I can’t think of a more common concern or question among both new and experienced bloggers alike: what blogging platform should I choose? Aside from learning how to blog, it’s an almost universal concern.
And there is no simple answer. All bloggers NEED to own their domain names, but platform choice is largely dependent on the indivudal blogger’s requirements. With that stated, I’ve compiled a list of pros and cons of the two primary platform choices below.
Hosted Platforms
Hosted platforms refer to services whereby a service provider grants you access to their hardware, network connection, and software, and you setup a blogging account to use on their service. With a hosted blog, you have access to an administrative panel for your blog, and that’s it.
Popular hosted platforms include solutions like Blogger, TypePad, and LiveJournal.
Advantages of Hosted Platforms
- Cheap: most are free; others (like TypePad) are offered with multiple price points
- Simple to setup: just create an account and then quickly learn how to create blog posts
- Automatic updates: you don’t need to worry about keeping hosted software patched and updated.
Disadvantages of Hosted Platforms
- Rigid: there are fewer cusotmization options with hosted platforms.
- Limited design choices: you usually only get to select from a limited number of standard designs, and you often can’t make updates to them
- Generic URL: some hosted platforms don’t have the choice to use your own URL
- Lack of control: you are at the mercy of the platform
- Migration issues: moving from many free hosted platforms results in a lot of effort and often the temporary loss of search engine rankings
Self-hosted Platforms
Self-hosted platforms consist of your own web hosting account with a host, and the blogging software you install on the data center’s server. With a self-hosted blog, you have access to an administrative panel for your blog, but you also have access to a server account and the blog software where you can do just about anything.
Common self-hosted software includes WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.
Advantages of Self-hosted Platforms
- Design flexibility: you have full control over layout and design
- Great software: the best software is available on self-hosted platforms
- Custom URL: custom URL’s are ubiquitous on self-hosted platforms
- Adaptability: you can change your blog as your needs change
- Easy migration: if you ever need to migrate to a different platform or another server, moving is a snap
Disadvantages of Self-hosted Platforms
- Difficult setup: setup can sometimes be difficult, but this can be overcome with a good blogs how to
- Cost: while the blogging software is free, the hosting platform will cost you money
- Hosting issues: unless you choose a good host, you might have to suffer from down-time or poor support
- Upgrades: you will need to keep your software patched
The majority of my blogs are self-hosted, and that’s what I generally recommend to anyone looking to create a professional blog. There are too many benefits to turn down, and you usually have the ability to host many domains and blogs on one account, driving the cost per blog down to a small amount.
- hosted platform
- hosted platforms
- livejournal photoshop tutorials
- best weblog platform
- best set up for your dk
- weblog platform
- developer hosted platform
- what is the best free developer-hosted blog platform?
- which weblog developer-hosted platforms
- cartoon
Comments on this entry are closed.