25 January 2006
How To Compare Blog Software (Community Server 2.0, TypePad, Blogger, Squarespace, Quick Blog)
Please read the updated version of this article at
I have been comparing the features and services provided by popular blog software to find out which is best for blogging and how blog software stack up against each other.
The blog software I compared include Community Server 2.0 Blogs(Beta 3), WordPress 2.0, TypePad, Squarespace, Quick Blog 1.0 and Blogger.
People blog for different reasons. Some of these reasons are to be rich, to pay the bill, to be famous, to vent one's feelings, to be creative, to sharpen one's skill and intellect, to belong, to market a product or service. Therefore to help bloggers achieve one or more of these goals all the blog software I evaluated provide services through the features I listed and described below.
My goal for writing this article is to help you achieve your blogging goals faster. Do this by first setting clear specific goals for your blogging. Next identify the blog software services and features you need to achieve your blogging goals. Finally make an informed decision using this article.
1. Advertising - can you make money from your blog using advertising services like Google Adsense? To use Google Adsense you need the ability to add Javascript code to your blog posts or pages?
2. Web Traffic Analysis - the primary goal of blog software is not to analyze your web traffic. Therefore you need to use an external software to analyze your blog traffic. This analysis will depend on access to your raw log files or the ability to add web analytics Javascript code like Google Analytics to your blog pages.
3. Communication - one of the primary function of a blog is to publish information to the internet community. How well your blog succeeds in communicating your blog to other people depends on the services provided by a number of communication tools. These tools enable your blog readers to email or recommend your blog to others, print your blog, comment on your blog, track future posts on your blog or subscribe to your blog through an RSS or ATOM feed?
4. Appearance - your blog's appearance can help or hinder the flow of information from your blog to your readers. Your blog's appearance can also affect how your readers perceive you and your message. Blog software defines the appearance of a blog using themes, templates. The higher the number, variety and quality of themes and templates offered by your blog software, the easier it will be for you to define your blog's appearance. The availabilty of themes from your blog software can also translate to cost savings because you will not need to hire a web designer and time savings because the time to develop your blog is reduced.
5. Customization - how easy is it to customize your blog software. Can you change your blog's appearance by changing the HTML for your themes and templates? Can you add Javascript to your different sections of your blog for web analytics, advertising, advertising tracking and analysis and other purposes. Can you modify your blog's behavior by modifying the source code for your blog software?
6. Blog Backup - when you have done all the work to setup a blog, you need to back it up regularly. Backing up your blog will give you the ability to recover your blog from a previous version or move your blog content to a different blog software. With all these in mind, you need to know if you can backup your blog or recover your blog from a backup, backup only your blog posts and comments, backup your blog database and export your blog backup to your computer.
7. Cost of Ownership - how much will the blog service, software and hosting cost you on a monthly basis? It is also important to check the cost of supporting multiple domains or blogs with the blog software.
8. Domain Hosting - can you use a domain (e.g. http://www.findingsDirect.com) to navigate to your blog? Can you use multiple domains to navigate to your blog(s)?
9. Technical Support - will you have access to technical support while using the blog software to setup and manage your blogs? Is there an email address, telephone number, online help desk or knowledge base you can use to ask questions and get solutions to issues you encounter while managing your blog on a day to day basis?
If there is an important feature that I haven't mentioned here, please let me know.
You may be surprised how the blog software I reviewed stack up against each other.
I will be publishing my findings in the special report below.
Comparing Community Server Blogs, WordPress, TypePad, Squarespace, Quick Blog and Blogger.
Feature #1: Advertising - can you add AdSense Javascript code to your blog?
You can add Javascript code for AdSense to the blog software I am reviewing. Where you will run into issues is when you try to add Javascript code for AdSense to the content of a blog post.
Community Server 2.0 Blogs (Beta 3) will display AdSense Javascript code in the side bar. You can also add AdSense Javascript to a blog post, however AdSense will not display.
WordPress 2.0 displays AdSense Javascript pasted inside a blog post. You can also add AdSense Javascript to the side bar. A free AdSense plug-in AdSense-Deluxe Plugin allows you to manage your all your Google AdSense from one control panel or display new AdSense blocks easily in your blog post by pasting a simple tag. This plug-in makes WordPress the most advanced platform for displaying and managing AdSense in a blog.
TypePad will display AdSense Javascript code in the side bar. You can also display AdSense inside your Blog post using Javascript. However, you have to manage each AdSense block in your blog post individually and if you have several blog posts, the management of the ads will be a pain. TypePad also offers TextAds and Tip Jars as additional sources of income.
Squarespace (www.Squarespace.com) is similar to TypePad in AdSense display and management.
Quick Blog (www.GoDaddy.com) is similar to TypePad in AdSense display and management. At this time, you cannot add AdSense to the side bars as access to the page html is restricted.
Blogger is similar to TypePad in AdSense display and management. In addition, Blogger from Google offers you the ability to sign-in to your Google AdSense account from the Blog Software.
Feature #2: Web Traffic Analysis
With Community Server Blogs and WordPress you should have access to your raw log files for most web hosting providers.
With TypePad, Squarespace, Quick Blog and Blogger you will not have access to your raw log files. However, if you use a domain with Blogger, your web hosting provider will typically give you access to your raw log files as your domain will be hosted by them. If you are using a sub domain of Blogger you will not have access to your raw log files because Blogger will host it.
Community Server Blogs, WordPress, TypePad, Squarespace and Blogger offer access to the template and HTML layout of your web site. This means that you can add Google Analytics Javascript code to the Head section ( … ). However at this time, you cannot add Javascript code to your Quick Blog because access to the HTML layout is restricted.
Feature #3: Communication
Quick Blog’s community building features caught my attention. These include trackbacks, CAPTCHA (completely automated public Turing test) protected comments, comment character count (counts the characters as you type a comment), subscribe to this entry, subscribe to this Blog, comment spelling check, print Blog post and a poll for each Blog post!
WordPress has the highest number of free plug-ins or software features among the Blog software that I evaluated. With these plug-ins you can add a wide range of community building tools to your Blog after installation. The down side is that you have to install these plug-ins one by one.
Feature #4: Appearance
Each Blog software comes with themes, however, WordPress has the highest number of themes available. WordPress themes are customizable but require a knowledge of CSS, HTML and PHP.
Feature #5: Customization
You can customize the HTML created with all the blog software except Quick Blog.
Feature #6: Blog Backup - can you backup your blog or recover your blog from a backup? Can you backup just your posts and comments? Can you export your blog backup to your computer?
With Community Server Blog and WordPress you can backup your blog if you are not restricted by your web hosting provider. These two blog software offer you total access to all the blog software and blog content.
Squarespace offers an XML backup of your blog’s and comments.
Feature #7: Cost of Ownership
Community Server Blogs has a free personal license and a paid commercial license. I have been reviewing their free personal license blog. WordPress and Blogger are completely free. Quick Blog has a ridiculously low monthly price at this time.
TypePad and Squarespace each have a set of plans with varying monthly billing prices.
Note that even though Community Server and WordPress have free versions, you still have to pay a web hosting company to host the blogs.
In the final analysis, Quick Blog and TypePad may have the lowest Total Cost of Ownership.
Feature #8: Domain Hosting - can you use a domain (e.g. http://www.findingsDirect.com) to navigate to your blog?
With Community Server Blog and WordPress you have as much control over your domain as your web host allows you, which in usual cases is 100%.
With TypePad and Squarespace mapping a domain to your blog is a bit more involved. You will have to deal with technical trivia like CNAMES (aliases), A record (address record) and MX (mail exchanger) records.
Blogger does not require a change to your domain records since the domain is hosted by you.
A new domain setup for Quick Blog was a breeze on GoDaddy.
In summary, I was able to use my own domain with each of the blog software, however, don’t trip over the CNAME, A and MX record part if you need to adjust it.
Feature #9: Technical Support - is there an online helpdesk, email or telephone you can use to request for help?
Community Server Blog has a very active forum where you can get answers and help both from the community and the professionals who created the blog software.
WordPress is similar to Community Server in the type of community online help desk system aka bulletin board used.
About the author
Kingsley is the author of Best Kept Secrets of Web Traffic Analysis – “How to Find Gold in Your Web Traffic Data”, Best Kept Secrets of Email Marketing - "How to Make More Sales, Grow Your Business and Increase Your Subscriber Base Using Responsible Email Marketing" and Best Kept Secrets of Web Hosting - "How to Pick a Web Hosting Company that Makes You Money".