WordPress or b2evolution: Which Blogging Tool Should You Choose?

Are you thinking about hosting a blog on your domain? Well, I have some good news for you: The two most popular blogging tools — WordPress and B2Evolution — run on the PHP and MySQL databases supported by most web hosts and are both free to use. But is one better than the other? Well, that depends on what features you need. I’ll go over the pros and cons of each, then give you the names of a few web hosts that offer these blogging tools.

So They Say WordPress a Better Way to Blog

WordPress is free, open-source software and is the most popular blogging tool in the world because it is easy to use and completely customizable. You can choose from thousands of themes developed by the open-source community. Similarly, there are over 10,000 plug-ins and widgets to help further customize your blog. In fact, WordPress is so flexible that you can go far beyond a blog and create a complete website that doesn’t appear to be a blog at all.

The WordPress community is huge, and not only provides all the content (plug-ins, themes, etc.) for WordPress websites, but also provides reliable technical support and tips about how to make your blog better.

Wading through the seas of user-created content can get complicated, however. While it’s very easy to create a basic blog on WordPress, creating a complex, customized website can be more difficult. Because all the themes and plug-ins are open-source, some work better than others. Also, the different components don’t always blend seamlessly with one another. For example, say you install a theme, and then customize it. But the plug-ins and widgets you want to use don’t work well with your custom theme. You’ll have two choices: You can either choose a different theme and start over or look for plug-ins that will be compatible with your theme.

Two more cons: Some people claim that WordPress loads slowly (this issue can be solved by caching plugin though). It also appears to have security flaws, as WordPress users have been more susceptible to hackers in the past.

Is b2evolution Really More Than a Blog?

Like WordPress, B2Evolution is a customizable, open-source blogging tool. And like WordPress, B2Evolution gives you access to thousands of plug-ins/widgets to create a completely customizable website. But, B2Evolution isn’t quite as customizable as WordPress. Its user community isn’t as big, so it has fewer plug-ins and doesn’t have nearly as many themes. Instead, B2Evolution has “skins,” which are blog templates that you can use to quickly change the appearance of your blog. Skins are similar to themes, but usually don’t have as many style options. They’re great for beginners because they just require a simple download, but customizing them requires editing the code.

One thing that B2Evolution does really well is multi-blogging, which is how they are able to compete with the more popular WordPress. WordPress allows your blog to have multiple users with different permission levels, but B2Evolution allows multiple blogs to be linked to the same domain. You can have a single blog with many users and admins, or have several blogs linked together under the same domain without installing any plug-ins. Basically, you can create a blogging community.

While B2Evolution is considered more secure than WordPress, their online community isn’t nearly as active, which means less technical support is available when you need it.

WordPress or b2evolution: Which One To Choose?

It all depends on the purpose of your blog. Do you need the ability to transform it into an entirely different website? Do you want to create a community of blogs all linked to one another? How important is ease of use? Security?

Check out the chart below to help you weigh the pros and cons. While both blogging tools are easy to find, I’ve included a few web hosts for each. These hosts allow you to easily install the blogging tool from your control panel.

Check out these related posts:-

1. The Lazy Guy’s Guide To Beginning Blogging: 8 WordPress Plugins to Take Your Blog to the Next Level
2. 17 Most Usabable, Yet Free WordPress Themes At All Time
3. The 8 Basic Must-Have Plugins In Your WordPress Blog