Bloggers: Should You Use Blogger.Com or WordPress?
Blogger.Com (also called Blogspot) and WordPress are the two most normally used running blog platforms today. Blogger.Com changed into a pioneer within the running a blog industry, permitting customers to set up money owed and weblog totally free beginning in 1999. Blogger.Com turned into purchased with the aid of Google in 2003, which enabled it to develop using Google’s resources. Today, Blogger.Com has an undisclosed quantity of tens of millions of users blogging on their system.
WordPress commenced in 2003 as the successor to some other (now noticeably unknown) blogging system. It has on account that it grow to be the weblog platform of choice for maximum blogging professionals. There are presently over million energetic customers of WordPress.Com, and hundreds of thousands of others have downloaded diverse versions of the WordPress code. Using the Blogger setup mandates that your blog be hosted on their servers. In contrast, blogs walking on the WordPress platform may be hosted at WordPress.Com, or the WordPress software can be downloaded and used in your choice of network hosts. Below are a number of the key features of Blogger.Com as opposed to the 2 variations of WordPress setups.
Blogger.Com Features
Free web hosting for up to at least one GB really worth of space
Blog content is maintained on Blogger.Com net servers
Ability to select and customize templates (limited flexibility)
Easy to get started; easy to use
Upload and keep photo documents and video files
WordPress.Com Features
Free web hosting for as much as 3GB well worth of space
Blog content is maintained on WordPress.Com internet servers
Ability to choose and customize templates (restrained flexibility)
Easy to get started; clean to apply
Upload and store picture, video, and other (limited) record codecs
WordPress Self-Hosted Features
Blog content material is maintained on the consumer’s desired internet hosts. Nearly limitless ability to choose and customize templates and widgets. It takes a few technical abilities to set up and configure files guide constrained most effective via internet server, which in all likelihood approach certainly limitless.
Who Uses Which
A quick perusal of some of the various blogs strolling on the Blogspot.Com domain versus those who use one of the WordPress setups (bills on WordPress.Com and self-hosted blogs using WordPress software) suggests that Blogspot.Com is more normally used for those who blog approximately their households, pets, and different non-public sorts of topics. Compared to WordPress customers, Blogger.Com customers are typically no longer “expert” bloggers, although there are lots of Common Joe bloggers who monetize their Blogspot blogs and make a dwelling doing it. Self-hosted WordPress blogs lean more significantly closer to professional entities with an IT person or department that handles their maintenance. They are often more formal. Because WordPress.Com is similar to Blogger.Com, blogs using WordPress.Com are similar to Blogger blogs in content, obviously extra informal or personal than self-hosted WordPress blogs.
Cost
Blogspot bills are loose. So are billed on WordPress.Com. However, if you need to do any well-sized customization of your WordPress.Com-hosted blog, you will need to pay to upgrade to their Custom CSS club, which prices $14.97 consistent with yr. WordPress.Com money owed can be upgraded to provide you extra disk space($19.97/12 months for 5GB up to $89.97/year for 25GB), limitless consumer debts for your blog($29. Ninety-seven/yr), and the potential to add videos (Blogger.Com obviously has this aid built-in.) on your weblog ($59. Ninety-seven/12 months). If your weblog runs on the WordPress platform downloadable from WordPress.Org, your costs are dependent upon your website hosting account, which can price as little as $5.00 per month or as a lot as loads of bucks month-to-month.
Flexibility
Because WordPress is open supply software, it offers experienced bloggers tons of extra flexibility when it comes to customizing a blog. When you download and install WordPress, you have full access to the database and the PHP, CSS, and picture files containing the WordPress blogging platform. In the assessment of Blogger’s platform, improving entry to the entire system allows users to be as innovative as they need to be. This flexibility does now not exist to nearly the volume with debts that might be hosted on WordPress.Com. One bonus that WordPress.Com does offer is the ability to host files aside from honest pics. MS PowerPoint files, Word (.doc) and Open Office (.Odt) phrase processing files, and PDF documents may be uploaded and stored for use on a WordPress.Com account.
Although Blogger lets in and encourages users in their setup to personalize their blogs, including Google devices and changing layouts, I’ve discovered that there is lots of guesswork worried while trying to figure out how to manipulate their XML schema, which is used to personalize templates beyond including devices and changing layouts. When I customize blogs hosted on Blogger’s machine, I frequently experience abstracting from their lower stage setup. Some of Blogger’s XML tags are documented, but that documentation is sparse. When I’m customizing a Blogspot weblog, it’s as though I’m throwing my work over a wall and then checking to peer what I get returned. This interface may be irritating.
An evaluation this is noteworthy between each of those blog platforms is the capability to categorize posts. Greater flexibility exists with WordPress.Com-hosted blogs and self-hosted ones use the WordPress software program than with Blogger.Com. Categories have created the use of Labels on Blogger.Com blogs. This setup does not permit sub-classes on Blogger account. Sub-classes are a natural part of both WordPress.Com and self-hosted WordPress blogs.
Ease of Use
For the layman blogger, getting began with blogging on Blogger’s platform is only of responsibilities. You genuinely create an account, pick a template, and start writing away. The interface could be very uncomplicated for customers of Blogger. WordPress.Com are similar, barely greater complicated. WordPress self-hosted blogs require a person to download the software, upload it to a server, configure database settings, and run the setup software covered with the software. This system is relatively straightforward for someone with IT enjoy; however, it’s far a bit intimidating for most different humans. Once a weblog is set up with any of these systems, using it is easy sufficient no matter which one you pick out. However, of all the interfaces, Blogger.Com is probably the easiest to apprehend and navigate.
Security and Updates
WordPress has had records of vulnerability to hacks. To limit that risk, it’s miles advocated that WordPress users be vigilant about retaining their websites. Specifically, WordPress blog proprietors hosting their personal blogs are endorsed to hold up with contemporary updates. Blogger users can essentially permit the Blogger development team to worry approximately hacks. Because the blog statistics are saved on Blogger’s servers, there is an awful lot, much less likely that Blogger websites may be hacked.
Which One’s Best for Me
If your intentions are virtually to put up your information to the arena without hassling with extreme customization and continuing updates, Blogger.Com is the manner to head. Because most run-of-the-mill bloggers suit into this class, Blogger has the most important wide variety (even though no person is aware of what number of that is) of blogs inside the Internet these days.
