WordPress or Blogger? | .::APAJR::.

                                      

Both WordPress and Blogger are fantastic blogging platforms, but which one is better than the other, and which one should you use? Your blogging platform depends on how serious you want to be about blogging, generally you would want to use WordPress.com or self host it yourself. Blogger is good for people who know little about websites and design because they basically set everything up for you. WordPress allows much more customization compared to blogger, it allows for a more unique looking blog fitted to your tastes. Even the WordPress.com version of WordPress seems to be better than Blogger. I think a “.wordpress.com” URL looks better and more credible than “.blogspot.com”. Overall, your blogging platform should be chosen on how serious you want to be about blogging.

Self-Hosting WordPress or going through WordPress.com are both plausible ways to start up your blogging career. Using WordPress gives you access to thousands of free themes and plugins to use on your blog. Many plugins or themes can not be found on Blogger, this makes WordPress superior to Blogger when it comes to customization. Blogger’s dashboard, to me, seems much harder to use and navigate than the WordPress dashboard. Even though both dashboards are virtually the same, the WordPress dashboard has a more comfortable format, everything is evenly aligned, and generally just looks better. Blogger’s dashboard looks like an HTML page with a few pictures and links on it, I guess you could call it unprofessional. I believe that WordPress is the better choice for any blogger who will be blogging for a living, for long periods of time, or someone who wants to get a lot out of blogging.

I enjoy being able to simply do something, like making a comment on a blog post. Commenting on a blog is easier when that blog is using WordPress. Unlike Blogger, the WordPress comment form has four fields; name, email, website, and your comment. Filling out those four forms isn’t that hard for whoever is reading the blog post, and when they return to that blog the name, email, and website boxes are automatically filled in with the previously entered information. Blogger blogs can have a comment system like WordPress does, but many of them don’t in my experience. Usually what I have to do on a Blogger blog is use a profile, like my Google profile, in order to comment. Using my Google profile to comment isn’t exactly something I want to do, because I do not want my name linked to my profile. Using WordPress allows your readers to simply enter their information and leave a comment; users can even register an account on WordPress.com and fill out the comment information there. Filling out your comment information on WordPress.com automatically fills comment forms on all WordPress blogs that are linked to WordPress.com.

Choosing WordPress over Blogger is probably the smarter choice, but as I’ve stated before, your blog platform depends on how serious you are about blogging. If you are very laid back and don’t want to do much besides throw your thoughts out on the internet, go ahead and use blogger. I’m not saying there aren’t serious bloggers on Blogger, it’s just that I would use blogger for throwing my thoughts on the internet. Bloggers who wish to establish themselves as a unique and independent blog should use WordPress, with all it’s features and customization it is sure to please you. No matter what I say, the choice is yours, but WordPress is better than Blogger in the long run.