Comparison of sites for blogging – Blogger and WordPress
At first – I’ve started my blog on Blogger. It’s very good but I’ve decided to test also other blog services and I’ve chosen WordPress. At this moment I’m running my blog at the same time in both places: rightweb.wordpress.com and rightweb.blogspot.com. I did also some tests of the blog.com website but since I didn’t liked it at all – so I don’t compare it here
Here are pros and cons for Blogger and WordPress. I’m referring here to free version of WordPress hosted on WordPress.com. WordPress engine offers much more flexibility and majority of the limitations are gone.
Blogger
- Pros: good choice of templates, very flexible templates, simple and intuitive post designers, supports commercial blogs (with easy AdSense implementation), very good help system and documentation, doesn’t show advertisements on your blog, very good support for JavaScript – you can put any add-ons you like
- Cons: Cannot schedule posts for publishing at certain date, necessity to publish your posts to other server (extra steps, sometimes problematic), doesn’t support categories of posts (only simple list), difficult to use spellchecker, annoying spam control mechanics (for comments and sometimes also for editing of blogs)
WordPress
- Pros: good choice of templates, simple and intuitive post designers, built-in simple blog traffic reporting that includes also stats for feeds, excellent support for high ranking in search engines, doesn’t show advertisements on your blog, very good spellchecking interface,
- Cons: doesn’t support JavaScript (which closes the door for majority of add-ons), templates not very flexible and difficult to update, doesn’t support any good traffic reporting system (only simple counters), weak help system, doesn’t support advertising in your blogs, doesn’t support FireFox fully.
And the winner is… it’s a draw with WordPress being slightly better.
I like WordPress interface better – I would be very happy to switch totally to WordPress if it would support JavaScript. I could then use good metrics system (e.g. Google Analytics). It should also open up in the future for commercial blogs (with e.g. Google AdSense).
Blogger is very good too but it needs to start supporting categorization of posts and have ability to schedule posts for the future.
In meantime – I run blog in both places. 🙂
What are your thoughts – do you see other differences? Do you know other good blogging sites? Your comments are very welcome!
the right web - webdesign and webmarketing 
You need to be clear that you are comparing Blogger with the free version of WordPress.com, not the full version of WordPress. Very different (but similar) creatures.
With the full version of WordPress, the possibilities are almost endless of what you can do, including using javascripts until you break your browser. 😉 Currently, WordPress.com restricts the use of javascripts for security, because of their ability for easy exploitation. Will that change in the future? Maybe. It’s still a new service.
The very first “premium” service just began last week with WordPress.com, and I foresee the ability to host ads and other “commercial” features on WordPress.com as something definitely in the future. Probably for a fee not free, would be my thinking. For those who really want to make money and control all aspects of their blog, they have the choice of the free full version of WordPress hosted on their paid site, doing whatever they want it to do, including making money.
Could you also be more specific about the weak help system? Now that WordPress.com has “settled in” a bit, we’re starting to write up extensive documentation and any specifics on this would be helpful. There’s a very helpful support forum, websites packed with information and answers to questions, so specifics would help, especially compared to what Blogger has to offer in support services, since I’m unfamiliar with their offerings.
I’m curious about how WordPress.com has problems with Firefox. I use Firefox exclusively with WordPress and WordPress.com and I’ve not noticed any problems. Am I missing something?
It’s an interesting summary, but I’d love to see the specifics which would help more people understand what these things are, the benefits of the features, and the loss of not having these features.
Thanks.
Thanks Lorelle for your well thought out answer!
You are very right – I’m refering here to free WordPress.com hosted blog engine. I’ve updated also my post to state it more clearly there.
Great to hear that there is chance for JavaScript enabling. Without it I cannot have e.g. Google Analytics on my blog. On Blogger it’s somehow possible so I hope WordPress will open up as well.
Help system – In WordPress there is confusion between full version and the one hosted on WordPress. In many cases I end up with something that is totally not applicable to free version. Blogger has really extensive and well written one.
Firefox compatibility – maybe it’s more related to templates within WordPress.com… On some of them the design is not aligned well when browsed with Firefox.
Indeed – all these limitation of WordPress are related to WordPress.com hosted free version. They also don’t change the fact that I like it a lot and better than Blogger at the end of the day.
If only JavaScript was supported + chance for AdSense there… Would be really sure winner there! 🙂
Lorelle – thanks again for your excellent comments!
You are welcome and I’m glad I hoped clarify things. As for ads, like I said, it takes money to make money, so for those whom blogging for bucks is important, the full version of WordPress is there, ready to use for free.
I laughed when you said that there are WordPress Themes with problems on Firefox. I find more have trouble with IE than Firefox.
And this is true of all themes, not just those in use by WordPress.com or available for all WordPress blogs. 99% of all WordPress Themes are designed for free, and while effort is made by some to make them cross-browser compatible, not all are. But this is true of every web page design. I’ve seen some HORRID Blogger layouts. 😉 Equal opportunity bad web page design crosses all blogging platforms.
As for stats, unless you are OCD and really into commercializing your blog, the stats in the Dashboard are plenty for getting a feel for your blog’s activities. And if you are around long enough to build up some stats, you can also use other methods, like Alexa and Site Meter, to track your blog stats. But again, for serious blog money-making, the free full version is best.
You also didn’t really mention the issue of comments and comment spam. Personally, I hate leaving comments (or even trying to find any left) on Blogger. Clicking several times and dealing with popup windows and all is not conducive to good communication. As for comment spam fighting tools, Akismet gets better all the time and I’ve rarely found any false-positives. It caught over 250 comment spam just today! How does that compare with Blogger?
I’m not saying one is better beyond doubt than the other. I just think that when someone takes on a comparative review, they need to be specific and flesh out what they mean so the review helps everyone, including me. 😉
As for documentation and help, stay tuned!
Good point about spam control – it’s not only problem for people leaving comments. Actually – after 3-4 days of running my blog on Blogger it got market as spam blog which ment that I had to go through spam control (retyping of the letters) for every operation on the blog + I got removed from Blogger listing of blogs. Pretty annoying indeed. I have to write email to Blogger staff and wait 2-3 days for human check of the blog to be back to normal.
Also – the way they distort the letters that you have to retype is so weird that I sometimes feel like disabled and have to try it 2 or 3 times… 😉
Cool. I need to update my comparison becuase WordPress has added some new functionality and Blogger has a beta version out that apparently is good too. Haven’t tried it yet though.
Word press free stats is def a plus.
For free option, I prefer Blogger.com than WordPress.org. Because I can customize template as I like. And can put Adsense code & tracking code.
After using both on many occasions I prefer wordpress myself, blogger is great but if you leave them too long (holidays or really busy) you go back and they have deleted your blog, how annoying is that.
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Just wanted to say that I read your blog quite frequently and I’m always amazed at some of the stuff people post here. But keep up the good work, it’s always interesting.
See ya,