Which Is the Best Free Blog/ Blogging Website, Blogger or Wordpress

If you are planning to create or make a blog, the first question comes up is probably like this: "which blogging service is the best" or "which blog platform is the best for me"?

If you talk with those who already have a blog or blogs, the answers from them are either "Blogger" or "Wordpress".

Then what's the difference between "Blogger" or "Wordpress", which is the best one for me?

Simply saying:

• If you are looking to make a free blog, Blogger (Blogspot.com) is the best; 
• If you don't mind to pay about $100.00 a year and to learn about many things (like domain name, web hosting, Wordpress software, plugin, web performance, web security, etc), then Wordpress software is the best choice.

Here's the details.

'Wordpress': 2 different meanings

The word "Wordpress" is little bit confusing, because it may refer to 2 different things when people talking about it. It can be referring to the free software "Wordpress" itself, or the free hosted platform "Wordpress.com" which provides limited blogging functions.

1st meaning for 'Wordpress': The software "Wordpress"

Wordpress software is completely free, you can download it from Wordpress.org . It's the best and most popular free blogging platform software for people to build up a blog or even a website.

Then question comes: Where to install the software after it's downloaded?

The answer: You have to find a web hosting company to host the software, so that when your blog is up and running, other people from Internet can find you.You also have to register a Domain Name for the blog, so for others to find and remember your site.

You need to pay for the Domain Name at about $10 to $20 a year, and pay for the web hosting for about $100.0 a year.

And you will be working as a true web master taking care of all maintenance for your site, including security maintenance, performance maintenance, install plugins manually, customize the layout and many other things.

Summary for the Wordpress software:

• The wordpress software is free, but you have to pay for Domain Name and Web Hosting fee to make it running.
• You have to learn about how to maintain the site as a true web master

2nd meaning for 'Wordpress': The free hosted version of Wordpress software at Wordpress.com website (Note: not . org) with very limited functions.

Wordpress.com is a free blogging platform for anyone to create a free blog, built on Wordpress software we mentioned above, hosted at Wordpress.com for free (which means you do not pay for Web Hosting) , but with limited functions- you do not have full control of the blog.

Summary for Wordpress.com:

• Free hosted Wordpress software, you don't pay for web hosting fee
• Very limited functions

What's the limits of  Wordpress.com? please move on.

Wordpress.com's key disadvantages

The free hosted Wordpress.com has some key disadvantages which prevent me from recommending to others, including forced ads, limited customization options, not allow to change the CSS codes and not allow to modify the template codes.

1. Forced ad in Wordpress.com- the biggest reason why I don't like Wordpress.com.

You do not see any ads on your published post at the beginning. But once the post get some clicks, an um-expected square ad will come up under the post- embeded by Wordpress.com to earn money.

I understand Wordpress.com is a free service and need funds to make it running, question is, is forced ads the only way to get funds?

It makes no sense for the blog owner- earn money for Wordpress.com by working hard on his blog.

Comparison: Blogger  does not embed forced ad at all, your blog will always keep clean as you want.

2. Limited customization ability in Wordpress.com

Wordpress.com provides some options to customize the blog layout, like ability to add top tab menu and add widgets to sidebar, but very limited to customize the background color, fonts and size in all area of the blog.

Comparison: Blogger provides a lot of options from the blog dashboard for the owner to customize the blog. See a screenshot below:

3. Can't modify CSS in Wordpress.com (Actually you can, but pay for it)

True customization will require to add or change CSS codes. CSS can change the layout and the look of the blog. Wordpress.com does not allow to change or add CSS codes if you don't pay.

Comparison: Blogger gives you the full control of the CSS codes. You can either add, or modify, do whatever you want.

4. Can't modify template HTML codes in Wordpress.com

It's prohibited to modify template HTML codes in Wordpress.com, you can not even add JavaScript codes- therefore you won't be able to add ad codes to earn money for yourself.

Comparison:  Blogger gives you the full control of the template, you can add/change/ modify or even delete the template codes if you want.

Blogger's other advantages

Blogger (blogspot.com) is a free blogging service provided by Google, completely free.

There are some other big advantages by using Blogger, including:

• Super high performance: Notice how fast is Google.com loaded? Blogger is loading at almost the same speed !
• You register blog's domain name (sub-domain name actually) once, will get the same domain in all countries across the world ! For example, you register the blog domain name as my-domain-name.blogspot.com, you will get the same 'my-domain-name' in all countries automatically, such as:
  - my-domain-name.blogspot.com.au, for Austrilia
  - my-domain-name.blogspot.com.uk, for UK
  - my-domain-name.blogspot.com.ca, for Canada
  - ........ and so on.

Recommendation

For free blogging, Blogger (blogspot.com) is definitely the best choice over Wordpress.com:

• You get full control of the blog, the template, and every parts of the blog.
• You can fully/ freely customize the blog to whatever you want
• You can add ad codes to your blog and earn money for your own, not for Blogger (Google)
• You get super performance for page loading
• You get worldwide country-level domain names, automatically

Your choice

Choice is on your side, for the two free blogging services:

Blogger official website: Blogger.com
Wordpress software download: Wordpress.org
Wordpress.com free blogging service with limited functions: Wordpress.com

Summary

This article is to compare the two free blogging services: Blogger and Wordpress.com. If you are interested in the comparison of Blogger and the paid-hosted Wordpress- it is coming soon !


Which free service do you prefer, Blogger or Wordpress.com? What's your experience with Blogger or Wordpress.com? Share your experience and insights in the comments box below.