Google’s Blogspot and WordPress.com from Automattic, are free blogging systems. Blogspot.com offers integration with other Google services and is relatively easy to monetize. WordPress.com although less full-featured than its native counterpart, has more advanced features than Blogspot, better anti-spam measures, and numerous upgrade options. Since they are hosted services, both have a number of limitations.
WordPress.com vs Blogger features
SEO
Optimizing your site for search engines is easy in either service, as both allow you to have almost complete control over your text content. So both have equal opportunities to rank high on the search engine result page (SERP).
Winner: Tie
Domain name registration
By default, Blogger sites are located on blogspot.com as subdomains, and sites on WordPress.com – on wordpress.com as subdomains. This means that blog addresses are displayed, for example, as //sitename.blogspot.comor //sitename.wordpress.com.
Users of both services can register a domain name and attach it to their blog, thus masking the subdomain, which can make the blog more professional. In Blogger, adding a custom domain name is free beyond the cost of the domain. On WordPress.com users must pay for their domain name and purchase an upgrade or purchase a better master plan.
Winner: Tie
Monetization
Between the two Blogger services, it’s easier to monetize Blogspot with AdSense, without too much hassle. On WordPress.com third-party ad networks, including AdSense, are prohibited. However, Affiliate links are allowed, blogs with a custom domain on a paid plan can request an invitation to WordAds, an advertising network in WordPress.com.
Winner: Blogspot
Themes / Design
Both Blogger and WordPress.com allow users to customize the theme or design of their blogs. Blogger gives users more control by allowing them to edit the site’s HTML and CSS for free, while WordPress.com charges an annual fee for accessing this advanced configuration.
Those who are looking for a free ready-made design may find that on WordPress.com – the best choice because it has a very active and professional thematic community and more than a hundred free designs to choose from. Many of these free designs allow site owners to further customize colors, background images, and other visual elements; most also have widgets that make it easier to customize various parts of the website (for example, a list of favorite links in the sidebar).
Premium themes are available for both services. For Blogspot, site owners should look for themes available for purchase on the internet. On WordPress.com they can purchase themes directly – the design of premium themes costs from $20 – or off-site.
Winner: Tie
Storage space
With Blogger, users can create up to 100 separate blog sites, and each of them can have up to 100 blog authors and an unlimited number of blog posts. Users are allowed to have 20 pages of content (for example, the “About Us” or “Contact” page). The size of a post or page must not exceed 1 MB. There is a memory limit for images; images are uploaded to Google Drive with a 15 GB limit that can be updated.
Free plan WordPress.com It doesn’t limit the number of bloggers who can write for it, but it only gives you 3 GB of disk space for images and other files. Users who need more space can purchase a storage upgrade or purchase a better overall plan.
Winner: Blogspot
Mobile Blog
Although Blogspot and WordPress.com support blogging on mobile devices from a smartphone or tablet, and blogging apps WordPress.com gets a higher user rating. The Blogger iOS app has only 2.5 / 5 on the iTunes Store, compared to the 3/5-star iOS app. WordPress.com. In the Google Play app store for Android, the Blogger Android app gets 3.8 / 5, and the app gets WordPress.com for Android-4.4 / 5.
For mobile blogs with Blogger, there is an additional limit: the size of uploaded photos is limited to 250 KB. There are no similar restrictions for users WordPress.com people who blog on the go.
Winner: WordPress.com
Image Gallery
While both blogging services support image uploads, Blogger doesn’t have immediate support for image galleries or albums by default. However, Blogger users can embed public Google+ albums in their blog posts, or use other services, such as Flickr, to display a group of images in a post or page. Unlike Blogger, WordPress.com has extensive gallery support, which includes image editing tools and gallery styles.
Users who intend to create a photoblog or similar website with images will probably find WordPress.com easier to use and more professional-looking. However, the 3 GB free space limit for free plan users means that photobloggers will probably eventually need an upgrade
Winner: WordPress.com
Uploading video and audio
Video uploading is supported by Blogger and WordPress.com, mainly due to the use of third-party services. In Blogger, users upload videos to YouTube or a similar video-sharing site, such as Vimeo, and then post those videos to their blogs. Users of WordPress.com can do the same using an external video service, or upload it directly to the site itself.
With the purchase of a storage upgrade, WordPress.com Allows users to upload a wide variety of file types, including MP3, M4A, WAV, and OGG music file types. Users can also embed a Soundcloud audio player. Blogger doesn’t have a built-in media player; audio is most easily distributed to Blogger using the Soundcloud embed.
Winner: WordPress.com
Organization
For site owners who plan to have a lot of content that needs to stay carefully organized, WordPress.com has better organizational tools than Blogspot. Blogspot supports tags, which it calls labels, and WordPress.com supports categories, subcategories, and tags. WordPress.com has a number of tools that help you organize categories and tags.
Winner: WordPress.com
Anti-Spam
Akismet is owned by Automattic, a popular spam prevention script that it implements on all blogs. Akismet protects you from the largest amount of spam.
Blogger is not so successful in detecting and destroying spam. If spam is a persistent problem on the Blogger site, users should consider using a dedicated comment service, such as Disqus, which provides additional anti-spam measures.
Winner: WordPress.com
Analytics
Google has a robust, full-featured site analysis tool that is used by many sites on the internet. This tool, called simply Google Analytics, can be used in Blogger to track where blog visitors come from, what they click on, how long they stay, and so on.
Analytical tool WordPress.com called Stats. The statistics it shows are not as deep as those provided by Analytics; however, the most frequently requested information is displayed, which means that few bloggers will need or want more. Google Analytics can’t be used in blogs at all on WordPress.com.
Winner: Blospot
Plugins
As remote hosting services, neither Blogger nor WordPress.com doesn’t support plugins and website extensions. Bloggers who need more control over the development aspects of their websites should consider hosting an open-source WordPress script on their own. WordPress.org or using another similar blogging or content management system (CMS) on their own server, which will allow them to customize it to their own requirements. their needs.
Winner: Tie
Community review
Public blogs are available to most on the internet, but Blogspot and WordPress.com have additional built-in communities in many ways. Both have features that allow bloggers to easily subscribe to blogs created on the same platform. This means that it is easy for Blogspot users to find other Blogspot users and keep up with them, and for users to keep up with other Blogger users. WordPress.com easily finds other WordPress.com users and keeps up with them.
Winner: Tie
Pricing
Aside from giving users the option to buy more storage space on Google Drive, Blogspot doesn’t have any premium plans. The service is always free, but it is also always limited by default, so a blog with Blogspot is not as scalable as a blog on WordPress.com. WordPress.com has 4 plans: a basic (free) plan, a personal plan for $36 per year, a Premium plan for $72, a business plan for $204, and eCommerce plan for $360 per year.
Winner: Blogspot
Comparison table
Blogspot Comparison Table and WordPress.com
| Blogspot | WordPress.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction | Blogspot is a blog-publishing service that allows you to create private or multi-user blogs with timestamps. Blogs are hosted by Google on a subdomain blogspot.com unless users pay for domain registration. | WordPress.com – This is a blogging service that uses an open-source WordPress script to support user blogs. Hosted blogs are hosted on a subdomain wordpress.com unless users pay for domain registration. |
| Online site | blogger.com | //wordpress.com |
| Developers) | Automattic | |
| Site type | Blog Host | Blog Host |
| Website registration | Optional, free of charge | You don’t need to read most blogs. Free registration for commenting or blogging. |
| Custom Domain Name | Users must pay for their domain names, but add them to the blog for free. | Users must pay for their own domain name and pay for a plan to add it to the blog. |
| monetization | Allowed it. Easy to install Google AdSense. | Not allowed for most of all blogs. Affiliate links are allowed. Blogs with a lot of traffic can request an invitation to WordAds. |
| Themes / Design | You can customize your design using free themes provided by Blogger, or premium themes purchased off-site. Users can edit HTML and CSS. | The design can be customized using free themes WordPress.com or premium themes purchased through WordPress.com. Users have many options for customizing the theme, but they can’t edit HTML or CSS without updating it. |
| Storage space | Users can create up to 100 blogs, each of which can have up to 100 authors. Unlimited blog posting. 20 pages of static content (for example, About the page). Messages/pages can’t exceed 1 MB in size. Images are uploaded to Google Drive, which has a 15 GB limit. | An unlimited number of blogs with an unlimited number of authors. The free plan has 3 GB of space for images/files. Users can upgrade their storage or buy a better overall plan. |
| Mobile Blog | Yes. Support for Android and iOS. | Yes. Supports Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows Phone, and Nokia. |
| Image Gallery | Without support. Users must create them manually using HTML and CSS or use a third-party gallery creation tool. | Extensive gallery support. |
| Uploading video and audio | Users can embed videos from other sites, such as Vimeo and YouTube, and audio files via Soundcloud. | Users can embed videos from other sites, such as Vimeo and YouTube. Premium plans allow users to upload files directly to the server WordPress.com. Supports MP3, M4A, WAV, and OGG audio files. |
| organization | Support for tags that Blogger calls “tags”. | Support for categories and tags. |
| Anti-Spam | It has anti-spam features but is more prone to crashes. If spam is a persistent problem on the Blogger site, users should consider using a dedicated comment service, such as Disqus, which provides additional anti-spam measures. | Automattic is owned by Akismet, a popular spam prevention script that it implements on all blogs WordPress.com. Akismet protects you from the largest amount of spam. |
| analytics | Supported by Google Analytics. | It has the “Statistics” tool. Less detailed than Google Analytics, which can’t be added to blogs WordPress.com. |
| Plugins | Without support. | Without support. A stand-alone version of WordPress – WordPress.org -has an extensive library of plugins. |
| pricing policy | Aside from giving users the option to buy more storage space on Google Drive, Blogger doesn’t have any premium plans. The service is always free, but it is also permanently limited by default features. | Various options: Free for Basic; $ 99 / year for Premium; $ 299 / year for Business. |
Conclusion
What platform should I choose? It depends on what you want to do. Both platforms are great to start a free blog and make money but if you have some bucks to invest, go with self-hosted WordPress (wordpress.org).
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References: Dustyway
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