The Blogger vs WordPress debate has been going on for years and it’s a dilemma almost every new blogger.
So, today with this post I start some articles on how to create a blog, where I will give some useful advice to those who want to create a website without paying anybody, as I did.
As you know, I work as a graphic and web designer, so I spend a lot of time in studying new tools that can help us improve or grow our blog. If you are a fashion, beauty lover or a creative person: A personal blog is the best solution to express yourself and your capabilities.
Nowadays we can find so many blogs, so why should people check ours?
- for an aesthetic quality that wins over others
- a strong SEO
- content that can help readers
Blogger vs WordPress
I will explain all these details in the next posts. But first, we have to decide which platform is the best one for our blog. Many people keep asking me the same questions : ” What is the difference between Blogger and WordPress ? Which one should I choose? ”
I will explain briefly the pros and cons and what is the best choice in my opinion.
Hosted vs Self Hosted Website
Before we get into the specifics of each platform, it’s important to understand the difference between a hosted and self hosted website. In the first case, the platform provides you with a space on the server, but you aren’t the owner of your blog. In the second case, your website is located on a private server and you have to pay a monthly or annual fee to keep the domain.
WordPress offers both options, while Blogger only the first one.
Blogger
Google is the owner of Blogger, which is a free platform that was launched in 1999 and, thanks to new features added over the years, it has reached the record of 20 million blogs created with it. It’s easy and intuitive to use and you don’t need coding skills. Therefore, anyone can easily create a blog with Blogger.
Pros:
- It’s completely FREE
- It’s well linked to the advertising platform of Google Adsense
- Your posts will be automatically indexed by Google
- You can customize your template with different styles and colors
- Spam is filtered by Google
- You don’t need to do database backups
Cons:
- You don’t really own your blog
- Your blog address contains the “blogspot.com” domain
- You cannot use plugins
- It’s hard to optimize it for SEO
- It cannot be completely customized and you cannot add more features.
WordPress
The WordPress blogging platform is the best solution to create a blog.
WordPress was released on May 27, 2003 and it is a CMS ( Content Management System), which allows you to create a blog or a website and to manage it without having coding knowledge ( HTML, CSS…).
WordPress is an open-source platform, a resource that is constantly changing, thanks to a worldwide community that works every day to improve it and make it even more functional. Over 60 million people have chosen WordPress. So you can imagine how many people work on WordPress and how many themes and free tools you can find, that allow you to customize your blog.
Hosted Version – Pros & Cons
As we said, there are two versions: the hosted one, WordPress.com and the self-hosted WordPress.org. The first one is the free one, your website is located on WordPress server.
Pros:
- It’s free and very simple to set up
- Free & High Quality Hosting
- Setting, updates, spam, backups, security and much more are run by WordPress.com
- It’s SEO friendly: the platform is optimized for search engines
- You will get extra traffic becoming part of the .com community
Cons:
- There are more tons of free themes for your website, but you cannot upload a different one from those offered by the library
- You cannot modify the PHP code of your blog
- You don’t really own your blog
- You cannot use plugins
- To view the adds you have to pay an annual fee $30 / year
- Storage Space 3 GB
Self-hosted version – Pros & Cons
This is the WordPress solution that offers more features than the other two platforms. It currently powers 24% of the web. You can access thousands of themes, plugins, widgets and much more to customize your website/blog. You will be able to create a professional website or blog in a few easy steps. If you choose this option, you can host your website on wordpress.org or you can find another server optimized for WordPress. My suggestion is Bluehost (for beginners) and Siteground (if you want to take your blog to next level).
Pros:
- You are the owner of your blog and you are in full control
- You can upload any theme or plugin
- It’s SEO friendly
- You can use advertising platforms
- The site name will not be followed by ” wordpress.com ” in the URL
- Code management
Cons:
- You have to buy a domain and a server
- You have to make regular backups of the database
- You have to protect your site from spam and hacker attacks
Conclusions
In this article I provided you with some information that will allow you to better understand this two platforms. Surely, the choice of a self-hosted site is the most recommended solution for those who want more features and flexibility, and want to customize their blog or website. Unfortunately, Blogger doesn’t give us much flexibility, if we are looking for a unique graphic style, or if we want to implement our blog with other solutions, Blogger is not for us.
The first questions to ask yourself is: What do I want to do with my blog ? Which are the goals I want to achieve?
WordPress offers many options to both beginners and blogging experts. In my next post I will guide you step-by-step to migrating your Blogger site to a WordPress.org platform and I’ll share some information about my favorite web host, Bluehost or Siteground.
I hope I gave you some useful information, if you have any doubt, please write in the comment section.
Blogger Vs WordPress. What do you prefer?
Related post: 7 Awesome Tips to Become a Super Fashion Blogger
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Great post dear! Thank you for sharing!
These post is really helpful.
XO Pisa
http://www.inlovewithmyclothes.com
Thank you so much! I’m glad that you like it!
XO Erica
This is such a great post! I made my research before I started blogging, and decided to go with WordPress. I wanted to have more control over my blog, even though it was really tempting to go with Blogger because of its simplicity. I don’t regret my decision now:)
http://www.yuliannova.com/
Thank you so much! I’m glad that you like it, yes in my opinion WordPress is the best option! Have a great day!
XO Erica
https://www.ericavoyage.com
Great post! Thanks for the inspiration!
Much love, Len
http://www.lenparent.com
Thank you so much! I’m glad that you like it!
Have a great week!
Love Erica
I’m all about WordPress. I started off with a Blogspot site years ago and the lack of customization lead me to do WordPress.
http://beyondbasicblog.com
Yes WordPress is the best Solution, there are so many free tolls and plugin 🙂
Have a great week!
XO Erica
This is such an informative post and is going to be useful to so many people out there! I remember struggling to find the right answers when starting a blog.. So glad I made the choice of a self hosted wordpress version! I am looking forward to all the others posts in this series. Great work sweetie. Have a fantastic week <3
Love,
Monika | http://www.palateforstyle.com
Thank you Monika, I’m glad that you like it!
Have a great week!
XO Erica
Great round up! I’m using wordpress.org and love it! I love having the control you do over a self hosted blog!
Annessa
http://www.seekingsunshine.com
Yes me too, wordpress.org is the best soultion!
Have a great week sweetie 🙂
Love Erica
Condivido quello che hai scritto. Per ora sono su Blogger e in effetti mi sento protetta, quando avrò un attimo di calma mi studio il tuo fascicolo, grazie 🙂
xoxo
http://www.bellezzefelici.blogspot.com
Se hai bisogno di sapere qualche info in più chiedimi pure! 🙂
Buona weekend e buona Pasqua!
XO Erica
A very interesting article! Thanks for the tips darling it was fun to read! xxx
Check out what’s new on the blog:
http://www.mlleepaulette.com/frontend/index.php?r=site/blog
Thank you so much! I’m glad that you like it!
I will check it!
XO Erica
Wow! i love how much effort you have put into this article. Really helpful babe.
x Merel
http://www.andathousandwords.com
Thank you so much!
Have a great weekend and Happy Easter babe!
XO Erica
This is such a great post! I switched from blogger to wordpress and am so happy I did – but both have their benefits!
XO
Molly
http://www.trendychickadee.com
Thank you so much! I’m glad that you like it! Yes both platforms have their benefit! Have a great weekend and Happy Easter sweetie!
Love Erica
Great post Erica!
http://myfashionmusings.com/
When I started my blogging journey then my first question was, Why I should choose WordPress and not other CMS softwares.
I searched a lot about it on Google at that time and I found that everybody is recommending to use WordPress and I started doing the same.
Now today I know that why people should choose WordPress. Because WordPress is an independent and easy to use content management system.
The best thing about it is, We can bring any feature in our website with just using a single plugin. That’s really good. 😀
I am using WordPress since last 3 years and I loved it. 😀
Yes Is the best option, I love it!
I love WordPress! Interesting comparisons.
Thank you so much!
Interesting post! I’m using neither WordPress nor blogger so I’ve always been curious to see what the difference between them is. This is a very thorough explanation, which, I’m sure, will help many aspiring bloggers to make the right decision!
Thank you so much! I’m glad that you like it and I hope this can help other bloggers!
This is a great post and one I wish I’d had when I first started!
Thank you I’m glad that you like it!
Great information! It was such a mystery to me until when I was first starting out!
Thank you so much!
Moving to wordpress was one of the best things I did for my blog, but not a fan of bluehost! I feel like my site goes down all the time!
I think you should move to siteground, is more expensive, but is faster 🙂
I loved how you broke this post down into pros and cons! thanks!
Thank you so much 🙂
I really like wordpress. Its easy to post. It is mine like you said and its easy for readers to navigate.
Yes I agree!
Thanks for sharing this! It was really detailed and helpful. Xx
Thank you so much!
I’ve heard of the pros of each, but I feel like WordPress is def the way to go as a blogger!
Yes I agree 🙂
This is such a great post! for me moving to wordpress was the best decision I ever made
I’m a wordpress girl myself.
I’ve only ever used WordPress and am so glad I decided to start with it because I love it!
xo
Siffat
http://icingandglitter.com
I went through the same dilemma! I chose to go with wix and do it all myself with my own domain. wordpress is definitely my top choice though!
This was so interesting post to read. Great comparison.
Nina
Nina’s Style Blog
I am most certainly a big WordPress fan, it gives you A LOT of creative freedom! Great theme Erica, I really enjoyed checking out your blog!
thank you so much I’m glad that you like it 🙂
Such a great article, girl! Agree, self-hosted WordPress is the best option. I switched from blogger to WP about a year ago, and I’m absolutely happy about it. Yeah, you have to pay for your domain and hosting, but it’s really worth it.
Cheers, Eliza | http://www.fashion-confession.com
Ye I agree, is the best option if you want to create a business 🙂
Really great post. WordPress is better, I love it. And of course, it’s better to buy your domain, even at the beginning of your blogging, if you know that you will do this in the future.
Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Interesting post 😉
xx
Mónica Sors
MES VOYAGES À PARIS
NEW POST: IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME…
I totally agree with you, is so important has a hard SEO.
xxx
http://www.elblogdesilvia.com/2016/12/streetstyle-christmas-look-red-coat-dezal-over-the-knee-boots-blogger-silvia-rodriguez-influencer.html
Great comparison!
-Ashley
Le Stylo Rouge
Very interesting post, you definetly did some reasearch! I am using WordPress – in the beginning it was a little bit overwhelming but I grew into.
This post is so insightful and really beautifully set out! Great work!
This is a great comparison between the two platforms.
I found out that once you start a blog on blogger you can never really get rid of it as Google holds on to every little word or image you used even after you think you deleted them.
I am glad I made the switch to a self hosted WP site even if I was terrified of it at first 😉
Ciao.
I’ve always preferred WordPress 🙂
Great post
Thanks for sharing.
I was very ignorant when I chose wordpress.
I thought it would be simply but it turned out that I had to spend a lot of time on the internet because I have no idea how works the CMMS and template 😉
Excellent post and very useful.
Great info! I recently switched from blogger to wordpress and am still happy with the decision 🙂
I prefer WordPress, but it’s literally the first one I’ve used and I’m very happy with it. I’m still new in the world of blogging, but I think that WordPress is definitely an awesome idea!
https://tinkaragolob.wordpress.com
I prefer WordPress. Great post Thanks for sharing.
I’m on blogger. Last year I tried to transfer over to WordPress but it was so confusing and I couldn’t afford to pay someone to do it for me. One day.