After WordPress blocked our blog for a few days, we frantically tried to contact the team to find out the reasons. WordPress unblocked the blog and we still don’t know what has happened. In the meanwhile we were forced to reconsider the blog platform since we love blogging and were really a bit perplexed by the incident. Blogger was the next logical platform to try. Hence our first hand comparison.
Please note, to compare apples to apples, we only describe WordPress.com – hosted solution to properly compare it to Blogger.com. WordPress also has WordPress.org package that can be installed onto your own server or hosting account. WordPress.org is free and has more widget, feature and design capabilities than WordPress.com.
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| Business profile | Non-for profit organization. 35 employees |
Originally developed by Pyra Labs, currently owned by Google |
| Technology | PHP, HTML, JavaScript | XML, HTML, JavaScript |
| Fees | Free hosting on WordPress.com. Free templates with minor customizations $$ Fee for using own domain $$ Fee for complete HTML customization access |
Free hosting on blogger.com. Free templates with customizations Free for complete HTML customization access $$ Fee for using own domain |
| Free storage | 3 GM free. More on prices here | 1 GB free. More on prices here |
| Ease of setup | Easy but not straightforward and time consuming. Requires time to learn WordPress.com platform and navigation. |
Easy and very straightforward. Navigation is intuitive and fool proof. |
| Appearance | Main color scheme is limited to template you choose. All templates let you customize header, but not all background and layout. |
Fully customizable on both color, background, layout level. Since you have access to HTML template, you can change appearance completely. |
| Features | Called Widgets. Are not all available for all templates. Choose from about 30 widgets. Satisfies need of 90% of users. Widgets are put onto designated areas on sidebar and footer. |
Called Gadgets. Are available for all templates. Choose from hundreds, but only about 30 you’d ever need if you are average user. Gadgets are put onto designated areas on top bar, sidebar and footer. |
| Layout | Depends on template. Not all templates have footer, limiting space for widgets. Some templates have customization capability for two or three column layout. |
Flexible allowing many options for customization of overall layout and addition of gadget blocks |
| Posting | Articles easy to create, tag, edit and proofread. | Articles easy to create, tag, edit and proofread. |
| Photo uploading | Easy to upload, access and insert into post. Multiple photo upload possible. Easy way to change size, insert caption, link etc. |
Only one photo at a time. Multiple upload limited requiring share from Picassa Album. Needs HTML knowledge to change size, insert caption, link etc. |
| Commenting | Akismet technology filters spam. Configuration options to format commenting rules, how comments are published and displayed. |
Google technology filters spam. Configuration options to format commenting rules, how comments are published and displayed. |
| Stats | Information about views, traffic sources broken down by article and time frame. | Information about views, traffic sources and locations broken down by article and time frame. |
| Permissions | Role based permissions. 4 roles. | 2 permissions and 2 roles. |
Other remarks and conclusion:
WordPress.com
- WordPress.com sites look more like real websites because there is no WordPress header on the top of the pages, unlike in Blogger. You will only see the top bar when you logged in to WordPress.
- To big surprise WordPress has support staff that would answer your e-mails within 24 hours. Given that it is non-profit organization, we were quite impressed with the level of support.
- I think WordPress photo capabilities are much more suitable for bloggers that are looking to make their posts very picture and media rich. With it’s Gallery capabilities you will be saving a lot of time down the road with each post. Plus three times more storage can’t be understated.
Blogger
- If you never tried any blogging software, you will no doubt have less hassle setting up Blogger. It’s more intuitive and user friendly making your blogging learning curve much shorter.
- Ultra-flexible appearance customization is more suitable for bloggers that have particular style in mind. Let’s say you are a company and it’s important for you to keep the standard fonts, colors etc. , then blogger is for you. If you are all into WordPress, you still can buy custom CSS and HTML from WordPress for $15 a year, but you will need HTML knowledge to use that feature.
