You're probably starting a new blog, and wondering which blogging platform is the best for you. It is easy to decide which one is better, but you need to know all of the important factors that surround the decision.
Which is better? Blogspot or WordPress.org
This
question requires your own judgment, depending on your budget, goals,
skills, requirements, purpose, etc. Other people will have you believe
that Blogger isn't customizable enough or that WordPress requires too
much technical know-how, but that just isn't the case.
WordPress and Blogger are two of the biggest blogging platforms in the world, they are definitely two of the most popular ones.
According to data from Built With,
The Content Management Service Distribution for the top one million
websites on the internet consist of about 36% WordPress websites and 1%
Blogger websites.
Disclaimer:
Neither this post nor these stats are about Blogger vs. Wordpress.com,
this post is only about Blogsport vs. Wordpress.org.
If you don't have the money to invest in a website, you're confused about your dedication, think it's too soon to invest, don't want to invest at all or just want a blog as a hobby, then you should know that blogs made with Blogspot require zero investment.
You can start writing your content and reach your audience whenever you want without having to spend a dime, and yes, if you do it right, you can earn from your Blogger blog as well.
On the other hand, WordPress.org is a platform where you would require self-hosting and a custom domain name before you can start up your blog and reach your audience, i.e, you would require a small startup investment before you get started no matter what your goal is.
Although the startup cost isn't very expensive, for example, through Bluehost's WordPress special offer, you can get a Free Domain, SSL Certificate, plus extra features when you purchase their hosting for a WordPress blog/website, all at just 2.75 USD.
Because
it is possible for you to set up a BlogSpot blog in just 5 minutes with
no investment whatsoever, and also because setting it up on BlogSpot is
easier than on WordPress,
Which One Is Better, Blogspot, or WordPress?
I'll leave the final decision up to you, but for that, let me give you an insight into all the important factors that you need to take into consideration while choosing between WordPress and Blogspot.Price
How much are you willing to invest? How much is your budget? Depending on your end goal, do you actually need to invest? I hope you've thought about these questions first.If you don't have the money to invest in a website, you're confused about your dedication, think it's too soon to invest, don't want to invest at all or just want a blog as a hobby, then you should know that blogs made with Blogspot require zero investment.
You can start writing your content and reach your audience whenever you want without having to spend a dime, and yes, if you do it right, you can earn from your Blogger blog as well.
On the other hand, WordPress.org is a platform where you would require self-hosting and a custom domain name before you can start up your blog and reach your audience, i.e, you would require a small startup investment before you get started no matter what your goal is.
Although the startup cost isn't very expensive, for example, through Bluehost's WordPress special offer, you can get a Free Domain, SSL Certificate, plus extra features when you purchase their hosting for a WordPress blog/website, all at just 2.75 USD.
Winner: BlogSpot
Themes
You wouldn't want your blog to look all dull and boring. You have the ability to color-code, add tools and features, services, etc to your blog to make it attractive, to attract your viewers, and to make your blog take off.Pre-Existing Themes
But, BlogSpot offers a very small range of themes
for you to choose from, and on the other hand, WordPress has a theme
library with thousands of themes to choose from. These are themes that
you can set up on your site with just a few clicks and no technical
knowledge whatsoever.
You can choose a BlogSpot theme but the problem with that is that those themes have already been used by so many people, so they are unoriginal and boring, whereas that isn't the case for Blogger.
External Themes
The
great thing about both platforms is that if you have any knowledge of
coding, have bought/are using free copies of themes from other sources,
then you can easily upload them to your blog and customize them as much
as you want.
In
simpler words, there are a lot of sites that let you purchase blog
themes or distribute them for free with a credit footer. And once you
have the theme's XML file, you can easily follow the instructions to
upload it to your blog.
So
in conclusion, while Blogger doesn't offer many themes on its own,
there are a lot of sites that do. And for WordPress, they have a lot of
themes already in their themes library, but you can get more from
external sources as well.
Although, it could be a tie, because of the ease of the process and the fact that it has more options for you to choose from both internally and externally,
Although, it could be a tie, because of the ease of the process and the fact that it has more options for you to choose from both internally and externally,
Winner: WordPress
Static Websites / UIUX websites / Portfolios / Online Stores and more
If
you want to make a website to represent your startup, company, service,
your own portfolio, etc, then WordPress is the go-to because of how
customizable it is.
BlogSpot
also allows HTML customization, just as mentioned before, you can get
templates from template distributors online easily, and a lot of them
make templates that look amazing, but, there still isn't as room for
customization and sleek-presentability as much as there is for
WordPress.
While
making an eCommerce site or an Online Store, again WordPress is
recommended. It is also easily possible on BlogSpot, but WordPress makes
it much easier and much more presentable and usable.
Winner: WordPress
Customization
You
can add many plugins to WordPress with just a few clicks, and there are
so many amazing options to choose from, plus there are many plugins
offered externally as well, so you can have so many unique features on
your website.
On
the other hand, Blogger does offer such features, but there are very
limited options offered by Google. Blogger does have the capability to
accept any external widgets/gadgets/codings you want to add, but you
would mainly be dependent on services.
So
basically, you can add Mail Subscription services, Ads, Tools for your
Users, Promotion widgets, Sharing options, and so much more on both
platforms.
The
only differences are that WordPress makes it a bit easier to do so, and
it also offers more plugins/tools for you to add, without needing any
coding experience.
Winner: WordPress.
Control
Although Blogger and WordPress, both let you have tons of control and flexibility for your blogs, WordPress just lets you do a bit more.If
you really expect that your blog will require a lot of features, that
it would have to accommodate tens of thousands of viewers in the future,
that you want to grow something large out of it, then you would
definitely need more control than what BlogSpot has to offer unless you
have the patience and ability to sit down and make those improvements
manually on Blogger.
WordPress
has a drag and drop builder as well, making your entire site completely
customizable, i.e, you would have full control over it.
There
are a lot of such benefits while using WordPress, but yes, if you try,
you can also bring those features to life on a BlogSpot Blog.
Winner: WordPress.
Support
You can get help with both services. BlogSpot users and WordPress users, both have communities dedicated to helping each other. There are multiple tutorial blogs, expert users, etc that can guide you.Other than that, WordPress has a good Support Service, where the community is very active. You can get support for each and every individual plugin. There are Q/A pages for multiple topics/plugins/issues etc. so you can expect a lot of guidance.
BlogSpot
also has community forums, but it isn't as active. Also, BlogSpot has
Q/A pages but the information provided is very limited. Most help can be
found from external sources.
If
you are using paid tools, plugins, or service for your blog, then you
can get separate dedicated support from those service providers.
Winner: WordPress
Pages Allowed
WordPress allows an unlimited number of pages whereas BlogSpot only allows twenty pages. Remember that pages are different from blog posts.The
limited number of pages on BlogSpot shouldn't be much of a problem
unless you are mainly inclined towards making something like a UIUX,
Static, Portfolio, or Shopping website.
There are also walkarounds to make more pages on BlogSpot, but WordPress makes it easier. Depending on what you require, this may or not be important.
Winner: WordPress.
Ownership
On a WordPress Blog, you are completely responsible for the hosting, domain, taking backups, and everything else. You own the blog completely.With
Blogger, your blog is owned by Google, which means that although you
can customize it, earn from it, take care of it, and have full access to
it, Google can shut it down under certain circumstances, i.e, the final
stance of authority lies with Google itself.
You
don't fully own your content on Blogger because it's all sitting on
Google's servers, but yes, you can export your content. Even so, the
content will stay in Google's data servers for along time. This isn't
much of a drawback but it does restrict your possible growth.
Google
as a history of abandoning projects without any warning, that is why it
is a bit risky to put too much into your BlogSpot blog. But,
considering how Blogger is a very popular product, it may be unlikely to
happen.
Winner: WordPress
Monetization
Monetization from Google AdSense is much easier to set up on Blogger, but it is possible for both websites. The difference is that you can monetize to the maximum amount on WordPress with full control unlike on Blogger.The
plugins required to set up AdSense are already present on Blogger
Blogs, considering they are both Google products, but you would have to
set those plugin up on your own in WordPress, which isn't too hard.
The
payments remain unaffected on both platforms, i.e, you will earn the
same amount for the same number of clicks on the same ads. You can earn
money from Blogspot and WordPress, promote sponsorships, do affiliate
marketing, etc.
You will still have control over the monetization of both platforms for when, where, and how the ads should be displayed, but WordPress makes full customization easier for the long-term.
You will still have control over the monetization of both platforms for when, where, and how the ads should be displayed, but WordPress makes full customization easier for the long-term.
Winner: WordPress
Domain and Hosting Options
As mentioned before, you would require a hosting platform and a domain before you set up your WordPress blog, but you can get started on BlogSpot without any investments at all.You have the ability to add domains on both platforms
Security
Blogger has Google as its strong backbone, so there are extra layers of security for your blog with Google's servers backing up your blog's content.Blogger
blogs also have SSL certificates and run their blogs with HTTPS instead
of HTTP. On WordPress, you ould have to manually take care of your
blog's secuity by buying SSL certificates, installing proper plugins,
manually taking backups of your blog, etc.
Blogger saves you from this hassle.
Winner: Blogger
Ease of Use: Beginner Friendly + Learning Curve
Blogger can be used by anyone, and it doesn't require any experience at all. You just need a Google account and with a few clicks, your blog can be live.The
blogger dashboard is easy to navigate and content creation is very easy
to do as well. Blogger lets you learn as you go making it a really easy
learning curve.
So you can create a blog and customize the theme and features gradually.
WordPress
has more of a steep learning curve. You should be able to manually
create your blog, update your own services handle its security, etc.
But
while customizing your blog, WordPress' drag and Drop feature is really
useful, whereas you'd need to edit your HTML in Blogger to customize it
like that.
Considering the learning curve, especially for beginners,
Winner: Blogger
Migration Options
WordPress has made it really easy to migrate to other platforms, to shift from one host/domain to another, to transfer content from one blog to another, etc.Blogger
also allows you to export your content, theme, etc. and to shift from
one domain to another, but it makes changing hosts a bit difficult.
If
you shift from your blogger blog, you're likely to lose your SEO,
ranking, viewers, authority, etc. Plus, all your content from Blogger
will stay on Google's servers for a long time, so basically transferring
into Blogger is easy but transferring out of it is harder.
Winner: WordPress
Conclusion
In order to decide which platform is truly better for you, consider the purpose of the blog and your goals. Both platforms are capable of great achievements.If this post helped you in any way, please share it, and also comment down your feedback.
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