Blog

Blogger vs WordPress – Non-Geekish Comparison

Considering we are offering a service for moving blogs from Blogger (BlogSpot) to WordPress, I thought why not write about some pros and cons about the both.

We started our own journey from a BlogSpot blog which we moved to self-hosted WordPress few years ago. On the way, we grew up as a wordpress services’ company and used the lessons we learned while moving our clients blogs from Blogger to WordPress, to bring out this professional migration service. Yes, we were offering Blogger to WordPress migration service since quite some time.

We do not think BlogSpot should be completely avoided, but compared to WordPress (self-hosted), it is not the best blogging platform around. Below are some reasons I found while comparing Blogger and self-hosted WordPress.

As this subject has been discussed/debated many times, I decided not to reinvent the wheels by getting into technical aspects. My goal while writing this, to compare both platforms from a end-user’s perspective, who may never be interested in checking-out codes!

New to blogging

So you are new to blogging and confused about starting a blog on BlogSpot or WordPress. It really depends on answer to one simple questions. The question is “Why are you blogging?”

  • If you are writing about your favorite things in life and basically creating a blog meant to be shared with family and friends, then using Blogger makes sense.
  • If you are new to blogging but interested in bringing your professional experience onto your blog, then a professional setup with a self-hosted WordPress would be a better idea.

Simplicity in features

Simplicity is very important for any blogger, specially for a newbie. You want to spend more time in writing than actually tweaking your blog in all probability. Right?

  • If you are using Blogger.com then the features are simple to use because there are few of them as compared to WordPress. Blogger.com is very easy to use. Good for someone to start-off blogging asap.
  • WordPress provides more options out of the box. This means, it may take slightly more time to take-off. I have been using WordPress for over a year and feel that simplicity is not the exclusive domain of BlogSpot. Once you start using WordPress, you will find its interface extremely simple.

(Image Credit: Fablegod.com)

Investing in a blog

If you are a student, then this one might be biggest issue for you. But if you really do some math and act bold, this small investment can lead to long-time returns for years to come!

  • BlogSpot is helpful when it comes to creating a blog which needs zero investment. The account is free and you can start using it to publish your content which is basically a by product of something your are an expert at. The fact that to create a blogspot blog requires zero investment does make it attractive.
  • WordPress is a free platform as in you can install WordPress software free on your server for the site to be hosted on. But the problem is you have to register a domain and buy space from some hosting service. This means to run a self-hosted WordPress blog you will need some initial investment. But its not too much if you see this calculation. Of course, great things in life don’t come for free.

On personal note, if you are expecting returns from your blog, its better to invest something in early days. No top blog in this world is running (read earning) with zero-investment! ;-)

(Image Credit: Indianprofits.com)

From Blog to a Business

There are professionals like programmers, carpenters, writers and artists who have blogs. Their blogs may be initially a outlet for sharing information to them. But as your blog becomes famous, advertisers starts purchasing ad-slot on your blog and if you are offering any service, you will see buyer lining up for your services. This is the time, when a blog takes that leap to become a business.

  • A Blogger.com blog is awesome when it comes to just writing content and getting it published on the Internet. But Blogger lacks many features and do not support level of customizations, a money-making business expects from underlaying blogging platform.
  • WordPress has plugins structure which makes it easy to add features on the go. Apart from that there is no limit to customization as codes are  running on your server. This basically means you can provide better experience to your buyer which is critical for the success of any business-blog.

(Image Credit: toostep.com)

Community and Support

Okay now you have a blog which makes money, gets advertisers and you need advanced options. You know a bit about WordPress and Blogger and basically are looking to tweak your website.

  • Blogger.com has its share of gadgets and a community which does create custom solutions. But because of technical limitation of Blogger.com platform, no matter how much bucks you are willing to spend, a developer can actually do very limited stuff with for Blogger.com blog.
  • With WordPress, the community is massive and you will be overwhelmed by free support, theme & plugins you will find. And when free-world meets an end, you will find thousands of freelancers and companies competing together to offer every solution you need at reasonable price.

Why move blogs from Blogger to WordPress?

All above points may help you when you are about to start a new blog. What if you have already started a blog on Blogger.com blog?

The journey of a blog from Blogger.com to a self hosted WordPress, is often representative of a blogger getting better at blogging. Its just like a sport. We play in the amateur or minor leagues in early days and then graduate to a professional major league team. Think of Blogger as a place where you learn the ropes of blogging and WordPress is where you become the pro. ;-)

This is the key reason many people decide to migrate from Blogger to WordPress. If you are a geek and/or have plenty of time to experiment, you can use this free tutorial on Blogger To WordPress migration.

For rest of us, we offer a unique Blogger To WordPress migration service. And here are reasons which make our service unique!

4 Comments…

 Share your views
  1. This is really a nicely written comparison. But I couldn understand the Simplicity in features! What exactly are you trying to say? First you said that Blogger is simple because it has less features than WP. Very much true! But then you continued, that you have used WP for years and found it to be simpler than blogger! Couldn get it! What I think is, Blogger is great for people with very less or no knowledge on programming and WP is great for both of the user types[programmers, end users]…

    Also, hats off to rahul for providing us the great tutorial to move blogger blogs to WP! Really that is the best I could get :) Thanks once again!

    • My point was that Blogger lacks a lot of features which gives it simplicity for use. With WordPress because of the sheer amount of option a new blogger might feel totally lost which I was when I used WordPress for the first time. After a year I find WordPress it just as simple from a interface point of view as compared to Blogger.

  2. You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this topic to be actually something that I think I would never understand. It seems too complicated and very broad for me. I am looking forward for your next post, I’ll try to get the hang of it!

  3. Wonderful goods from you, man. I have understand your stuff previous to and you are just extremely fantastic. I really like what you have acquired here, really like what you are saying and the way in which you say it. You make it enjoyable and you still take care of to keep it smart. I cant wait to read far more from you. This is actually a great site.

Leave a Comment

  • Facebook
  • GitHub
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Google

Your email address will not be published.

*

To create code blocks or other preformatted text, indent by four spaces:

    This will be displayed in a monospaced font. The first four 
    spaces will be stripped off, but all other whitespace
    will be preserved.
    
    Markdown is turned off in code blocks:
     [This is not a link](http://example.com)

To create not a block, but an inline code span, use backticks:

Here is some inline `code`.

For more help see http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax