Earlier this week, I downloaded a free version of the WordPress blogging application so that I could become familiar with it before attempting to help a friend who was attempting to publish her first WordPress blog. To really try and get to understand how this application worked, I went ahead and created a few test blogs and wrote just a bit about this in my March 11th post.
This is what the WordPress Dashboard looks like
Since then, a few readers have left comments asking about WordPress and how it compares to Blogger. Is WordPress better? Would it be worth switching? Saying which one is better is a bit like trying to decide whether Strawberry Ice Cream is better than Chocolate –it just depends on your tastes. How’s that for waffling? I’ll have strawberries and chocolate on my waffles, thanks!!
The WordPress Editor is similar in look and function to Blogger’s
Right off though, I have no idea what situation each of you might be in, but here’s what I’ve decided to do in the case of my own blog:
- I started with Blogger, and see no great advantage in changing to WordPress now.
- If I had started blogging with WordPress, I’d probably stick with it and not switch to Blogger.
- If I was trying to promote or market a business, I’d definitely lean towards WordPress because it is much more than just a blogging tool.
I guess my main takeaway from my brief comparison of Blogger and WordPress is that Blogger is meant just for Bloggers while WordPress, which has an upgraded cost version, can be expanded to become a virtual stand-alone website with a full business package. I don’t think anyone who asked me about the differences had anything like starting a business in mind so I’m not even going to go there.
A posted blog, of course, looks the same no matter where it was created
There are a few things that Blogger has that I would miss if I did decide to switch to WordPress. For instance, WordPress does not have a “Followers” widget. What? No Followers!! I’m now less than a hundred behind Paulette and that means if we both switched now, I’d be even again! Hmmm??
Also, WordPress has it’s own limited stats package but doesn’t allow 3rd party scripts like the popular Sitemeter so many of us Blogger users favour. WordPress does have a better “comment moderation” feature though as it lets you actually “edit” comments left on blogs instead of having delete as the only option to change a comment.
WordPress does have better comment moderation tools
Another thing I like about Blogger is the integration with Picasa Web Albums. Both are owned by Google and as a user of Picasa Photo Editor, I find Blogger very easy to use when I want to import photos, videos or slide-shows from the Picasa Web Album site. Google does a good job of organizing and integrating their info – maybe too good a job sometimes!
As far as blog themes and layouts go, I didn’t find a whole lot of difference between Blogger and WordPress. Although, I’m told, that the pay version of WordPress has many more formats and themes available than blogger. I only need one anyway, so I don’t really care too much.
Microsoft’s Live Writer – still the best blog editor in my opinion
Finally, both of the editors for Blogger and WordPress are pretty much the same. Neither one of them can hold a candle to Live Writer in my opinion. It is clearly superior as an editor and even if I did switch to WordPress I would use Live Writer to create and publish posts.
As usual there are hundreds of under-the-cover, obscure Blogger vs WordPress comparisons available on the Internet just by Googling. For me though, I’ll stick with Blogger because all I’m doing is a blog and it couldn’t get any simpler!
Have a great Sunday and thanks again for visiting!
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