Blogger or WordPress – Which One is the Best for You?

Blogger and WordPress are the two leading blogging platforms. Some people say that WordPress is superior and other says that Blogger is great. New bloggers always feel difficulty in selection of the best one out of the two. So in this article I am going to present WordPress vs Blogger comparison that will help new bloggers to understand the differences between them. After going through this article, it will become easy for you to select the one which is suitable for you.

Comparison WordPress Vs Blogger

Here I will tell you pros and cons of both platforms that will make it easy for you to choose the suitable one. Before proceeding further, let me tell you that WordPress.org and WordPress.com are two different things. Blogs created with WordPress.com have some limitations as compared to Self Hosted Blogs (WordPress.org). I will try to cover those limitations and differences in this article along with a comparison of Blogger and WordPress.

Pros of WordPress.com

• Free Setup: It a free to use and anyone can start a free blog within minutes by creating an account on WordPress.com. Select a suitable theme from their directory and start publishing content immediately.
• No Maintenance Required: You don’t have to worry about software updates, backups, security, optimization etc. As the company itself will take care of all these things.
• Extra Traffic: If you start a blog with WordPress.com then it will be a part of their network. So, if your blog gets popular then they may list it in their blogs of the day section or with tags and this way you will get extra traffic to your blog.

Cons of WordPress.com

• Limited Theme Support: You will only have limited number of available themes. You can’t modify CSS or customize themes offered by WordPress.com. You can buy Premium themes but they are much costly and much better quality themes are available free for WordPress.org bloggers totally free of cost.
• Plugins not allowed: You can’t install plugins if your blog is not self-hosted. Plugins allow you to fully customize your blog and include extra features without any coding knowledge. So without any plugins and theme support, you can’t freely style your blog according to needs.
• Limited Monetization: You can’t display advertisements on your blog unless your blog generates 25000 pageviews per month. The company may display ads on your blog and you will get only 50% of the revenue generated by your blog and the remaining 50% will be taken by WordPress.

Pros of WordPress.org

• Full Theme Support: You can install any custom theme on your self-hosted WordPress blog. There are thousands of free themes available at WordPress repository that you can use. Premium themes coded by skilled developers are also being sold. You can also modify PHP and CSS styling of your themes if needed.
• Plugins are allowed: Plugins are the main power of WordPress blogs. Self-hosted WordPress blogs support unlimited free, premium and custom plugins. You will find number of useful plugins at WordPress repository that allow you to fully customize your blog as well as in adding extra functionalities and features without any coding knowledge.
• Monetization Freedom: If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog then you can monetize it anyway you want. You can use Google AdSense or sell your available ad spaces. This is not possible with wordpress.com blogs where you only get 50% of the net income.
• You own everything: You will have a control on your whole blog if it is self-hosted. You can get backups, customize it, import or export data anytime or transfer it etc. While Blogger and wordpress.com have some limitations.

Cons of WordPress.org

• Expenses are involved: If you plan to host a blog yourself then definitely you will have to pay for the server where all your data will be stored. Whereas Blogger and WordPress.com offer you to start a blog totally free of cost.
• Maintenance Issues: You will have to do the regular maintenance tasks that include regular backups, SPAM control, core updates, Themes and plugins updates etc. No need to worry about these issues if your blog is hosted on wordpress.com or blogger.
• Security Issues: Self hosted WordPress blogs are more vulnerable to hacking attacks as compared to others. If you install an infected theme or plugin then your blog will be hacked most probably. So one should be careful before installing any plugin or theme from unknown source.
• Downtime Issues: Webhosting companies often do maintenance of their servers and up-gradation etc. During these phases, websites hosted on those servers may go down affecting their rankings in SERP’s as well as your earnings. Second case can be that if your website uses excessive server resources then allowed, anytime the hosting company can restrict your website and again it will go offline until you take further action.

Pros of Blogger

• Free Setup: Blogspot is free to use for anyone with a Google account. You will get 15 GB free storage that is more than enough for a regular blog.
• Easy To Use: Blogger don’t require any coding skills and anyone with a basic computer knowledge and Google account can start a blog within minutes. Customization of Blogger blogs is also much easy as compared to WordPress blogs. Blogger offers wysiwyg interface for theme customization that makes it easy to customize the look of blog as needed.
• Easy Monetization: Google AdSense is one of the best monetization options for bloggers. If your blog is hosted on blogger then you can easily monetize it by applying for a Google AdSense account directly from the Blogger dashboard.
• More Secure: Blogger is more secure as compared to self-hosted WordPress blogs as all your data is saved on Google servers. You will only have to keep your Google account secure and you will never be hacked. WordPress blogs could be hacked anytime via Web hosting, domain, Email account, infected themes or plugins etc.

Cons of Blogger

• Can be Deleted Anytime: This is a major problem with wordpress.com and blogger blogs that you don’t really have full control over it. Like if your blog is hosted on Blogger then anytime it can be deleted in case of copyright issues or something like that.
• Limited Functionalities: This is one of the main reason due to which I don’t prefer blogger. If you want to add new design functionality to your blog then it becomes very complicated with blogger blogs. The same functionality can be added within minutes with a use of simple plugin in WordPress. Example can be the addition of Home Page slider in blogger.
• Image Resizing: If you upload a high quality image on Blogger then it may re-size it into smaller dimensions according to your blog theme. You will have to adjust image sizes each time before inserting them into you blog posts.
• Coding Issues: If you want to add a new feature in a blogger blog then most of the time you will have to edit the template and insert the required piece of code with in the theme. But in case of WordPress, a simple plugin installation can give you the solution.

Conclusion

Above mentioned are the major pros and cons of self-hosted WordPress blogs, WordPress.com and Blogger blogs. Selection of the best blogging platform depends majorly on your needs. According to my experience, Self hosted WordPress blog is the best option if you can bear web-hosting charges and want to run a blog for a long time.

If you are new in blog-o-sphere then I will recommend you to go for Blogger. I hope that this WordPress vs Blogger comparison will make it easy for you to choose the best one.