Blogger Or WordPress.com: Which One To Choose For Blogging?

Blogger Or WordPress.com: Which One To Choose For Blogging: Blogger and WordPress.com are two of the most popular free blogging platforms. But which one is better?

How to choose between Blogger and WordPress.com?

I see many people, who want to get into blogging, confused about choosing between these two blogging platforms. In order to decide which of these two platforms will serve your purpose better, you need to know the features of Blogger and WordPress.com. Once you know the features and hence, the differences between Blogger and WordPress.com, choosing the right platform will become easier.

Check Out The Top 7 Misconceptions About WordPress Here

Blogger Or WordPress.com: Which One To Choose For Blogging?

Even after all these years, the debate on which one of Blogger and WordPress.com is better still persists. Truth is both these platforms are good in their own way and if the chosen platform serves your purpose, it is a good one.

My first blog was on Blogger. Although it is a very easy blogging platform, it wasn’t serving my purpose.

I blog about blogging and designing. “Blogger” doesn’t provide flexibility. It was not providing what I was looking for to showcase what I know. So, I moved on to WordPress.com and eventually, to a self-hosted WordPress site.

Now, if you don’t know the differences between WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress.org site, you can check out this article.

But there is no denying to the fact that it was a great learning experience, especially for someone, who didn’t have much technical knowledge of blogging.

Anyway, let us look into the features, advantages and disadvantages of both these platforms. And then, we will see Blogger Or WordPress.com: Which One To Choose For Blogging.

Blogger

Google, which is the most popular search engine, owns Blogger. This definitely gives Blogger an edge in many aspects but SEO and visibility is not one of them. I mean just because it is owned by Google doesn’t mean Google favors Bloggers.

Let us look into the advantages and disadvantages of Blogger site:

Advantages Of Blogger

1. Simple: One of the reasons why many people still love Blogger is its simplicity. You do not need much of technical knowledge to run a Blogger blog. It is very easy to set up and manage Blogger websites and you don’t even have to worry about hosting, updates or security.
2. Integration With Other Products By Google: Since Blogger is developed and owned by Google, integrating it with other Google products / tools, like Google AdSense, Google Analytics, Google Webmaster, etc. becomes easier.
3. Faster Indexing: My Blogger blog was indexed by Google within two days and I didn’t have to do anything for that.
4. Great Storage: Blogger supports: a. 100 blogs per user, b. 100 writers per blog, c. 20 static pages, d. Unlimited posts, e. 1 MB for every post or page, f. Image storage in Google Drive (15 GB), all for free.
5. Options To Monetize: You can apply for AdSense. Also, promotion with AdWords is allowed.
6. Option To Edit HTML And CSS: With Blogger, you can edit HTML or CSS code and make changes in the design of the website.
7. Entirely Free Service: Except for custom domain name and extra storage space in Google Drive (if you want more than 15 GB storage), there is no paid plans for Blogger.
8. Supports Google Analytics: Google Analytics, one of the most popular website tracking tool is supported by Blogger.

Find Out The Best 5 Free Blogging Platforms Of 2018 Here

Disadvantages Of Blogger

1. More Censorship: Google owns your content on your Blogger site. They can delete or block your website any time if it doesn’t follow their terms of service. Google is infamous for deleting many Blogger websites.
2. Limited Themes And Layouts: Blogger has a limited number of themes and layouts, and they are not of very high quality. They look less professional. This means there is less option to change the design and look of your blog unless you know HTML or CSS.
3. No Plugins Supported: Blogger doesn’t support any plugins.
4. No Image Galleries: There is no default image gallery in Blogger. Images are to be stored in Google Drive.
5. No Effective Anti-Spam Measures: Although Blogger has anti-spam features, it is not at all effective.
6. Poor Content Organization: If there is too much content in your Blogger site, it becomes difficult to organize them as Blogger has only Tags, called as Labels.
7. No Video Or Audio Upload: Blogger doesn’t support video and audio upload. You can, however, embed videos and audios from other sites.
8. Difficult To Transfer Data: If you want to move your Blogger website and its content to a different web hosting, it is very difficult. Also, the process involves risk of ruining the SEO of the blog.
9. Poor Rating For Mobile Blogging: Both iOS and Android app of Blogger has poor rating (2.5 and 3.7 respectively).
10. Doesn’t Support All Mobile OS: Blogger doesn’t have any app for mobile operating systems, like Nokia, Blackberry, Windows.
11. Limited Support: Blogger has very limited documentation, support and forum.
12. No Future: Since Google had previously discontinued many of their services, like Google Reader, and Blogger hasn’t upgraded or added any new future for a long time, there is possibility of Blogger getting discontinued.
13. Less Social Sharing Options: Blogger has less social sharing options (geared towards Google Plus)

Find Out The Differences Between WordPress.com And WordPress.org Here

WordPress.com

WordPress.com is developed and owned by Automattic. Many of the topmost organizations use this platform. Let us look into the advantages and disadvantages of WordPress.com.

Advantages Of WordPress.com

1. Simple: WordPress.com is simple, easy to start and manage. Updating is not your responsibility.
2. Less Ownership: WordPress.com too owns your content and they can delete your website any time they want, there are instances of WordPress.com fighting against censorship.
3. Has Paid Features: You can buy paid plans and get various other features.
4. Hundreds Of Themes: WordPress.com provides hundreds of free as well as premium themes for any kind of website you want to build and they look highly professional.
5. Unlimited Blogs And Writers: In WordPress.com, you can create unlimited blogs and have unlimited writers.
6. Supports Image Gallery: WordPress.com supports extensive image gallery.
7. Supports Video And Audio Upload: Premium plans in WordPress.com support video and audio upload in different formats like MP3, WAV, etc. In free plan, you can embed them from other sites.
8. Better Option For Content Organization: WordPress.com provides Categories, Sub-Categories, and Tags to organize the content of your website.
9. Advanced Anti-Spam Measures: Akismet, one of the most popular plugin to prevent spamming is owned by WordPress. It comes with all WordPress.com sites.
10. Supports Plugins: WordPress.com paid plans support plugins. The free blog has to use from a limited number of Plugins.
11. Supports All Popular Smartphone OS: WordPress.com supports all popular mobile OS – iOS, Android, Blackberry, Nokia and Windows.
12. Good Customer Rating: WordPress.com’s Android app and iOS app have good rating in Play Store and iTunes , respectively (3.5 and 4.2 respectively).
13. More Social Sharing Options: WordPress.com offers more options for social sharing than Blogger.
14. Great Support: WordPress.com has better support and active communities.

Disadvantages Of WordPress.com

1. Expensive: The paid plans of WordPress.com are highly expensive and yet offers limited features.
2. Little Option For Monetization: WordPress.com doesn’t allow to apply for Google AdSense. They can only use WordAds and have to share the revenue with WordPress.com. Free websites have to drive huge traffic to be able to apply for WordAds.
3. Less Storage: Free WordPress.com plan has only 3 GB storage.
4. Doesn’t Support Google Analytics: WordPress.com has its default tracking tool, called “Stats” which doesn’t as deep insights as Google Analytics.
5. No HTML And CSS Editing Supported: Free WordPress.com plan doesn’t support HTML and CSS editing.

Verdict: Which One To Choose Between Blogger And WordPress.com

If you are blogging just out of hobby, then Blogger will do fine for you. But if you want to become a professional blogger and monetize your blog, you should use WordPress.com and slowly move on to self-hosted blogs.

I hope I have been able to paint a clear picture of the Blogger Or WordPress.com: Which One To Choose For Blogging? If you have any questions related to the Blogger Or WordPress.com: Which One To Choose For Blogging, drop your queries below. I will respond at the earliest.