We get asked this question all the time: "Why do you use Blogger instead of Wordpress?" Sure, Wordpress gives you pretty much unlimited freedom to do anything you'd like with your site, there are thousands of plugins, you can self-host, and with server-side code (PHP) and a database (MySQL), the sky is the limit.
But we see that as the problem. Unlimited potential often means unlimited potential to get lost, screw something up, or fail to secure something. And to be blunt, the vast majority of Wordpress sites don't need to be done in Wordpress, but they're paying for hosting, hopefully spending time with security patches, and worried about their site's uptime because they believe it's necessary.
For most of them it's not necessary. Your site could have been in Blogger and you wouldn't have those problems.
Reason 1: is able to fulfill majority of needs
You can make a list of the things that the majority of websites and blogs need, and almost all of the (90%+) can and have been done in Blogger. A simple Google search will find you a tutorial for how to do just about anything in Blogger. A contact form, a slideshow, 5 pages of text with images, a blog functionality with social sharing buttons? Piece of cake.
Reason 2: it's free
No strings attached (so long as you don't violate the Terms of Service by being a spammer or posting prohibited content), no subscription fees, no registration fees, no upsell fees. Free.
Reason 3: high level of customization
Beyond thousands of free templates for download from 3rd party websites, you can use the customization tool to transform your template without knowing CSS. And if you want to go in and edit your template, you have full access to the HTML, CSS, Javascript and underlying Google template code.
Reason 4: free hosting from Google
And not just free hosting, but
99.999% uptime hosting! Should your website get a lots of traffic, or even a very sudden surge of traffic, rather than your hosting company getting mad at you and shutting down your site, or your site getting extremely slow to load, your Blogger site will keep serving at peak performance. With hosting like this you don't need to worry about getting too popular.
Reason 5: integration with Google product suite
Google+, Google Places, Picasa Web, Picasa Creative Kit, Google Drive, Google Docs, FeedBurner, Google Webmaster, Google Analytics, Google Merchant... all of them are continually being improved, and continually being more and more closely integrated into a cohesive product suite. And with Google Apps for Business it makes it easy to manage everything in one place. Don't think of Blogger as a standalone website management tool, but the part of a suite of tools that can be used to extend your site and business.
Reason 6: managed security
Do you know how to update your CMS and implement security patches? Do you plan on staying current on them? If you're using Wordpress, you'd better stay informed before your site gets hacked. But if you're using Blogger you have nothing to worry about.
Reason 7: custom domain pointing
Adding a custom domain to your Blogger site costs you nothing besides the purchasing of your domain, and you can purchase that domain at any registrar that you choose.
Reason 8: show up in search results faster
Did you know that Blogger sites are added to the Google search index within 24 hrs of you creating your Blogger site? And did you know that it can sometimes takes weeks or even months before your Wordpress site is indexed? Faster indexing means your site can start getting traffic even sooner.
Reason 9: search engine benefits
One of the main reasons that people seem to swear by Wordpress is the perceived SEO benefits, not through Wordpress itself, but through the add-ons that give it better SEO. With Blogger's
recent addition of search engine preferences the playing field has been leveled. With the faster indexing, advantage goes to Blogger.
Reason 10: easy to use and understand
This is subjective, but even by its detractors, Blogger is considered the easiest blogging platform to use, mainly because the interface and editor are so easy to use. Compare below if you'd like, but we tend to agree.
Add onto this that you can create a new blog in minutes, don't have to understand FTP or follow installation instructions, don't need to purchase a hosting service, don't need to tinker with code, don't need to manage passwords (beyond your own Gmail password)... well, it's just easy.
Yes, we know some will disagree
Please if you disagree with any of the points made above, let us know! We'd love to discuss in a rational way, just don't post comments like "I use Wordpress because it's better".
Want to see some examples?
It's hard to believe, we know, so if you'd like to see some sites that we've built on Blogger visit
our post.
I too vouch for the points raised in favour of Blogger. And as rightly said in Point # 1, many websites are paying unnecessarily annual fees for web-hoisting when their needs could have been met in Blogger and without spending a running cost other then the annual renewal of Domain name registration.
ReplyDeleteThe two areas where I find Blogger is lacking (this may be my lack of information):
- Choice of plenty Professional templates. Dedicated companies/teams are there who are doing it professionally & in style for money. And they do give Value for Money. Here in Blogger, there are individual efforts, hobbyists or green horn designers are more. Not many professional companies like David's Confluent Forms who are offering such services for the Blogger platform. Blogger itself is not coming up with new templates or not tying up for 3rd party contracts for designer templates.
- Special features like templates with separate login for "Members/Customers Only" - not usually seen here in Blogger.
And I'm still in Blogger, as I expect in the coming days Google would bring more "power" & "elegance" to the Blogger platform.
Regards,
Swapan Das
I agree about the Template selection. Dynamic views are nice, but theme implementation and choice could use a lot more "oompf."
DeleteI agree w/ the lack of default template choices, but at the same time, there are thousands that you can download from sites such as BTemplates.com and others, or you can code your own like we do. Either way, while still being free, you do have those options.
DeleteI'm happy that Blogger gives me the option to tweak that standard template and make it my own. I'd love to add the 'commenter's latest post' widget (CommentLuv) but that needed an extra layer of logging in.
DeleteAnd teach a cookie to 'say' this commenter is in 'Georgia' ...
I can't think of any more reasons than what you posted, but I just want to say that the major factor for me was how Wordpress was overly confusing for what I wanted to do.
ReplyDeleteWordpress may be the "standard" of blogging, but if you think that to be true you probably consider Facebook to be the "standard" in social media. The thing about setting a standard is you adopt a service without weighing in the other options available. That's why it's important to look at the end result of what you want before figuring out what tools you are going to use.
For a simple and effective blog like mine (http://www.raymondduke.com), Blogger is wonderful. The future of Blogger and Google is looking very bright (e.g., Google Goggles). I am sure in the near future I will be able to narrate and record a video then instantly have it appear on my blog.
Hmmm...
ReplyDeleteGood to know all of this. Most of our blogs is in blogger plus the fact that blogger continue to modify which offers me more options to venture in.
Wonder if Blogger has a way to import from a wordpress site, the theme, the posts, the comments, etc.
ReplyDeleteYou can pretty easily migrate your content from WP to Blogger, but regarding the site theme, unless the place you purchased your theme also made a Blogger variant, you'd need to settle on one created for Blogger, use of the the defaults, or hire a web development firm to re-code your site theme for Blogger.
DeleteI tried Blogger before putting my personal sites on WP. One of the big issues that I had (other than templates) was the lack of plugins. Or maybe I missed them somewhere?
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of plugins were you looking for?
DeleteSure, Blogger has fewer default plugins, but that doesn't mean that the same functionality isn't available and that there aren't blogs (such as this one) creating the same things that can be easily added to your site.
I haven't used blogger for years, since it was a long way behind WordPress. I absolutely loved the new themes they brought out - the ones currently used on the Google blogs.
ReplyDeleteI love WordPress because it just works. It's easy to set up for a client and they can easily get a grasp of it. It is also extremely customisable - I've built full ecommerce sites in WordPress and clients just get it!
I appreciate your comments, but respectfully disagree: for most people Wordpress doesn't "just work". In fact, believing that it "just works" is what gets people into trouble, especially when they don't realize they need to do things such as security patches and updates, or when they try to set it up and do so with default passwords because they've never installed web-based software before.
DeleteSorry, but I would never, ever let Blogger host my blog again because that relinquishes all control over it and hands all the power to Blogger.
ReplyDeleteYou hosted my ezine archives for several years until, one day a few years ago, I was notified that you killed the blog, allegedly because someone complained that it was "promotional." Luckily, my web guy backed up the blog and we were able to move it over to a WordPress platform.
My pleas to Blogger were left unanswered.
Blogs are permitted to be promotional; the only way your site would be taken down is if it was a spammer or violated the terms of service (promotional is not one of those things). In addition there is a means of disputing the takedown which is provided, so I'm sorry if I doubt the reason being promotional.
DeleteI prefer blogger over wordpress. It gives a lot more freedom with access to the code, adsense creation etc. There are a few things I would like, such as Q&A plugin, but haven't been able to find one yet. Wordpress my be bigger, but not always better for EVERYTHING. Just my .02.
ReplyDeleteTyson
blogger is getting better and better everyday. so many awesome features have been introduced in last 1 year.
ReplyDeletei am with blogger for more than 4 years now.
btw why don't you have a facebook page...your blog is so awesome..
i would be the 1st one to like..
keep the good work up
Thank you, why not share our link on Google+ instead :) This article talks a bit about why we're not on Facebook.
DeleteGreat post and site.
ReplyDeleteI recently moved a client from Wordpress to Blogger and concur with all the above.
Cost was the biggest factor. We had hosted on Rackspace at $70/month, which was killing my client. Now he just pays about $2/month for hosting of images for all articles before the switch.
He was initially unsure as he didn't believe something free would rival something he was paying a small fortune, in his eyes, for.
Another point I would like to add is that Blogger allows you to put advertising on your site. At the time of the move I looked at Wordpress.com, Typepad and a few other services and this was a major reason for choosing Blogger in the end.
One issue that arose was that he has a niche site, news from Thailand, and ranks highly in Google for certain key phrases. The move changed all the site's URLs. So now searches give the 404 page. It is possible to do custom redirects in Blogger but these have to be done 1 by 1. There are over 1000 pages indexed. We're going to pick the top 100 and redirect those. On a regular site it would have been possible to use a .htaccess file to redirect all pages using a regular expression.
You can't have it all I suppose, and the benefits far outweigh any downside. His site doesn't really depend on traffic from Google and is not really a commercial enterprise.
I put together an article on my blog talking about the move - http://www.johnbehan.net/2012/10/converting-from-wordpress-to-blogger.html
Once again, nice article. I came across your site when the automatic jump-break on his site stopped working. Your version saved me a lot of headaches, so thank you.
All the best,
John
While I haven't used blogger myself I can see the benefits for those who are not web savvy. But I think for designers and developers such as myself that Wordpress is a much better solution. $12 a year for my domain name and around $5 per month to host is not detrimental to me choosing free. When I can create almost anything imaginable, from job boards to real estate sites, to eCommerce, and to still keep blog functionality. Almost endless customization and new security updates are released frequently.
ReplyDeleteWordpress gives you complete control and allows you to do almost anything you want with it. I have built 5 websites this in the last 6 months that I could have in no way done on Blogger.
Blogger might be the best choice for those who know nothing about design and development and can't afford to hire a professional developer to make sure that their website is secure and properly implemented. But for us developers Wordpress is a great platform and has proven itself time and time again.
Hi Jake,
DeleteThank you for your comment and feedback. Let me start with my basic point which is if a custom/customized database is necessary, I wouldn't recommend Wordpress or Blogger. Neither would be the right tool for the job, and instead I'd recommend Drupal or a custom CMS. I say this as the owner of a web development firm that specializes in building custom web-based software with fully custom content management systems (not using generic ones such as WP, Drupal, Joomla, etc.)
My second point is security. What happens when you turn one of these sites that you've built and customized over to a client who has little to no technical skills? What happens when you decide you don't want to work with them anymore and they're now on their own? Do they know how to patch security flaws and do the security updates that are necessary for the system and for the modules that you've installed? What happens then?
And my other point is this: there is a lot that you can do in Blogger, and can do better than you could do in Wordpress. And when the vast majority of websites for businesses are comprised mainly of 1) a bunch of static pages, 2) a home page with a slideshow, 3) a contact form, 4) a blog, and 5) integrating social media, then why do you need a custom install of Wordpress?
Jake Rambo, this statement:
Delete"While I haven't used blogger myself I can see the benefits for those who are not web savvy."
Contradicts this statement:
"I have built 5 websites this in the last 6 months that I could have in no way done on Blogger."
How can you know, if you've never tried it? I think David Kutcher has shown, and continues to show that there is a misconception that WP is far superior to Blogger, when in fact folks just haven't dug their heels into Blogger like they have WP. And I guess, it's hard to change when you've invested in something... and with WP, you actually invest in it, because simple tasks can't be accomplished without payment.
That being said, I've used all three in question... WP.org, WP.com, and Blogger. I chose Blogger. But only after I used all 3.
When I first learned Blogger, it didn't impress me, but the more I looked into it, the more functionality I found. It can even link to a 3rd party shopping cart so that you can offer transactions.
ReplyDeleteWordpress blows blogger away with customization.
ReplyDeleteIf you are looking for simple, blog only content, blogger may be good...but the things I can do in Wordpress are pretty amazing.
For an advanced user, Wordpress' post type/taxonomy system is bar none. The control over permalink structure is solid, and the ability to hook into pretty much every aspect of the software from the theme or plugins makes total sense.
Updating Wordpress only becomes an issue if you had some silly programmer tinkering with your core files to make something work that they could have done properly.
You can also link your Wordpress blog, or any website that is, to your Google+ by setting the rel="author" and taking the appropriate steps.
An I would NOT recommend Drupal or Joomla! or any other system for custom implementation, Wordpress has an amazing backend system that allows you to use your own implementation or hook into it's taxonomy system to get what you need done. You cannot organize data as flexibly in any other system like you can with Wordpresses own taxonomy structure.
Half the time custom database solutions don't even need to make their own tables.
And to others, Advertisements...really? You can't get ads working in a Wordpress install?
If your designer/implementer does it right you can control every aspect of your Wordpress blog dynamically, without needing to learn to code.
If you can't design or implement, or you don't have someone to do it for you, then Blogger is a decent choice, although I really don't see much difference between wordpress.com hosted blog and blogger in terms of indexation, both are Web 2.0 properties that are just as heavily indexed.
Thank you for your post!
DeleteI disagree starting at your first two sentences. There is a LOT you can do with Blogger customization, and we have lots of client sites to prove it. And you'd never guess they were on Blogger. Blogger is not limited to simple blogging.
The simple fact is also that most sites don't need Wordpress; they don't need a real database, don't need the security holes that come with it, nor the complications of it all. Which is why we preface this entire post the way we did, including the statement "the vast majority of Wordpress sites don't need to be done in Wordpress". Why don't they? Because chances are they need 10 static pages, some images, a slideshow, a blog, and that's about it. Wordpress is an OVERKILL for them.
And there is a world of difference between wordpress.com and Blogger, namely that 1) it's entirely free even with a custom domain and 2) you have full control/access to the CSS, template, Javascript, etc.
While Blogger does have its advantages, I feel that the plugins offered by Wordpress offer more functionality. For example, I can display ads only for search engine visitors, at whichever part of the post (top, bottom, etc.) with a single plugin. I am not sure if it can be done using Blogger. The number of plugins to extend the functionality of WP is far higher than what is available for Blogger. That said, I have chosen Blogger for my latest venture and am totally loving it.
ReplyDeleteI think you missed the number one reason why Blogger beats WP: scalability. If you ever get slashdotted (or equivalent), your hosted Wordpress site will mostly fall apart, at precisely the time you need it the most. That doesn't happen on Blogger because it automatically scales to meet demand.
ReplyDeleteHi Marc, thank you for the comment! I thought that was sort of under the hosting guarantee, but will revise and explicitly state that case :) Thank you for reading and commenting!
DeleteSome compelling points. As a Wordpress convert, I think the most frustrating moment I've had is dealing with a hosting company (now former hosting company) who kept shutting down my site, because it was drawing too much bandwidth on a shared server. No warning, no help in finding out what was wrong, nothing.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't imagine experiencing this with Blogger.
Thanks so much for the article, David Kutcher. This was a great read, and I myself am a person who tinkered with both.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that WP users forget that CONTENT IS KING. Once you've got the site function the way it should, the next thing is content. And for a lot of businesses, that's all that is needed. Blogger is a great way to setup something good, and show the business user how to easily maintain and post to it.
Keep preaching the virtues of Blogger. It really has come a long, long way.
This may just sound ignorant, but I was really put off when I blogger I respect told a blogging conference group, that if you wanted her to take your blog seriously, get on WP. Really? What about good content?
ReplyDeleteI have found blogger very customizable and very easy to use. Everything that has been tweaked on my blog, I have done. And I am not html fluent at all.
If you want me to switch to WP, you have to make a much better case to me about why this not broken blogger needs fixed.
Just saying.
Blogger needs a lot of tweaking in terms of SEO. By default, the tags are set up rather clumsily so that needs attention.
ReplyDeleteThe upside is that there is no end of blogger tutorials online and I've pretty much customised my blog exactly as I want it.
I do love the product suite - Picassa is quite brilliant and if you optomise your images' dimensions the storage will last you a long time.
My blog is http://www.ideasforcash.co.uk
The only thing that gives it away as being a blogger blog is when you hover the mouse over images and see the blogspot address show up in the bottom left.
The key issue here, which you elegantly skirt around, is ownership. The primary reason why businesses and anyone serious about their web presence should own their own domain and host their website on a 3rd party host is that they need to control their content. The drawback of using Blogger or WordPress.com or any of the other hosted solutions is that the owner of the site (Google, Automattic etc) can arbitrarily pull your content because they don't agree with what you are saying or for any other reason. You are basically handing off your online identity to a company that does not necessarily have your best interests in mind.
ReplyDeleteWhat WordPress does that Blogger does not is give you the ability to host your site anywhere under your own terms and conditions. That gives you control over every aspect of your site, and only you have the power to publish, alter, or take down the site.
Side by side WordPress.com and Blogger offer pretty much the same services, just in different packages. WordPress itself on the other hand is an entirely different animal. WordPress is an application you can do whatever you want with. An important distinction.
I agree, every business needs to have their own site under their own domain (something they can easily do on Blogger btw). You have this notion that someone will "arbitrarily" pull their content; nobody is arbitrarily pulling their site offline. There are terms of service, and if your site is in violation of them, yes, they'll have to go elsewhere. But your hosting provider can do that too, or your hosting provider can just shut down. Or can have a hardware problem for a week and be offline. Unless you are physically hosting the server yourself then you are handing off your online identify to a company that does not necessarily have your best interests in mind... they have their OWN interests in mind.
DeleteGetting to your statement about WP, yes, it allows you to do whatever you want with it. And my premise is that for the vast majority of sites, it's unnecessary. For the vast majority of sites they'd be better served using Blogger.
Most of your arguments are based on comparing a simple free service, Blogger, to a more complex (read: customizable) paid service, Wordpress.org, which is aimed at more advanced users. A more fair comparison would be to compare Blogger with Wordpress.com, which I think you'll find to be more balanced.
ReplyDeleteIt's not about a "fair" comparison. I'm intentionally comparing Blogger to Wordpress (both the SaaS version and the Open Source version). Like I've said elsewhere, it is our belief that for the vast majority of sites using Wordpress, they'd be better served using Blogger.
DeleteI've just started using Blogger after trying google sites. I've purchased a domain and used google apps for business to use that domain with my google sites page. Do I still need apps for business to have my domain added to my blogger page?
ReplyDeleteYou can point a domain or sub-domain to Blogger with or without a Google Apps for Business account.
DeleteDavid, having owned and run a Blogger site since 2004, I can tell you that yes, there are benefits, most of which you rightly pointed out in your posting. However, there are many, many problems associated with this platform as well, the worst of which, is no doubt, Google's automated spam system.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a matter of permanently killing a perfectly legit site, but the fact that when a false positive occurs, it can take anywhere from 24 hours (if you're extremely lucky) to several days before someone restores the website.
Now, try explaining to your clients why their website has been wrongly flagged by Google robots and then tell them that there's nothing they can do about it for the next few days until a Blogger employee finds the time to unlock it. And guess what; it happens far more often than most people think - I had this problem twice in a month!
Hi John,
DeleteThat's a valid critique. It certainly does happen, but as a Blogger TC, I can tell you that it is very very rare that a non-spam site gets flagged.
At the same time I think it happens just as often that a WordPress site happens to get an influx of traffic and gets their site suspended by their hosting company. Same outcome but for different reasons.
Thanks for the quick response David.
DeleteI think you can control traffic spikes with the right WP host. I will also kindly disagree with you about non-spam sites flagged by Google's automated classification system. My site has been locked three times in the past 11 months – twice in the past month. As we speak, I am currently waiting since the early morning hours of Friday for someone to unlock it, which is unacceptable.
I can assure you, there's nothing "spammy" about it. In fact, I dare say it proves all of your points about hosting a successful website on Blogger (I'm not here to advertise it, but if you're curious, I can email you details). So why am I negative about Blogger for anyone who wants a professional website? Well, in my opinion, there are three deal-breakers:
1) As I mentioned before, the automated spam system that can shut down your site for days and there's nothing you can do about it. Period.
2) Extremely poor (some will say non-existent) customer service and support. I've given up on Google's Blogger forums and the only time I visit them is when the automated spam system makes a false positive as I have no other choice.
3) Blogger makes hasty and largely untested software changes full of bugs and problems. The picture viewer, the "more" jump break and of course, the new dashboard with all the issues it has are just a few examples.
All valid points, but the one thing you're missing, the main thing, is you can never get technical support from google. Every page on google 'help' takes you to another page.' Feedback' doesn't help because they don't give you well, feedback!! So if you have a problem, big or small, there is no one to call, no one to look at your code/blog and see what's wrong.
ReplyDeleteHi Paula, you must have missed the Blogger Product Forum ( http://productforums.google.com/forum/m/#!forum/blogger) where people post questions and calls for assistance and are helped by a very engaged community. :)
DeletePaula, have you found your way to the Blogger Product Forum? http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/blogger
ReplyDeletePlenty of people out to help!
am a beginner in blogging field,and I have tested both blogger and WP, right from the word go blogger is much easier to deal with. I think that's very critical for anybody learning the basics. thanks a lot for the article, just read through plus the coments,very helpful!
ReplyDeleteKnow of any solutions for using YOURLS with Blogger?
ReplyDeleteYou can use Google's URL shortener: http://googlurlshortener.blogspot.com/p/how-to-install.html
ReplyDeleteI've used Blogger for 10 years now. I will never move over to Wordpress for the two blogs I write.
ReplyDeleteI recently switched from WP to blogger and the only thing I miss is the ability, via a plug-in, to import my Flickr comments. I could do that on WP, but not possible, as far as I know, on Blogger. I thought that integration of G+ and Blogger comments, recently announced, would give a decent alternative, but from what I can tell, I can't use that either. :-(
ReplyDeleteHi Matt, a simple method of importing your flickr comments can be to grab the RSS feed of your comments, then use one of the standard widgets in Blogger (found via the Layout page in your Dashboard) for incorporating a RSS Feed into your blog.
ReplyDeleteWordpress my be bigger, but not always better for EVERYTHING. Just my .02.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with that..
visit
Couldn't agree more, Marsha. Community is one way where wordpress.com really does score. They make it *so* easy to see who's doing what, what people are liking. Alas, with Blogger, you've got to dig around and their featured blogs area isn't all that helpful.
ReplyDelete