Best Free Blog Hosting: Blogger or WordPress.com?
There are downsides to free blog hosting (not having your own domain name may be the biggest), but few casual bloggers care enough to spend $5 to $10 a month on for-real hosting for their blog. So, many of them end up at Blogger. More and more, though, people are beginning to shift to WordPress, which also has free hosting.
In talking to my friend Mama Mia last week about whether she would like me to help her move over to WordPress, she posed this question:
How is WordPress better?
Well, duh! It’s…well…it’s…hmmm…
The best answer I could come up with right off the bat was, “Because it’s not Blogger.” 
And many of you who have used Blogger will probably second that.
However, that’s not a very good answer at all, so I got to thinking about it.
Here’s why I would choose WordPress over Blogger:
- I haven’t heard the constant weeping and gnashing of teeth from WP users that I have from Blogger users. The complaints from Blogger users are rampant.
- WP has more, great, easy-to-use themes than Blogger.
- WP doesn’t add the obligatory network bar at the top of your blog, or force things into your code behind the scenes when you publish your blog.
- I have never, ever had a problem loading a WP blog, but I have a problem with Blogger blogs at least once a week.
- WP integrates comment posting and reading right into the post itself, but Blogger uses a separate form that loses your look and feel.
- WP has far more fun widgets and plugins to customize your blog.
- There is a vast army of knowledgeable WP users willing and able to lend a hand, but I get the impression that the Blogger FAQs are the best line of support for Blogger, and I haven’t had much success with them.
I will freely admit that many of these may be my opinions and/or impressions, and may in fact be wrong. My gut feel, though, is that Blogger is for people who just want to play around with blogging, while WP is for people who have decided they really do like to blog, yet don’t want to pay for it.
What do you think? Am I wrong? What have I left out?
Jessalee
March 6, 2007
at 4:09 pm
I’m kind of with you on this one. I have been actually tossing this around in my head for a while now. My biggest complaint about Blogger is template functionality, etc. It was easier pre-Beta. Now it’s a pain in the rear.
So say I do decide to go ahead and move to WordPress — free option because the price is right — what’s the best way to go about transferring your Blog from one free host to another, in your opinion?
Shane
March 6, 2007
at 4:54 pm
WordPress actually makes it very easy. They have an Import link right within your control panel where you give it your username and password for Blogger, and it does everything else. I’ve done it on several blogs now, and it’s eerily easy. It gets everything, even all your comments.
Mama Mia
March 7, 2007
at 8:55 am
Hmmm. I’m not entirely convinced yet, but am playing with the thought. Loyalty is an interesting thing – I didn’t know about WordPress when I signed up for blogger.
That said, I have switched to Google Reader and for the most part like it better than bloglines… just wish I could find the way to order my blogroll like I had it at bloglines, and could find a way to post my blogroll list to my blog as I did with bloglines.
So much to figure out, so little computer competence, so little time…
Jessalee
March 7, 2007
at 3:47 pm
Am I getting irritating yet?
How would one go about driving their regular traffic to their new blog? By just putting up a post, “Find me here,” or whatever?
Thanks for the info on how easy it is to switch!!
nika
March 8, 2007
at 8:27 am
I migrated from blogger to WP and had an evil easy peasy time of it .. i had something like 200 posts and 2x as many comments and they came over in less than 5 mins.
I let the site sit with verbal invitations to my new blog for a month then did a redirect (301 redirect is not possible with a free blogger accnt) Now i have also redirected my smartfeed
PR is not back yet but that is likely because google hasnt updated the PR yet.
I personally think that blogs with a blogspot URL get a higher PR right out of the gate. I say this because my blogspot blog was a PR5 almost immediately.. will see if that happens again.
let me know if you want the redirect info
Nika
http://nikas-culinaria.com
old blog http://nikas-culinaria.blogspot.com – to see how the redirect works
amanda
March 31, 2007
at 1:03 am
Personally, I like wordpress best, because wordpress themed sites are not blocked by my filter at work. Anything Blogger is automatically blocked at work and I am sure that is the same for many others.
Goodbye, Blogger. Hello, WordPress!
June 8, 2007
at 11:51 am
[...] asks a great question in the comments of Best Free Blog Hosting: Blogger or WordPress.com?: How would one go about [...]
keshav
February 4, 2010
at 6:46 am
Redirecting your blogger site is free of charge while WordPress is charging $10.
I mean that keshavnarla.wordpress.com can be directed to keshavnarla.com for $10. Where as keshavnarla.blogspot.com can be redirected to keshavnarla.com for free
Why?
Blogger charges nothing
WP charges $10
I’m unhappy about that
Jeremy
February 4, 2010
at 4:49 pm
I’m not sure why wordpress.com charges $10 a year when using a custom domain, but if you care enough about your blog to pay the $10 domain registration fee every year, the extra $10 to have it work the way you want seems like a small price to pay. If you also register the domain through them, it’s $15 total which includes the domain registration, so about $5 a year for the hosting.
Keep in mind you can also download WordPress for free at wordpress.org and host it yourself, or sign up for another WordPress hosting service. You’re not obligated to use WordPress.com to host a WordPress blog.
To me, having the peace of mind of knowing if there’s ever a problem with where my blog is hosted, I can easily move it any other host I want without having to switch platforms is worth a lot more than the $5 a year I’d save with Blogger. Blogger support is also very hard to come by if you ever do have a problem.