The question on everyone’s mind lately seems to be — “Should I move to WordPress.org?” I think this recent issue is spurned by Google shutting down Google Reader. Will they one day do this to Blogger? The “not knowing” of the situation gets a lot of people thinking. What would happen if Google did shut-down Blogger? Freak out? Yes.
This brings up the question, which platform is better? Should you just ignore the Blogger shut-down rumors? (I would I highly doubt they would take-out Blogger)
To decide whether to move or stay on Blogger or another similar platform you have to ask a few questions of yourself. You need to know what you want, what you need and what you can afford. Each platform has pros and cons, figure out which ones you can’t live with out or want desperately, how much is within your budget and that will give you your answer.
I can tell you why I switched to WordPress.org – Control. I wanted control over my blogging environment. One black-out for a day was all it took. My blog just went bye-bye for 24 hours with no explanation from Google. There was no one to call, just a forum where you ask a question and WAIT for an answer. Hell-to-the-no. I switched and I’ve never regretted it. If I have blog issues there is a number I call, I wait ten minutes then there is a nice customer service person walking me through how to fix it. I love that. But, again you have to decided what you need and want. I hope this list helps point you in the right direction.
Good luck and if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments or tweet me up.
| Blogging Platform Comparison Chart | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  |
| Cost | Free | Free | Hosting & Domain Fees | Free |
| Stability | While Blogger is the first blogging platform created, once they were purchased by Google they have been known to have a few hiccups. Blogs using the program have been known to go down for several hours, even days and when the software is upgraded there are usually a lot of issues. Also, if you are found in violation of Google’s TOS they will shut your blog down without any warning. There are not a lot of safeguards in place to prevent you from “breaking” your blog also. You will not crash because of traffic or bandwidth because of bigger host servers. | WordPress.com is generally thought to be a stable program. There are a ton of safeguards to protect you from breaking your blog, but it also highly limits your customization. The hosting company makes auto-updates to keep the site secure. You will not crash because of traffic or bandwidth because of bigger host servers.Again because of the free status of your site you are limited by their TOS. | Depending on what host you use and if you regularly update your blog depends on the stability and security of your blog. You have total control over this. You are also not limited to your CMS’ TOS and a violation shutting you down. You will be limited to your hosting services TOS, but because you pay them, they tend to be limited and they contact you to find another host if you are in violation. Also, depending on your host and the bandwidth you choose will depend on how much traffic you can handle. | Tumblr is often accused of being unstable, naysayers have accused it of being down 30% of the time. Since then Tumblr has tried to increase it’s stability but depending on usage it does go down…kind of like Twitter. |
| Domain | Not Standard | Not Standard | Yes | Not Standard |
| HTML Knowledge | None | None | None | None |
| CSS Editing | Yes | None (can be upgraded for $) | Yes | Limited based on template |
| User Friendly | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Plugins/Widgets | Limited | Limited | Amazing plugins available | Very Limited |
| Customization | Yes(coding knowledge) | Very Limited | Yes | Very Limited |
| Themes & Design | Large variety of available themes & Internal Theme WYSWYG editor | Large variety of available themes | Large variety of available themes and can be customized to basically do anything you want. | Large variety of available themes |
| Monetization | Google AdSense | Limited | Any 3rd Party System Avialable | Limited |
| Image Storage | 1GB | 3GB | Depends on host | No limit? |
| Internal Network | Blogger uses programs like GFC, but it is rumored that this will be cancelled in the future as Google pushes Google+ | Competent internal WordPress.com network | No | Tumblr is known for it’s great internal network and ability to “reblog” |
| Statistics | Blogger Stats (seems unreliable) you can install Google Analytics | WordPress statistics | All options open | Limited to installations |
| Import from another blog | None | Yes | Yes | None |
| 3rd Party Scripts | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Static Pages | yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Static Front Page | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Orginization | Tags | Categories & Tags | Categories & Tags | Type of post & tags (cross network) |
| Comment System | Unstable standard with hard to use captcha as default with 3rd party installation upgrade | Powerful standard commenting system with 3rd party installation upgrade | Powerful standard commenting system with 3rd party installation upgrade | None default, available with 3rd party installation upgrade |
| Private Blog Systems | Limited to users (up to 100 Google Accounts) | Unlimited Invited WordPress Account Holders | Unlimited Invited WordPress Account Holders | Password protected |
| Password Protection | None | Password protect individual posts & pages | Password protect individual posts & pages | Entire blog will be password protected |
| Contact Forms | Availbale with 3rd party installation upgrade | Just add page Contact & form will install | Just add page Contact & form will install | Ask questions setting |
| Support | Forums | Forums | Yes | Forums |
| Spam | Captcha & Moderation | Yes | Yes | Depends on 3rd party comments system |
| Level of Expertise | Perfect for new bloggers and limited budgets that aren’t ready for a customized blogging experience and don’t need all the latest greatest features, but with the will to maybe do a bit of experimenting. | Perfect for new bloggers and limited budgets that aren’t ready for a customized blogging experience and don’t need all the latest greatest features. | Advanced bloggers that want total control of their blogging experience and get all the latest greatest software options and plugins. | Bloggers that want to make their blogging experience easy and accessible. A micro-blogging experience. |
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- Author : Rachel
- About The author : Rachel, whom you might know as Parajunkee, is the blog owner of parajunkee.com and the design blog parajunkee.net. Rachel has been blogging for close to four years, designing / web programming for over twelve, but her real love, reading, has been her favorite hobby since childhood. Rachel has won numerous awards for her writing, the blogs she has created and her design work.
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