WordPress vs Blogger: The Best Place to Start a Free Blog
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David
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November 14th, 2012
When people learn I build blogs and websites, I'm always asked one or two questions.
1) Should I use a free website building service?
2) If so, which is better: WordPress or Blogger?
These are both great questions but for this post, let's focus on the second one.
WordPress vs Blogger
Personally and professionally, I absolutely always prefer WordPress for even my free websites. There are quite a few reasons to use either one depending on your intended blog, but they each do the trick for a standard site.
Why I prefer WordPress.com
1) More Customizable
With a vast increase in the amount of themes, plugins, and other additions available, WordPress.com is by far the better of the two free, popular Content Management Systems. Although there are limits on the things you can do with the free WordPress blog, it is both easier-to-use and more customizable than Blogger.
2) More Professional Appearance
Those extra options and themes include opportunities to make your free website look nice. Sure, it's best if you self-host on WordPress and even purchase high-powered themes, but the basic, free themes on WordPress look nice, too. In fact, the free blogging platform they offer includes some blog themes we couldn't get for free when self-hosting!
3) Easy Paid Hosting Options
If you decide you want or need more blogging options but love your WordPress blog's functionality, WordPress.com has it set-up where you can pay a fee to buy your domain name and host your site without having to go through any other brokers. It is a little more expensive to do this way, but is great for beginners who are okay with paying a little bit for a vastly improved experience.
4) Super Simple Transition to WP.org
When/if you decide to make the jump to hosting your own website on WordPress, you don't have to worry even a second about whether or not everything will transfer over correctly. It takes about 30 seconds overall, depending on your download speed, and it couldn't be easier.
Only Major Con:
No Javascript or ads. Whether you want to add a floating image or paste Adwords code to rake in some pennies, WordPress.com does not have that functionality. Blogger does have simple integration to Adwords since they are part of the same Google family.
The difference between .com and .org
If you're new to website building, you might be confused by the distinctions between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. The only thing you really need to know is the WordPress.com is the free version of the Content Management System that allows you to make your own blog with the blogname.wordpress.com site URL.
WordPress.org, on the other hand, is also free, but must be installed on your own paid, hosted website URL. Instead of blogname.wordpress.com, you'd have blogname.com or .org, .net, .us, .uk, or whatever else. You have to pay for monthly hosting for this service, but you can do anything you want with it, include run ads, etc.
Which do you use for free blogs? We want to know!