Are you considering starting a new blog but are unsure of which platform to choose? WordPress or Blogger? Which platform is the best for getting started with your personal blog or business website?
Look, I’ve been there as well.
There are countless beginners’ guides out there on the internet offering tips and advice on how you should go about starting your own blog, but they often leave out the most fundamental piece of information; Which platform should you be using?
In this detailed comparison post, I’m going to talk extensively about how WordPress and Blogger stack up against each other on different levels of functionality.
Also, you will find a bonus section where I discuss effective tips on how to choose the right blogging platform and mistakes to avoid as a blogger.
See also: Best WordPress Themes For Bloggers That You Should Start Using
What’s WordPress?
WordPress originated as a blogging platform, but it has since grown to become the world’s largest website builder and content management system.
WordPress now covers everything from entry-level and intermediate programming to enterprise-level websites and robust eCommerce capability.
In a nutshell, WordPress is a free, open-source platform that allows you to create, design, and manage your own website while also allowing you to customize, alter, and optimize it as you see fit.
What’s Blogger?
Blogger is a free blog hosting and publishing service that makes setting up a site and sharing your views with the rest of the world a breeze.
Google bought it in 2003, and all you need to get started is a Google email address (which, let’s face it, who doesn’t have one these days?).
You may simply customize your page layout, style, and URL once you’ve created your profile (which will have blogspot.com appended to the end of it unless you opt to pay for a custom domain).
After you’ve completed this procedure, you’ll be given access to a basic dashboard where you can write and post your blogs.
Detailed Comparison Between WordPress and Blogger
1. User friendliness
The majority of people who wish to start a blog aren’t web designers. They may run a small business or a non-profit, wish to share their ideas with the world, or wish to try something new.
They’ll need an easy-to-use blogging platform to get their message out there. So, it’s important we start with how easy it is to use the two platforms.
WordPress
WordPress makes it easy and quick to create a blog. No coding skills are required. WordPress can be installed and configured in as much you can point and click. It’s that straightforward.
You will have a variety of theme options to choose from and use. This theme is more like a template and it’s what determines the look and feel of your blog.
Additionally, WordPress has tons of free and paid plugins you can install to enhance the functionality of your WordPress blog.
With WordPress’s post and page structure, adding material is straightforward.
Using the easy block editor, you can effortlessly generate text content, add photos, videos, and other media to your WordPress posts and pages.
Aside from the block editor, WordPress offers drag-and-drop page builders that allow you to completely personalize your site.
Blogger
As mentioned earlier, as long as you have an account with Google, setting up your blog on Blogger is a breeze.
Once you sign up with your Google account, you can go ahead to create your blog by clicking the ‘Create New Blog’ option. Choosing a display name is the next step, followed by creating a blog title, address, and theme.
It won’t take long for your blog to be set up once you do that. The next step involves configuring blog settings, editing your blog layout, and adding posts. Setting up takes just a few minutes.
Customizing a theme, however, is more complicated. You will need HTML skills to change the design of your blog on Blogger.
Winner
While Blogger’s setup is faster, using a good host like Bluehost or Cloudways makes it equally fast to set up a WordPress site.
WordPress goes a step further by making it easy for users to customize their site. You don’t need to learn any programming language to customize WordPress.
Therefore, WordPress is the winner in this first round of the contest.
2. Control and Ownership
The ownership of the blog site is another important factor to take into account when deciding on a blog platform.
The freedom of owning a blog implies that you can manage it however you want, or even monetize it to create a passive income for yourself.
Let’s see the level of control and ownership offered by WordPress and Blogger.
WordPress
You will need to pay for a domain name and hosting for a set period of time when you build a WordPress site. Therefore, you own the name and hosting, and you have complete control over both.
The decision of how long your blog will be on the internet is yours to make. With WordPress, you have complete control over your blog’s ownership.
Additionally, you own all the data when you use WordPress for your website and blog, and you can do anything with the data.
Blogger
Blogger is one of Google’s products that enable bloggers to write and publish content online. It is popularly known as a free, reliable, and powerful tool that allows you to publish content on the web easily.
Google operates this service and has the right to terminate it or your access to it at any time. It’s the same way that social media networks can ban or suspend users’ accounts without notice.
Even if you don’t do anything wrong, and Google decides to cease supporting Blogger, then all your years of hard work will disappear in a twinkle of an eye.
It’s well known Google has a history of abruptly dropping initiatives, so prepare your mind for such if you’re planning to mount your blog on Blogger.
Winner
With WordPress, you are in control and own your website. As a result, WordPress is the winner in this round of the contest.
3. Flexibility
The amount of flexibility you have is another important factor to consider.
Can you completely customize the appearance of your blog on your site? Does your blog have the capability of adding new features?
On this point, let’s compare Blogger and WordPress.
WordPress
Being an open-source platform, WordPress give room for additional features of your choice.
The plugins and integrations available for WordPress allow you to customize your blog in almost any way you like.
Thousands of free and paid WordPress plugins enable you to greatly customize and enhance the default functionality.
You can choose to add an online store to your website, create a portfolio, make a popup to capture visitors’ email addresses, add social sharing buttons, and much more.
If you go to WordPress.org’s plugins website, you’ll find over 56,000 free plugins.
Blogger
Blogger is intended to be a straightforward blogging platform. That means you’re limited in what you can do with your Blogspot blog.
Blogger comes with a number of built-in “gadgets” that allow you to add things like advertising, subscription links, a contact form, and more. However, the usefulness of these tools is restricted, and there are no alternatives accessible.
Popups, eCommerce functionality, and other advanced features are just not accessible on the Blogger platform. This severely restricts your ability to profit from Blogger.
Winner
So, how do WordPress and Blogger compare in terms of customization and flexibility? WordPress is without a doubt the greatest long-term choice for any serious blogger looking to expand their blog or start an online company. Therefore, again, the vote goes to WordPress.
4. Content Management
You’d agree that content management is the most important aspect of blogging. So, before you start blogging, it’s a good idea to be sure your platform is prepared for it.
WordPress
Unarguably, when it comes to a content management system, WordPress is the best. It makes it simple to add any content format (photos, videos, and PDF files) to your website or blog.
Publishing on WordPress is straightforward, whether you use the basic text editor or a free page builder. WordPress provides you with everything, from text formatting to uploading photos and videos to managing media assets.
You can also schedule your articles and manage your blog material more effectively using WordPress.
Blogger
Blogger is solely for the purpose of blogging. As a result, it’s fair to believe that content management is handled correctly. Google makes it simple to create your first article and manage it effectively.
Your blogging interface is simple and easy to use, thanks to the minimalist text editor, which is similar to Google Docs and MS Word.
Blogger, like WordPress, allows you to post photos, videos, and files to your blogs. It also allows you to classify your articles using labels and schedule them.
Winner
The two platforms can both perform the same tasks when it comes to simply creating a blog. As a result, we have a draw in this round.
5. Appearance and Design
Your blog’s appearance and design play an important role in attracting and retaining visitors. To engage users and lower your bounce rate, your blog design must provide a strong first impression.
To increase the amount of time spent on your blog, the design must make it simple to use and navigate.
WordPress
Thousands of free and paid themes are available in WordPress, making it simple to find the right theme for your site.
For whatever sort of website you can imagine, there is a WordPress theme. You’ll discover lots of high-quality themes that are simple to change and personalize, no matter what your site is about.
On the official WordPress.org themes website, you’ll discover a collection of 7,400+ free WordPress themes.
In your WordPress dashboard, click on Appearance » Themes and search for ‘blog’ to see the themes that are specially intended for blogs.
Additionally, third-party like Themify, Elegant Themes, and Astra Themes have appealing themes you can use.
Not only that, you can create gorgeous landing pages with WordPress using simple drag-and-drop page builders.
Indeed, WordPress offer endless possibilities.
Blogger
The platform only has a few themes to choose from. These are very simple templates that have been used on hundreds of blogs.
Using Blogger’s built-in tools, you may modify the colors and layout of these themes. You cannot, however, build or modify your own templates.
There are some non-official Blogger themes available, but finding good ones might be difficult, and you’ll have to pay for them.
Blogger falls behind in terms of design choices due to its small range of templates, limited customization options, and limited layout options.
Winner
With thousands of free and premium themes, plus beautiful themes from third-party providers, WordPress is again the winner.
6. Security
When selecting a blogging platform, security is another crucial aspect to consider. You may lose months or years of hard work if your site is blacklisted or hacked.
So, let’s see how well WordPress and Blogger can help you secure your blog.
WordPress
Although WordPress is relatively safe, you are responsible for security and backups because it is a self-hosted solution.
A number of WordPress plugins are available that can help you.
For example, to boost site security, you may use UpdraftPlus for backups and Sucuri for web-application firewalls.
Here are New 6 Best WordPress Security Plugins to Protect Your Site that can help you keep your WordPress site secure.
Blogger
Google’s highly secure, robust platform is a great benefit for Blogger. The server’s resources are managed, the blog is secured, and backups are done automatically.
The downside is that if Blogger goes down, so do all other Blogger-hosted websites. Therefore, in the event of a Blogger site outage, you won’t be able to retrieve your blog.
Winner
As a result of Blogger’s lack of backup capabilities versus WordPress’s flexibility in handling backup and security, we will call it a draw.
7. Search Engine Optimization
No one will read your content if there is no traffic to your site, whether it is hosted on WordPress or Blogger. For every blogger, traffic is the be-all and end-all.
You may get visitors to your blog in two ways: through search engines or via sponsored advertisements. While placing advertising is a personal option, search engine traffic is the best source of traffic.
Therefore, let’s see how WordPress and Blogger stack up against each other regarding SEO.
WordPress
You have total control and access to all On-page and Technical SEO elements when you use WordPress.
Adding header tags (H1, H2, H3, and so on), image alt-text, internal and external links, and monitoring keyword density and prominence are just a few of the On-page SEO aspects.
You’d need to create an XML sitemap, a robots.txt file, and integrate Google Search Console, among other things, for Technical SEO.
No matter your level of expertise, WordPress makes it easy to optimize your site for search engines. Installing the plugins is all it takes.
Blogger
Blogger provides a number of options for improving your blog’s performance. Customizing your links (permalinks), including important keywords in your post and page names, header tags, and an alt-tag to your photos, are just a few examples. However, you are left with a need for more.
Blogger is suitable for users who are already aware of SEO best practices, unlike WordPress, which allows you to employ plugins to assist you to optimize your site to a larger extent.
Another common problem with Blogger is the timestamp issue. Blogger prepends month and day to the permalink of an article whenever you publish.
This permalink structure is undesirable for many bloggers.
Winner
WordPress is the winner here because you can optimize your blog however you choose. Even if you’re not an SEO specialist, you can still get your website ranked on search engines.
See also: 9 Best SEO Tools That Helps You Rank High On Search Engine
8. Support
While choosing your blog platform, you should also consider support. Check to see if you will be able to get reliable support when you need it.
WordPress
WordPress has a thriving community that is always willing to help. On WordPress.org, there are question-and-answer forums for each theme and plugin.
You can get even more dedicated assistance from the makers of commercial WordPress items if you use them. Your web hosting firm can also provide live assistance.
Aside from that, WordPress developers and community users have generated hundreds of online tutorials.
Even if you use free plugins, you may be able to receive aid and assistance if you run into problems.
Blogger
Blogger has a limited amount of support. They offer some very rudimentary documentation and a discussion area for users. Your options for help are extremely limited.
To access support tutorials, go to the Help tab in your Blogger admin panel. I believe this is largely due to the fact that Blogger is a free service, therefore, Google cannot give one-on-one help to users.
Winner
With numerous resources available online for free alone, you can never go wrong with WordPress. Blogger, on the other hand, offers a limited amount of support, therefore WordPress is the winner when it comes to user support.
9. Blogging Capability
Blogger and WordPress were both originally designed to be blogging platforms. Therefore, it goes without saying that both are ideal platforms for blogging.
Nevertheless, it is necessary we check out their blogging capabilities since this is a comparison post between the two platforms.
WordPress
Over the years, WordPress has evolved into much more than just a blogging platform. Due to its continuous updates and improvements, WordPress can be used to build complex websites that include an online store, a membership site, a classified website, a learning management system, and many other types of websites.
Aside from standard blogging features such as editing text, inserting images, and enabling comments, you have advanced features such as adding categories and tags, as well as embedding widgets.
Are you interested in making your content private, and securing it with a password? Would you like to schedule your posts for later? As well as all these features, you have a lot of other options available.
In summary, WordPress offers your blog considerably more features and options.
Blogger
Blogger comes with all of the essential and basic features you’ll need to start a blog.
The editor on Blogger is comparable to that of Google Docs or a word processor. The different buttons in the toolbar may be used to format your text (italicize, underline, bold, text color, insert pictures, add bullet lists, and so on).
Your options, however, are confined to just these. You’d have to switch to WordPress for any more capabilities.
Winner
Blogging is ideal on both platforms. However, the reason WordPress wins this category is that it offers additional features.
10. Migration
The goal of this post is to assist you in selecting the finest platform for your website so that you do not have to transfer it. However, mistakes do happen. As a result, it’s critical to determine whether your blog platform offers safe migration alternatives.
WordPress
WordPress makes transferring your website so easy you don’t need to hire anyone to get it done perfectly. You can decide to migrate your WordPress site to a different server, alter the domain name, or switch to another content management system.
Blogger
Transferring your site from Blogger to another platform is a difficult procedure. During the transition, you run the danger of losing your SEO (search engine rankings), subscribers, and followers.
Google’s servers will store your content for a long time, even if Blogger allows you to export it.
Winner
As no one can tell what the future will bring, you should be able to migrate your website easily without losing any important section or aspect of your website.
Unfortunately, I don’t see Blogger offering such seamless migration, but without any technical skills, you can migrate your WordPress site anytime. Therefore, needless to say, WordPress is the winner in this category.
11. Monetization
AdSense will appear in almost every search result if you look for how to make money online on Google.
Google AdSense is an advertising network run by Google. It allows bloggers to monetize their websites by showing adverts.
You won’t have to deal with advertising if you use Google AdSense. Google oversees the entire performance, collects money, and gives your portion to you.
Let’s see how WordPress and Blogger handle the usage of Adsense on your website.
WordPress
When using WordPress, you’ll be able to generate the ad code from the AdSense dashboard once your Google AdSense account has been authorized. This code must be pasted into your blog.
This can be achieved either by the use of an HTML widget to display advertising on your navigation panel or install the header and footer plugin and paste the code into it.
That’s all you need to do to start making money with your website.
Blogger
SinceGoogle owns both Blogger and AdSense, incorporating AdSense into your blog is a little easier than with WordPress.
You’ll need to link your AdSense account to display adverts under the profits area of your Blogger dashboard.
Winner
There is no difference in the ease of integrating AdSense between the two platforms. The integration is pretty simple, therefore, it’s a draw.
See also: Learn How to Make Money With Blogging [New & Proven Ideas]
12. Costs
You don’t want your blog to be a money-sucking machine. You also don’t want to get so fixated on “free” that you lose sight of your blog’s growth.
It’s critical to consider the financial and opportunity costs of your blogging platform.
WordPress
Although the WordPress software is free, you will need to purchase a hosting plan and a domain name in order to begin blogging.
For about $2.75 per month, Bluehost offers a WordPress hosting package with a free domain.
The cost of running a blog once it’s been set up is determined by the services you use. Obviously, paying for themes and plugins is more expensive than utilizing free ones.
However, a paid theme or plugin can also provide you with a great ROI if you monetize your blog.
See also: Bluehost Review – Is This The Best Web Host For Beginners?
Blogger
Blogger is a completely free blogging platform. To get started, it offers free blog hosting and a free Blogspot subdomain. Blogger’s themes, gadgets, and other features are all free, however, you may pay for certain third-party themes.
You’ll need to purchase a custom domain name from a domain registration firm like domain.com if you want to utilize it with Blogger. A domain name costs $14.99 per year on average, but with domain.com, you can save money.
Finally, while the Blogger platform is completely free, it lacks many of the tools you’ll need to run a great blog.
Winner
Since the two platforms require you purchase a domain name, no winner in this category. It’s a draw.
Now, we’ve come to the end of comparison between WordPress and Blogger.
Before I declare the overall winner, as promised at the beginning of this post, let’s talk about the tips to choose the right blog platform and mistakes to avoid when starting out as a blogger.
How Do You Choose The Best Platform For Your Blogging Needs?
What makes a successful blog? Start with the right platform. After all, why would you build your house on the sand when you can build it on a rock?
A good blog platform is what enables the effectiveness of your posts. However, with so many options it can be tough to choose the best blog platform for you.
Here are some important things to look for in a blog platform, regardless of whether you’re just starting out or planning to expand.
Ease of Use
Ease of use is important. It’s amazing how many blogging platforms out there try to be too much. They try to please everyone and in doing so, they end up being chaotic and overwhelming.
I’m sure you want a simple-to-use platform because with simplicity comes less time trying to learn it and less time trying to find the right font for the header.
Flexibility
Flexibility is the key to a successful business, and it’s the quality you want in your blog platform. It allows you to easily make updates and changes quickly and seamlessly, and without any issues.
Support
Support is one of the most important issues that you need to check when searching for a blogging platform. A good blog platform should offer support through email, phone, or a community of users 24/7, so you can get answers to any questions you might have.
Security
No matter how amazing your website design is, if the back end of your site gets hacked, it won’t be much good. The most valuable thing any potential blog owner can look for in a blogging platform is a strong security system.
Third-party app integration
Every blogger requires unique functionality to make the most of their blogging efforts, and new features are being developed every day.
When important tools that help you create, grow and manage your website are integrated into your blog platform, it makes every aspect of managing your site easier.
Your blog should integrate with essential business services such as web analytics, social media, and marketing automation tools.
Expansion
We measure our success by the numbers. We want views, we want influence, we want interaction, and that is from every platform out there.
One of the most important things you need to decide before choosing your blog platform is where you want your blog to go. Growth opportunity is a huge key element. You do not want to be limited when it comes to expanding your blog in the future.
Monetization
A well-built monetization system is key to the success of any blog. Amassing tens of thousands of page views per month and transforming them into dollars can be a daunting task for an indie blogger when the wrong platform is chosen.
Look out for blog platform with simple monetization options for your blog.
What Are The Deadly Mistakes You Must Avoid As A Blogger?
We’ve all been there – you just started blogging and have absolutely no idea where to begin. It can be pretty intimidating when you first start out. This is why I have put together this list of mistakes you must avoid when starting a blog.
These are the mistakes I made when I first started out so it only makes sense to share them with others who might be experiencing the same problems as your own.
- Not having goals and objectives for your blog
- Failure to identify your audience
- Failure to identify your writing style
- Thinking people care about you as a writer
- Digressing from the goal or purpose of your blog
- Writing about broad topics
- Not having a particular post template
- Absence of actionable steps to achieve success with your posts
- Not using data to support your posts
- Not being visual enough with your blogs
- Failure to spend more time on editing and proofreading
- Trying to make your work perfect before publishing it
- Lack of consistency
- Concentrating your analytics on immediate traffic
- Failure to collect readers’ emails and leveraging the power of Newsletter
Blogging can be a great way to share information and build a loyal audience on the internet. However, if you are just starting out, a mistake can quickly turn your blog into something no one will want to read.
If you consciously avoid the above mistakes, with enough effort and diligence, success is guaranteed.
FAQs
Is there a better blogging platform than WordPress?
No. WordPress is hands down the best blogging platform in the world, powering more websites than any other technology, and also the most popular publishing system in use on the Web.
No other platform combines everything you need in one intuitive package like WordPress. Designed for busy professionals, it makes blogging quick and fun. With in-built tools for adding and managing images, audio, video, quotes, links, and polls to your posts directly from the WordPress dashboard, there’s no faster way to get your blog online.
Which WordPress plan is best for blogging?
If you are into WordPress, then the easiest way to get started is with a self-hosted account. If you are unsure where to host your website, we recommend going with Bluehost. They have been around a long time and their hosting services are really easy to use. For only $2.75 per month, you can get started today.
To learn more about Bluehost and see what you can achieve with it, here is Bluehost Review.
Can I use WordPress with Blogger?
No. Since Blogger was bought out by Google, it is difficult for third-party developers to make WordPress work with the Blogger platform. Additionally, WordPress itself does not have an official blog platform that works with Blogger.
However, you can migrate your blog from Blogger to WordPress. Here is How to Switch from Blogger to WordPress.
Is Blogger completely free?
Blogger is completely free. You can create a blog and have your own blog address free of charge (e.g., blogspot.com). It is free because it’s part of Google, but you will have to spend some cash if you want additional storage, customized domain names, premium themes, site statistics, or other awesome tools.
Can I use WordPress without hosting?
Yes, however, you will be limited to the basic features. WordPress is the most popular self-hosted blogging program in the world. Nevertheless, unless you buy your own domain and web hosting service, you are limited to using their .com address.
More and more people are choosing WordPress as a content management system. When coupled with free web hosting on WordPress.com, this combination can meet many of your website needs. It all depends upon what those needs are.
What is the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?
WordPress.org is a free blogging platform that you can download and install on your own domain name for FREE! You also have the option to self-host WordPress and keep 100% of your ad revenue.
WordPress.com is free if you want just the basics, but there are premium upgrades that allow for more freedom and versatility in building your blogs, like custom domains, more storage space, and advanced options like video embedding and widget creation.
Want to learn more? Here is WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org article.
Overall Winner
Both WordPress and Blogger are popular blogging systems. In this head-to-head comparison, it’s clear that WordPress is the winner.
WordPress has virtually no bounds. You can set it up to not only start a blog but also to develop any form of website that comes to mind.
With WordPress, the options are unlimited, from turning your blog into an online store to creating a membership site. Not to mention that your blog will always be within your control thanks to the hundreds of plugins and themes available.
If you liked this article, here are the Best Blogging Platforms That Will Help You Blog Like A Pro. Also, you may want to read WordPress vs Webflow – In-depth Comparison Plus Better Alternatives for more options.