Sunday, January 30, 2011

Blogger vs WordPress vs WordPress.com

A while back, I moved this little blog from WordPress to Blogger. Which meant full circle.

We began here on Blogger in December, 2004. Moved to TypePad in early 2005, then to WordPress later that year. And, in 2009, back to Blogger.

So, how'd that whole moving back to Blogger from WordPress thing go?

Okay, I guess.

The main thing isn't the blogging platform. It's the blogging. I don't write as many posts as I used to, but that's got nothing to do with the platform. Let's ignore how much and what I write. Let's look at the blogging platforms: WordPress vs Blogger.

There are actually two flavors of WordPress: there is the traditional WordPress, which is run on a server you would run; then there is WordPress.com, which is hosted by WordPress.

Let's compare how the platforms stack up on a few topics.

Cost

Blogger and WordPress.com are free. You can't beat free. WordPress costs whatever your hosting service charges.

Advantage: Blogger, WordPress.com

Score: Blogger 1, WordPress.com 1, WordPress 0

No to domain names

If you don't care about the domain name, then Blogger and WordPress.com are free, while WordPress would require it. It's not WordPress that requires it; rather, WordPress needs to be hosted somewhere, and you'll have to come up with a domain name.

Let's use this blog's domain name, BasilsBlog.net, to illustrate the differences.

If I didn't care, I could use basils.blogspot.com at Blogger, and basilsblog.wordpress.com at WordPress.com. They're free. But, I have to furnish a domain name for WordPress, so I'd have to pay for BasilsBlog.net.

Advantage: Blogger, WordPress.com

Score: Blogger 2, WordPress.com 2, WordPress 0

Yes to domain names

Now, if I do want my own domain name, I have to buy one. I can do that through Blogger or WordPress.com, and some hosts include it in the sign-up costs, though some don't.

If I kept them separate, it's free to tie it to Blogger, as well as most hosting plans (WordPress), but it's $12.00 for WordPress.com.

Advantage: Blogger, WordPress

Score: Blogger 3, WordPress.com 2, WordPress 1

Ads

You may want to put ads on your blog. After all, that's income. But, WordPress.com won't let you put ads on your blog. They'll put some there, but they won't let you. I'm not criticizing: after all, they're not charging you for hosting, and their ads aren't obtrusive. But, when you compare blogging platforms, this matters.

Blogger lets you put ads. In fact, they encourage you to use Google's ad system.

WordPress doesn't care, and most hosts don't either.

WordPress.com, as we said, won't let you put ads on your blog.

Advantage: Blogger, WordPress

Score: Blogger 4, WordPress.com 2, WordPress 2

JavaScript

There are all kinds of plug-ins that you may want to use on your blog. It could be ads (covered above), it could be stats, it could be anything.

Blogger lets you add JavaScript code. Most WordPress hosts do too. But WordPress.com won't let you add JavaScript code your your Website.

Advantage: Blogger, WordPress

Score: Blogger 5, WordPress.com 2, WordPress 3

Themes

There are plenty of themes available for Blogger, WordPress, and WordPress.com, although you apply them in different ways.

Blogger has always been way behind on themes, both in number and quality, but in the last year, as improved greatly.

WordPress.com has been adding quality themes all along, and they all work well.

WordPress hosts will sometimes include some themes, but you often have to find them on search sites, download them, and upload them to your server.

Because of the different aspects involved -- quantity and quality -- we'll core this a couple of ways.

Quantity? WordPress has the most, then WordPress.com.

Advantage: WordPress

Quality? All of WordPress.com's are quality themes. WordPress has the same themes available, plus a log that are crappy. Blogger's are all good, and more easily customizable than WordPress or WordPress.com.

Advantage: WordPress.com and Blogger

Overall advantage? Even.

Score: Blogger 6, WordPress.com 3, WordPress 4

Comment spam

Spam is one of the biggest pains to any blogger. And WordPress has taken the lead on preventing spam, but Blogger is catching up.

WordPress and WordPress.com both use Akismet, which is a great spam blocker. It isn't perfect, but nothing is. It is very, very good, though.

Blogger added anti-spam code within the last year, and it's working very well.

Blogger has more options than do WordPress/WordPress.com when it comes to who can comment.

Advantage? Even.

Score: Blogger 7, WordPress.com 4, WordPress 5

Links

When you link to a blog, or when a blog links to you, it's often really nice for the link to show up automatically. These are TrackBacks, and are great. Unless it's TrackBack spam. That is, some blog someone set up for the explicit purpose of grabbing links.

WordPress/WordPress.com's automatic TrackBacks work great. Links show up quickly.

Blogger doesn't support TrackBacks, but uses Backlinks, which are powered by Google's search database.

Blogger will show links form sites that don't use TrackBacks, but they take longer to show up. And sometimes, they don't show up at all.

WordPress/WordPress.com's filter keeps most spam out, but it isn't perfect.

Advantage: WordPress.com, WordPress

Score: Blogger 7, WordPress.com 5, WordPress 6

Conclusion

The final scores are pretty close. And, this scoring assumes all of the topics are of equal weight. They probably aren't, but what's important to one person isn't as important to another person.

I awarded one point for each topic. You may want to award more points for one topic over another.

If you want free, and that's a deal-breaker, your options are Blogger or WordPress.com.

If you want to be able to have ads, or JavaScript, and that's a deal-breaker, your options are Blogger or WordPress.

Whatever you decide, keep in mind that each advantage comes with disadvantages. If you're undecided, try using Blogger AND WordPress.com. Yes, run two blogs for, say, a month, just to see how each works. I think you'll go with Blogger, but WordPress.com -- or WordPress -- would be a great choice.

That's right. There is no bad decision. Just better decisions.

3 comments:

  1. Blogger is head and shoulders better than it was when I started. The trackback thing is still a pain, though.

    And content/image storage at Blogger is pretty strong, too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Didn't you post a while back about Blogger adding the ability to have a few non-blog pages associated with your blog? What do you think about that feature?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like Joomla better for blogging then all three that you mentioned but I guess that's like comparing apples to oranges when Joomla is a complete CMS.

    ReplyDelete

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