Whether you just seemed to come across this whole blogging thing or you’ve been considering starting a blog of your own for a while now, anyone interested in starting a blog will have to choose a blogging platform.
I’ve always encouraged my readers to be more aware before they make a decision. The blogging platform you choose for your blog should be one you are comfortable with not the one someone else likes and is comfortable with.
I’ve insisted, time and again that your blogging platform should be your choice, and that too an informed one. This will help you save time and energy by having to go through the trouble of switching from one platform to another, and it will save you money as well.
One of the most common mistakes I see people making when they want to start a blog themselves, is that they ask random people in facebook groups what platform to start their blog on. They usually have no idea what a blog is, what a domain is, what hosting is, and any other terms related to getting started as a blogger.
This is bad for a few main reasons:
- You didn’t ask a professional for their advice: you just asked some other person who probably also has a blog and can only speak from the limited experience that they have or, they can be recommending something just to make money off of you in the form of commissions paid by companies to recommend their services. When you listen to random people giving you advice about things you should seek professional counsel for, you’re essentially asking someone whose never owned a business to become your mentor for the free advice that they can give, and you are not wise enough about the topic at hand, that you can decipher whether what the person is telling you is good for you or not.
- They are in it to make money too: I don’t know who started teaching these spammy, sleazy tactics, but there’s an army of people on facebook groups who recommend a platform like their bread and butter depends on it. These people are less bothered about you finding any success, and more bothered about selling you something they make commission on. This is dangerous because according to these people, no other website-making platform is any good. The sad fact, they know their lie is rooted in the truth. When they recommend their system it’s because it got recommended to them and its the only way they know + it helps them make money. So, in their eyes they are actually helping you, and themselves.
When I got started, I fell for this too. But, now I know better. And is a designer and developer who has spend more than 6 years developing websites, I know that no website platform is the end-all, each have their own ups and downs. And today I’m shedding light on a detailed comparison between WordPress and Blogger.
If you really want help in deciding what platform to choose for blogging between Blogger and WordPress I’ve compiled a detailed review of the pros, cons, and overall usability of the platforms so that you can compare yourself and decide which platform is the best for your blogging needs. And this is really crucial because you want to go with a platform that’s better for you, not what someone else thinks is better.
Now, let’s see a comparison between Blogger and WordPress, both of which have free plans:
Cost
Blogger.com is a free platform, it is free to use, forever. There are no paid plans you need to subscribe on to get any extra features that don’t already come with blogger.
WordPress.com is not a free forever platform. It offers a free plan that you can use when you want to get started, and you may choose to shift to a paid plan later on if you like. It also limits some capabilities that users have on its free version. WordPres will serve some ads on your website if you use the free version it offers.
Storage
Blogger used to have a limit of 1GB of media storage. But, high-resolution photos do not count towards your storage. It’s hard to tell the limits because at this point, I’m sure I have more than 1GB of media on blogger, but my storage is not yet full. I believe it’s really hard to hit the media limit for blogger, in case you do, you will be paying a small fee to increase the limit.
I couldn’t find, anywhere how much storage they offer in written, but I’m pretty sure its free for the most of it and images higher than 2048 x 2048 count towards your storage capacity on blogger. If it is synced to your free google account, then it is probably 15GB.
WordPress offers 3GB of space for storing media such as images etc. this space can be upgraded by switching to a paid WordPress plan.
Monetization
The juicy part we live for. Blogger is free forever.
You may use Adsense directly through your blog, even accept third-party advertising or sell ad spaces directly. You may choose to monetise through affiliate marketing, accept donations, set up your own e-commerce store, etc.
But if your blog is spammy or if it violates Blogger’s terms of service or Google’s terms of service your blog will be taken down with or without prior notice. Blogger actively monitors for spam and your posts and blog might be flagged if you’re into shady stuff.
For WordPress, you may monetise your blog by running ads if you are on a paid WordPress plan.
If you are using the free WordPress plan and have a medium to high traffic blog, you can apply for WordAds WordPress’ own advertising system, but your blog must be mapped to a custom domain.
You can not run any other ad networks expect for WordAds on the free version of WordPress from Automattic. The Business Plan on WordPress removes this limitation.
However, you may publish sponsored posts, do affiliate marketing as long as the primary purpose of your blog is not just affiliate marketing and doing sponsored posts. Meaning, your blog should actually help your readers and have high-quality original content. Blogs and websites with poor content does not perform well in any case.
Furthermore, you may even accept donations through Paypal on your blog, and sell your own products.
Upgrading to WordPress’ Business Plan or up will give you the flexibility to integrate an e-commerce system (Woocommerce) to be integrated with your WordPress blog, and you may even add plugins which you couldn’t before.
Domain Mapping (Using A Custom Domain)
Using a custom domain is free of cost on blogger, meaning you will not be charged anything for mapping your custom domain name to your blogger blog. If you have a google workspace account then it is even more easier.
With WordPress, you can get a domain straight from WordPress or transfer one that you already have by upgrading to the paid plans. You get a free, wordpress[dot]com domain on free plans. And you cannot map a domain name on the free plan. You need to be on a paid plan to use a custom domain name.
Themes and Customizability
In April 2016, blogger released some new themes into their themes section which are also responsive. For long now people would move away from the platform because they thought it wasn’t customizable. But in truth Blogger is one of the most customisable platforms. You can purchase responsive blogger themes, and support is also available.
My blogger themes are responsive and look good on every device, I design mostly for lifestyle, mom, home making, home decor, DIY and food blogger niches so it will be strange not to find something you want. My blogger themes start from $50 and are responsive so quite affordable I’d say.
WordPress offers a wide range of free and premium themes that you can choose from to install on your blog. I love a lot f their free themes, and my art blog uses a free theme.
I have noticed that all their themes are mobile responsive and built for specific purposes such as portfolios, magazines, blogs etc. All of them come from WordPress developers and are professionally made. And premium themes are available within the platform for purchase, on higher plans; business and above you can upload your own themes as well.
Plugins And Widgets
On Blogger, plugins are called widgets, and not a lot are available. However, Blogger does not need any more widgets than it has now. This doesn’t mean that you can not install javascript from third-parties. In this sense, blogger is a very versatile platform, you can make it do almost anything! You just need to know where to find the tutorials and the right developers for the platform: hint — me.
The free plan on WordPress is quite strict but you won’t notice it much. Hence, you are not allowed to install third-party plugins on the platform unless you are on their business plan that lets you install third-party plugins. If you’re not someone who is coder, programmer and use your blog for what it’s meant, that is managing your content, you won’t run in to problem on the lower level WordPress plans.
E-commerce integration
Blogger.com offers no e-commerce solution out of the box, but it’s possible to sell your products and services via blogger, and host a shop using third-party plugins. Want to know how? Book a consultation with me!
You can sell your products and services through woo commerce on WordPress’ business plan. Otherwise, on lower level plans you can use payment blocks to sell your products and services. You are always free to add links on your WordPress powered website or blog, even on the free version for products you sell on other platforms.
Customer Support
Support is available through the Official Blogger Help Forum. I’m a Silver Product Expert at the Blogger Help Forum and support provided there is for free. It is also available through social media (Twitter).
All you need to do is use the hashtag #gHelp, and someone (most likely me) will help you. If you want to bring something to my immediate notice that while you use the hashtag #gHelp make sure you tag me along as well by adding @thezoyathinking.
In case of WordPress, support is available through chat and e-mail. While I was hosting with them they were always nice and very easy to talk to, not to mention they were very helpful as well.
Why choose a free blogging platform?
After having started a blog, and paying for an entire year’s worth of domain name, hosting, email and what not you find yourself not really liking blogging and decide that it’s not for you. This means you’ve wasted your money.
Or if you simply don’t have the time to do it anymore, you have wasted your funds. But blogging shouldn’t be costly, you can start a blog on a budget as well. And this means you’ll be using a free blogging platform.
I’m always telling my readers that if they just want to get a feel of how blogging works they should try out on a free blogging platform because this way they won’t end up wasting their resources. Your blogging platform should help you solve your problems, not create them. Choose wisely!
Here are some of the benefits of using a free blogging platform:
- It is affordable, by using a free blogging platform you save on hosting costs, forever. (Just make proper backups monthly or weekly and you should be fine.) This is also to say that you can invest that money elsewhere, such as blogging education etc.
- In the years that I’ve been blogging on blogger, my blog has never had downtime. While when you use a self-hosted platform, you’ll see your blog does experience downtimes.
- Security of your blog is managed by the blogging service provider.
- They manage the backend, and you get to concentrate on writing content that you like.
- You can monetise (earn money) your blog.
- You can have your blog mapped to a custom domain.
- You have a wide variety of gorgeous blog themes to choose from (some are paid, some are free).
- Support is available (I provide tech support for Blogger and am also a silver product expert for Blogger).
- You own all the content you create.
- If your blog grows to the point that you want to have e-commerce on it, or you want to start selling your own products, it is possible to have an e-commerce store through both Blogger and WordPress.
Conclusion
I have used both platforms for hosting blogs, worked with them for clients and I can say I love both. If you’re struggling with your blogging platform, maybe it’s time to schedule your discovery call for clarity!
I always put an emphasis on starting with a free blogging platform, either WordPress or Blogger when you are just starting to test things out yourself.
Have any questions, queries or comments? Leave them down below, and I’ll get back to you ASAP! I’d love to help you out in setting up your blog. I read and respond to each and every comment.
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