Trying to decide between WordPress vs Blogger to make a blog in 2023 or beyond?
That’s the question we’re going to answer in depth in this post.
But first, a spoiler alert – in 2023, WordPress is almost always a better choice to start a blog or website. But to understand why we say that and how each platform works, you should still read our full WordPress vs Blogger comparison.
Keep reading for all the gory details when it comes to Blogger vs WordPress…
Note – we originally wrote this post in 2021. However, we fully verified everything in 2023 and updated details and screenshots where needed.
? WordPress vs Blogger: Introductions
To start our comparison, let’s quickly introduce these two tools and clear up some potentially confusing details about WordPress.
Once you have foundational understanding of both tools, we can dig into them in a lot more depth.
WordPress
WordPress is open-source software that helps you create a blog or website. It’s by far the most popular way to create any type of website – the WordPress software powers over 43% of all the websites on the Internet. Yes – that number is as crazy as it sounds!
Part of the reason why WordPress is so popular is that it’s incredibly flexible. It makes a great option for a blog, but you can also extend its functionality to create portfolios, eCommerce stores, online courses, directories, and lots more.
WordPress can be a little tricky, though, because there are actually two “versions” of WordPress:
- WordPress.org/self-hosted WordPress – this is the home of the free open-source WordPress software. You can install WordPress on your own web hosting for free. However, while WordPress itself is free, your web hosting will usually cost around $5 per month.
- WordPress.com – this is one specific implementation of the WordPress software. WordPress.com lets you make a blog for free just by signing up for an account. However, the free version has some limitations.
When most people say “WordPress”, they mean the open-source WordPress software. If they mean WordPress.com, they’ll specifically say “WordPress.com”.
If you want to learn more about the differences, you can read our full WordPress.com vs WordPress.org comparison. But for this post, here’s all you really need to know:
- WordPress.com – lets you create a blog for free but doesn’t let you use AdSense or install WordPress plugins to add more features unless you pay for the more expensive Business plan.
- WordPress.org/self-hosted WordPress – requires a little money to set up, but is incredibly flexible. You can install WordPress themes and plugins and monetize your site however you want. It’s usually cheaper than paying for the WordPress.com Business plan.
For this comparison, we’ll focus mostly on how WordPress.org/self-hosted WordPress compares to Blogger, but we will bring up WordPress.com a few times.
Blogger
Blogger is a free blogging service owned by Google. It lets you easily create a blog using your existing Google account. It’s not software – it’s just a service that lets you create a blog by registering for an account.
Whereas WordPress powers over 43% of all websites, Blogger powers a little under 1% of websites. So WordPress is definitely the more popular option in this comparison.
The main reason Blogger isn’t more popular is because Blogger is quite limited in comparison. It’s really just for simple blogs – it doesn’t allow for any of the flexibility that WordPress offers.
But if all you need is a simple blog, Blogger can definitely get the job done!
? WordPress vs Blogger Ease of Use
In terms of ease of use, both Blogger and WordPress are quite beginner-friendly. Even if you’ve never made any type of website before, you should be able to easily set up both platforms.
This applies to both self-hosted WordPress and WordPress.com.
WordPress
To create a self-hosted WordPress website (AKA WordPress.org), you’ll need to do two things:
- Purchase WordPress hosting to power the WordPress software. Again, this costs around $5 per month for a simple site.
- Install the WordPress software.
Installing software might sound a little complicated, but it really isn’t. Because WordPress is so popular, most web hosts offer user-friendly setup tools that let you install WordPress with just a few clicks.
For example, at Bluehost (one beginner-friendly host that we’ve reviewed), installing WordPress is as simple as filling out this form:
Once you install WordPress, you can manage your site from a simple dashboard like this:
To create content, you can use the WordPress block editor, which makes it easy to include both text and media (like embedded videos). The block editor also gives you more flexibility, letting you easily create multi-column layouts:
To control the design of your site, you can install WordPress themes. There are tens of thousands of WordPress themes available, many of which are free.
If you want even more control, you can use a visual, drag-and-drop page builder plugin to design every single aspect of your site. For example, the Divi theme gives you full code-free control over your site.
Or, the Elementor plugin is another popular option to add drag-and-drop design to WordPress.
At WordPress.com, it’s even simpler – you can just register for an account to create your site.
If you’re willing to pay for the WordPress.com Business plan, you can still install your own WordPress plugins and access the full flexibility of WordPress. However, if you want to use the free WordPress.com plan, it’s a lot more limited.
Blogger
Blogger is also super simple. To create a blog, you can use your existing Google account and follow a simple prompt to create your blog.
To create content, you can use Blogger’s simple text editor, which works a lot like Google Docs. You can easily format text and insert images/videos, but you don’t get as nearly many options as WordPress. For example, there’s no easy way to create multi-column designs:
To control the layout of your blog, you can use the drag-and-drop layout builder:
You also get a separate theme builder that lets you control basic colors and fonts.
In general, though, WordPress gives you a lot more options for controlling the design of your blog and makes it easier to create more complex layouts when you publish blog posts.
?? WordPress vs Blogger Flexibility
In terms of flexibility, there’s no contest between WordPress and Blogger – WordPress is 100X more flexible than Blogger*.
Blogger is just for blogging.
WordPress is great at blogging, but you can also use it for lots of other stuff, too. In addition to your blog, you can use WordPress to create the following:
You can also mix and match functionality. For example, you could create a blog, online course, and discussion forum all using the same website.
You can also do other things, such as making a multilingual version of your site, with support for all of the different use cases above.
To add new features, you can install WordPress plugins. WordPress plugins can add contact forms, galleries, eCommerce/payments functionality, SEO optimizations, and lots more.
Blogger just can’t compete in terms of flexibility.
*The one exception is if you use the free WordPress.com plan. The free WordPress.com plan limits your monetization options and doesn’t let you install custom themes and plugins, which means you lose out on a lot of the flexibility of WordPress.
? WordPress vs Blogger for Making Money
In general, WordPress is better for making money than Blogger because WordPress gives you more flexibility in how you monetize your site.
With self-hosted WordPress, you can:
- Display ads from services like AdSense, Media.net, Mediavine, Raptive, and so on.
- Display your own ads (using a WordPress advertising plugin can help you do this more effectively).
- Use affiliate marketing.
- Sell products or services.
- Sell sponsored posts.
- Create an eCommerce store.
- Sell your own online course or membership site.
- Etc.
Basically, self-hosted WordPress has zero restrictions on making money.
Blogger isn’t quite as flexible, but one advantage is that it has a very tight integration with Google AdSense. You can easily link your Blogger blog to your AdSense account to start making money that way.
If you’re looking for a 100% free blogging platform to make money, Blogger is one of the best because you can display your own AdSense ads even on the free plan.
You can also use other display ad services like Mediavine or Raptive, as well as engage in affiliate marketing.
However, beyond that, Blogger is a lot more limited in terms of the ways that you can make money.
Note – WordPress.com’s free plan is not good for making money because it doesn’t let you run your own ads. You should use self-hosted WordPress if you’re serious about making money from your site.
? WordPress vs Blogger Costs
Blogger is cheaper than self-hosted WordPress because Blogger is 100% free.
With self-hosted WordPress, you need to pay for web hosting to run the software.
Web hosting isn’t expensive for a small blog – it only costs around $5 per month. But it’s not free like Blogger.
If you want to grow or monetize your blog, it’s worth it to spend the money because self-hosted WordPress gives you more flexibility, monetization options, ownership, etc.
Beyond the cost for your site itself, you’ll also usually want to purchase a custom domain name. This costs the same regardless of whether you use Blogger or WordPress – usually around $10-$15 per year.
Note – WordPress.com does let you create a blog for free like Blogger. But the free WordPress.com plan doesn’t let you install WordPress plugins or monetize your site, so we don’t recommend it for most people.
?? WordPress vs Blogger FAQ
To finish out our Blogger vs WordPress comparison, here are some common questions you might have about WordPress and Blogger…
In 2023, self-hosted WordPress is better than Blogger because it’s more popular, gives you more design flexibility, and gives you more options to make money.
Blogger is a free blogging service. You can just sign up for an account and start writing. WordPress, on the other hand, is open-source software that you can install on your own web hosting to make a blog or website.
WordPress is better than Blogger for making money because it gives you more monetization options. However, if you just want to use AdSense ads, both platforms make it easy to do that.
Blogger is better than WordPress.com for AdSense if you want to create a blog for free. This is because WordPress.com doesn’t let you use AdSense on the free plans, while Blogger lets you link your AdSense account for free.
However, self-hosted WordPress is better than Blogger for AdSense because self-hosted WordPress gives you even more flexibility in where/how you display your ads.
Blogger is fine for basic SEO, as it gives you tools to control your site’s SEO titles and meta descriptions. However, WordPress offers more flexibility when it comes to more advanced SEO strategies and tweaks, so WordPress has an advantage when it comes to SEO.
You can migrate Blogger to WordPress using the built-in WordPress importer tool (after using Blogger’s content export tool). You’ll be able to easily move all of your content and images. However, you won’t be able to automatically migrate your Blogger theme and layouts.
To see the process, we have a detailed tutorial on migrating Blogger to WordPress.
It’s more difficult to migrate WordPress to Blogger than it is to migrate Blogger to WordPress. Unless you’re using the WordPress.com free plan, you can export your WordPress content in a format that you can import to Blogger via the Export to Blogger WordPress plugin. However, you’ll need to manually migrate your images, set up redirects, and so on, which is time-consuming.
? Should You Use WordPress or Blogger?
As we mentioned in the beginning, almost everyone should use WordPress in 2023 and beyond. WordPress is more:
- Popular.
- Supported.
- Flexible.
As for which “type” of WordPress to use, we recommend that most people use self-hosted WordPress. Yes – you’ll need to pay around ~$60 per year to run your blog/website, but that cost is worth it because you get a lot more flexibility when it comes to running and monetizing your site.
Really, there’s only one situation where you should use Blogger – if you want to create a blog 100% for free that you want to monetize with AdSense, Blogger could be a good option.
You can monetize WordPress sites with AdSense, but only if you pay. If you’re willing to pay ~$60 per year, WordPress is still better for AdSense. The only time Blogger is better is if you want to keep things 100% free.
If you’re ready to get started with self-hosted WordPress, we have some great guides to help you get up and running:
Do you still have any questions about WordPress vs Blogger? Let us know in the comments!
