I’ve been playing around with blogger.com and wordpress.com for some time now and would like to post some comparisons of the two. NOTE: I’m comparing the free and hosted version of Word Press at wordpress.com, not the downloadable version that requires hosting from wordpress.org.
- Both are free blog sites that require nothing more than an ID and Password. That’s perfect! No need to worry about hosting, domain names, blah blah blah. Advantage: Push
- Blogger is owned by Google. That’s cool. Word Press is open source. Even cooler. What does that mean for most people? Nothing really. But for those who care, it’s cool. Advantage: wordpress
- With Blogger, you have much more control over the template. They give you access to the code so you can add all the sidebar junk you want. Of course you can also change the images, colors, etc. With Wordpress.com you don’t get any control over the template (UPDATE: a few themes have allow custom headers and color schemes). You don’t get to see the code so you can’t add things to the sidebar or change images. (UPDATE: Wordpress now has sidebar widgets that are so easy to use) Advantage: blogger
- Word Press allows you to use categories for each post you make which is very nice. It gives you an extra option for archiving other than by date. Blogger doesn’t have this built in. Advantage: wordpress
- Word Press allows you to create pages of static info (like an “About Me” page). Blogger uses a profile that isn’t a part of your site. But that’s just for the “About Me” page. In Word Press, you can create as many pages about anything you like. Advantage: wordpress
- If you create a post with a date or time stamp in the future, in Blogger it’ll show up with that date in the correct place. In Word Press, it’ll wait and publish that post at the time of the date stamp. Advantage: Push
- Word Press allows trackbacks (a comment notification that someone blogged about you). Blogger (built-in) does not. Advantage: wordpress
- At least at this point, it seems Word Press spam blocker works better than Blogger, but it’s a close call. Advantage: Push
- Word Press provides you with basic stats. Blogger does not. Advantage: wordpress
- Blogger uses an orange logo. I dig that. Advantage: Push - I really don’t care
- Blogger allows multiple blogs on one account. Right now wordpress.com does
notalso. Advantage: push - Wordpress has a very cool and easy import function so if you wanted to leave blogger, typepad, etc and go with wordpress, it’ll import all of your old posts and comments so easily. Blogger doesn’t know what import means. Advantage: wordpress
My conclusion is if you’re concerned about what your blog looks like, go with Blogger. You have more control over the look. However, the look/feel of wordpress.com’s templates are nice and clean and they are giving you a lot of options in the sidebar now. Wordpress.com has many more options that are favorable like categories, pages, and trackbacks. This makes your blog better for visitors and encourages better conversation.
Also, I have more confidence in wordpress.com adding more features than blogger.com. Blogger has always been slow to upgrade.
UPDATE: Added #12 above. As I think of new comparisons, I’ll add them as the next point above and not keep adding “update” tags like this one.
[tags]blog software, blogger, wordpress.com, word press, wordpress, free blog[/tags]
