When I was new on the internet I used to do blogging. I was working on my blogger blog. Blogger is a free website services platform by Google and you can also earn money from your blog. But, suddenly everything was changed because I was introduced to WordPress by my brother in 2014. After that I have another blog but the platform was change it was WordPress.com, there was no difference between WordPress.com and Blogger. Cause all the things was actually same. I was getting a little bit bore. Later in 2015, I was then introduced to an another platform WordPress.org. Well It was great fun with WordPress.org.
Often new bloggers are confused which platform to choose, Blogger or WordPress.org. They struggle to understand the difference and try to find out which platform is better. It’s true, both platforms are different and have their pros and cons. In this post I will walk you through this whole matter of WordPress and Blogger. We will discuss the differences between both platforms in a clean manner. Blogger is free and for WordPress.org, you need a domain name and hosting, which cost $10/year and about $50/year respectively.
Note: This post compares Blogger and WordPress.org. Not WordPress.com, because WordPress.com & WordPress.org are entirely separate things, except they run same software.
1- Difficulty
Blogger is easy. Blogger is easy. There are only a few options like Posts, Pages, Template, Layout. That’s it. You cannot add plugins, therefore there are not many many settings
WordPress.org is hard. There are many many options. There are 15000+ plugins and plenty of ways to customize your site. Each plugin has its own of settings.
2- Who is hosting?
Blogger is free for hosting. You can just register a domain name and set it up with Blogger and the hosting will be free forever. Since Google is behind, all hosting is by Google, your servers are never down. And Blogger is very secure.
WordPress.org, you buy your own hosting from some web host. There are many web hosts like HostGator, Arvixe, HostMantis, BlueHost, Just Host and many others. Since the hosting is not free, many beginners bloggers will prefer Blogger.com, which is free.
3- Customization Options
Blogger is simple and straightforward. It does not have as many options as WordPress. There are Posts, Pages, Layout, Template, etc. There is no option to add Plugins like WordPress. Yes, you can build your own template (or theme) in Blogger, but for that you must learn HTML, CSS and JavaScript. SInce there are not many customization options, the platform is good for beginners. But for professional bloggers, who want control over their entire site, Blogger is not for them.
WordPress- It is has numerous options to customize. You can install plugins and they will have their own set of options. For example, if you want to improve your site’s SEO, you can install Yoast SEO plugin. Once activated, that plugin will add new option to the left sidebar. Through this plugin alone, you can manage XML Sitemaps, how your posts or pages are displayed in SERPs and there are many other options. Since there are a lot of options, the site’s 100% control is in your hands. Yes, occasionally you want options that are not there, but for most times, you will have to just install a plugin and done!
4- Security
Blogger is tight security. Because its version is same since the beginning. No new features come.
WordPress.org includes features with every update. As of this writing, I am using WordPress 4.5.2. Sooner than later, 4.6 will be released and it will have its own set of features. Since features are constantly being added to this CMS, the security are also increasing. But with iThemes Security plugin, the security of your site will be great and don’t forget to follow these Security WordPress Tips and Tricks.
5- Your Site Address
With blogger, it is xyz.blogspot.com. With this URL your visitors will simply know that you are using Blogger. But, you can also change this URL from blogspot.com to .com, .net or anything else.
With wordpress.org, it is greatestblog.com, which is very professional. But for this, you need to buy your site’s domain name. As I said before that domain name are cost about $10/year. With this professional domain name no one will know that you are using WordPress.org.
6- Membership:
In blogger you can also have a partnership/membership. For this you need to invite your partner to join your blog. But, It’s in your hands what do you want them to be in your site Admin? Who controls the whole site, it means if you choose your partner as administrator then they can also remove you from the blog which is very bad for you. OR Author? who can only write and publish a post in your blog.
WordPress also allows you to add users in your site, unlike blogger it gives you only two options Admin & Author. But, WordPress gives you five options such as: Subscriber, Contributor, Author, Admin, & Editor. So as you can see WordPress has many many options also in membership.