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WordPress vs Blogger – Best Free Blogging Platform to Choose From

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Are you curious to know the best free blogging platform to choose between WordPress and Blogger, then this article is for you.

Although I advise you start a blog on a paid platform to enjoy all the best features of blogging, you may be cash-strapped and need an economical or free platform to start a blog on and publish your ideas to the world.

Now, the difficult question centers around – WordPress vs Blogger, which is the perfect free platform to start a successful blog on?

Note: This is not comparison is not Self-Hosted WordPress vs Blogger (WordPress.org vs Blogger), but rather, free WordPress vs Blogger (WordPress.com vs Blogger).

What is a successful blog?

Now, the answer to that question depends on your definition of success. A successful blog to you may mean a blog that gets tons of visitors, readers and comments. To another, it may mean a blog that’s able to rake in 6 figures per month.

whatever your definition of successful blogging is, I will compare the two best free blogging platforms in the world. At the end, it will be your decision to make on the blogging platform to choose – depending on your needs.

There’s no doubt WordPress is the best blogging platform in the world. No wonder 30% of blogs all over the world are powered by WordPress.

But when you speak of WordPress, there’s wordpress.org and wordpress.com.

To start a wordpress.org blog, you need to purchase a domain name from Namecheap or any other domain name provider and hosting from BlueHost or any other hosting provider.

Although you can get hosting for as cheap as 3 dollars per month on BlueHost, you may still find it unaffordable – it’s no crime. You are free to go for cheaper or free options like wordpress.com and Blogger.

WordPress.com and blogger.com are completely free blogging platforms. However, you still need a phone, computer, internet connection, your time and your brains of course. In my opinion, those are really huge requirements. Your data connection may cost more than what BlueHost charges for Hosting.

There are many other free blogging software. However, my comparison is strictly WordPress vs Blogger, as they are the best free options everyone has.

To start a free blog and be successful – there’s a need to carefully choose a platform that gives you so much functionalities for little or no cost. And that’s what you get on wordpress.com and blogger.

I am going to compare the features provided by these two options you have, so let’s proceed with my comparisons.

wordpress.com best features

It’s FREE

WordPress.com is a FREE platform to blog on. You don’t pay for a domain name – you are provided with a sub-domain of wordpress.com, i.e, blogname.wordpress.com. The only thing required to join wordpress.com is a sign up and a few configuration. Before you know it, your blog will be live and you can start publishing your ideas to the world.

It’s beautiful and user friendly

Wordpess.com has some excellent features that makes their blogs look so appealing. The themes are beautiful and easy to understand. You can get used to most of the features on your WordPress dashboard in less than a day. Another thing is that, you don’t have to worry about optimization or speed. Your blog will optimization will be done by WordPress experts.

Easy blog promotion

There are a lot of blogging communities that will help you quickly adapt. The pingback and trackback feature is super amazing. Also, your blog posts stand a chance of getting featured on worpress.com blog, which will in return generate tons of visits to your blog.

With all these features gotten for free on you may conclude it’s the best free blogging platform to start your free blog on. But wait, let’s review some other things first.

What you may not like about wordpress.com

We have discussed all the best features on wordpress.com. However, some other thoughts may be crossing your mind right now. What about upgrading your blog? Getting customized services? making money with your blog?

If you are interested in getting more features on your blog, then wordpress.com may not be so free anymore.

Reasons are:

You can’t use custom domains, themes and plugins

On WordPress, there are a lot of free premium themes and plugins. However, your free WordPress blog is limited to the default themes, a few plugins and the free sub-domain domain name.

If you decide to set up a custom domain on your blog, use custom themes and plugins, then you must purchase a plan and upgrade from your the free plan.

Blog monetization limitations

On a free WordPress plan, there are a lot of restrictions to the way you can monetize your blog. There are limitations placed on the number ads services and affiliate products you can promote.

Google AdSense can not be used on free WordPress blogs. To use Google AdSense on your blog, you have to purchase at least the smallest plan, which is the business plan.

If you violate the set rules, your blog may get shut down and your hard work, ruined. WordPress reserves the right to shut down any blog that violates their terms of use. There’s a provision for people to flag your blog for abuse or inappropriate content. If you receive too many strikes, your account may get terminated at once.

A self-hosted WordPress blog on the other hand, gives you all the freedom in the world to promote as much affiliate products as you want. You may have a peek at our guide to help you start a self-hosted WordPress blog.

This post is however aimed at helping you start a blog for free, so, let’s review another free blogging option you have.

Blogger best features

Blogger.com is an old and very popular blogging software. Although it is very popular and widely used, there may be some features on blogger you are not very familiar with. I have offered a detailed review on Blogger in my previews publication. This publication will also highlight a few of those features.

It’s owned by Google

Blogger was not originally developed by Google, it was purchased from the original developers Pyra labs in 2003. Now, the question you may be asking now is, how does Blogger being owned by Google make it one of its best features? Here’s it. There’s a popular saying that “Google owns the web”. This saying is true. This may sound strange to you if you are new to the internet age.

Google is the search engine giant that accounts for up to 80% of organic traffic for most websites. So, using a service owned and powered by Google is something quite nice. You automatically get easy access to other Google Services like, Google Search Console integration. Google AdSense and other Google services.

Blogger is totally FREE

I made no mistake using the word “Totally FREE”. Just like WordPress, you can create a free blog on blogger and get a free sub-domain name with the like, blogname.blogspot.com.

But unlike WordPress, owners of Blogger blogs are free to upgrade their blogs and setup a custom domain name with it. You are also free to install and use 3rd party themes on your blog without having to pay Blogger a dime.

Easy blog setup

Did you know you can set up a free blogger blog in less than 10 minutes? maybe you didn’t, now you do. It is so easy to create a free Blogger blog so long as you have a Gmail account. All you have to do is, sign in to Blogger with your Gmail account, create your blog, customize it, and start publishing.

Follow this guide: How to create a free blog on Blogger.

Better monetization options

Like I said, Blogger is owned by Google, which also owns Google AdSense. You can easily signup for AdSense directly from your Blogger dashboard. Not just Google AdSense. There are other ways you can earn some extra cash on Blogger.

Blogger also limits the amount of affiliate products you can promote. However, once you setup a custom domain on your blogger blog, you gain a little bit more freedom. If Blogger decides not to support you anymore, you can easily move a custom domain blogger blog to WordPress.

Recommended read: How to setup a custom domain on blogger.

What you may not like about Blogger

This is the part where I highlight a few features you may not like about blogger. After highlighting them, the choice would be yours to make on what blogging platform to choose.

Blogger themes are not so fancy

Although Blogger provides you with a wide range of free themes, they are not so fancy. So, you may need to purchase a theme from a 3rd party theme developer. I kind of like Colorlib. They have a collection of free themes and paid themes for your Blogger blog. Depending on your pocket.

Not so user-friendly

Customization on blogger is a bit tricky compared to WordPress. There are no plugins to help you get difficult tasks done with ease. You need to possess some basic CSS knowledge to perform some template adjustments.

IMO, the WordPress and Blogger dashboards are miles apart in terms of functionalities and features – with WordPress winning hands down.

After all, said, the ball is now in your court. What platform do you prefer, Blogger, or WordPress? Like I’ve said, if you are looking for more readers, better functionalities, and user-friendliness, then choose WordPress.

If you are looking to get really cheaper functionalities, more revenue generation options, and cheaper custom upgrades, then it’s certainly Blogger.

Conclusion

We can go on and on with our WordPress vs Blogger comparison. But the fact remains that, both WordPress and Blogger are two amazing blogging software.

Whichever platform you end up choosing, just have it in mind that your success depends on your persistence and readiness to learn. You must work hard to develop all the necessary blogging qualities and avoid making too many blogging mistakes.

If you have any questions regarding our WordPress vs Blogger comparison, feel free to relay them using the comment section of this post. Do not forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get access to important stuff faster than anyone else.


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