In a post a couple of weeks ago, I endorsed the conventional wisdom that serious or professional bloggers should favour WordPress, while those blogging as a hobby or sideline can safely continue using Blogger as their blogging platform.
In my own case – because of my lack of coding skills and Blogger’s limitations when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – it would have been wiser for me to have started out on WordPress, an error I have now rectified (although I can’t help feeling that the 2 years I invested in Blogger have been wasted).
| Category | Blogger | WordPress |
| Cost | Software and hosting free (Remember that free also has a cost!) | Software – Open Source, hosting – for your account |
| Domain Names | Choice of blogname.blogspot.com or blogname.tld (Custom Domain) | Must be a Custom Domain (blogname.tld) |
| Hosting | Hosted by Blogspot or self-hosted (Optional). | Self-hosted |
| Data Ownership | ? | You |
| Ease Of Installation | Very simple. Tick boxes | Manual or scripted. Moderately easy |
| Availability/Responses | Excellent, but no service level undertakings | Depending on configuration and Web host provider |
| Upgrades | Automatic, Infrequent | Frequent/regular. Can be automated |
| Support | Best effort, mostly peer/user-supported | Automattic for WP software, Web host provider. Essentially your responsibility! |
| Templates/Themes (Availability, Quality) | Very few bundled templates. Some 3rd-party templates available; tend to be poor quality | Basic default themes. Huge variety of 3rd-party free and premium themes. Quality varies, but tends to be high |
| Aesthetics (Look And Feel) | Unless customised, Blogger blogs tend to all have a very similar look and feel | Blogs using default themes are easily recognised, but creating a unique look and feel is far easier |
| Plugins | No plugins, but 3rd party services have created elegant Widgetised installs to add functionality | Huge variety of 3rd-party plugins available to extend the standard WordPress functionality in countless ways |
| Widgets | Most blog services include a Blogger sidebar widget | Most blog services include a WordPress sidebar widget |
| Skills Base | Few specialise in Blogger skills. Seen as being for entry-level bloggers | Vast pool of WordPress skills. Seen as a mainstream CMS |
| Customisation | Code snippets and Widgets for enhancements.
Coding skills needed for other changes |
Plugins, code snippets and Widgets for enhancements. Coding skills for larger changes. Huge skills base |
| Coding Skills Required? | Only for customisation | Only for customisation |
| Pages | Not supported. Posts only | Both Pages and Posts supported |
| Post Editors | Native (Web) and 3rd-party (Web or Desktop) | Native (Web) and 3rd-party (Web or Desktop) |
| Scheduled Posting | Supported | Broken from WP 2.7! |
| Categories And Labels | Supported | Supported, but better SEO? |
| Slugs (Variable Portion Of Blog Post Permalink) | Fixed | Variety of permalink options available |
| Post Teasers On Home Page | Only with 3rd-party templates or coding | Fully supported |
| Comments | Native or 3rd-party comment systems | Native (customisable) or 3rd-party comment systems |
| Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) | Practically non-existent (surprisingly, as Blogger and Google search owned by Google).
Very few standard SEO “artefacts” supported |
Good SEO out of the box. SEO enhanced by correct Theme and SEO-related plugins.
All standard SEO “artefacts” supported |
| Webmaster Tools (Bing, Google, Yahoo) | Limited support. Access to Web Root usually required | Fully supported |
| Sitemaps (Machine And Human Readable) | Difficult to create and maintain | Easy to create and maintain using plugins |
| Feeds | Native, FeedBurner, FeedBlitz, etc. | Native, FeedBurner, FeedBlitz, etc. Also feeds for Categories, etc. (3rd-party) |
| Data Backup | Manual or 3rd-party | Automated, manual or 3rd-party |
| Migration | Migrating from WP to Blogger possible, but unusual | Migrating from Blogger to WP supported, tools available, very common |
| Summary | Offers a great deal out of the box | Can be customised and extended to a far greater extent, even without coding skills |
I drew up this matrix following an e-mail conversation with a fellow J-blogger (hope you enjoyed the convention!) who is also considering abandoning Blogger in favour of WordPress. I’m sharing it here as I think it might be of interest to others. Hopefully others will avoid my mistake in committing to a blogging platform that doesn’t align with their blogging needs and skills.
(WordPress refers throughout to self-hosted WordPress(.org) rather than the free WordPress(.com) platform.)
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