bogged down in the technical stuffzzzz… Blech. In the end I ended up getting a refund and decided to just stick with Blogger for now. I totally agree with what you said about if you don’t know HTML, Blogger is the simpler option. If I had started out with WP, it probably would have been easier, but transferring my Blogger data to WP was too tricky for me. Maybe someday in the future if I have a techie friend nearby, I’ll try to make the switch for real. 🙂
Hi! Thanks for the comment! Yea, it’s definitely easier to start out with WP than it is to transfer. It definitely takes some techie-ness to make the switch too! I do plan on making a video on how to start a WP site through Bluehost and make a blog post all within 10 minutes. It really is easy, but can seem waaay too complicated at first. I recommend switching when you can find someone who has experience in doing it who won’t charge you much or anything. 🙂
I had my blogger blog shut down this January, when my custom domain name expired. Blogger had warned me through email to automatically renew the domain, which I tried to do, but each time I tried, I got a message that I wasn’t authorized to renew and I should change my password and try again. When I did that, I got a message that I wasn’t authorized to renew because my password had recently been changed.
I thought blogger would give me a chance to simply renew the domain — not “automatically authorize,” just renew now — but it shut down the blog and replaced it with that generic picture of the pretty girl and the information “domain name expired.” Also, blogger/Google no longer sell domain names, so even if I go to GoDaddy or some other host site, I either get the same “not authorized to renew” jazz or else I am told “sorry this domain is not available.” I did some research and also read alot about huge (to me) fees to renew a lapsed domain. My blog was called At First Glass, domain name atfirstglass.com, and I ran it for six years.
My answer was simply to create a new blog, at blogger, with a blogspot name, and cut and paste all my best posts to this new blog, Pluot. My main thing was to save my work. But it’s too bad that, as a business, At First Glass has vanished because even though I didn’t make any money, I know I had a few loyal readers and because it was a wine blog, I used to get free samples from wineries and invitations to take part in virtual tastings, etc.
I don’t know if I have the patience to switch to WordPress, although as long as I am starting from scratch I do wish my blog could look more sophisticated. I get what you mean about professionals not taking you seriously if your domain is .blogspot. However, having been burned by a custom domain name once, I am leery of trying it again!
Thanks for your great info here. Wish I had discovered you a few years ago!
Oh no! That sounds like a nightmare! Having to start fresh is awful. I would consider moving to WordPress and setting it up through BlueHost. The domain and a year of hosting will cost less than $100 and you won’t have to worry about that stuff happening.