I am starting a blog and would love some advice on platform. I've tried out both blogger and wordpress so far, but I am open to other platforms too.

wordpress is seriously limited if you are a free user, but still has some nice off-the-shelf design options. blogger isn't quite as pretty but lets you do a bunch more customization.

i don't have any experience with blogs or page design. anybody who has used these platforms extensively have good advice? any other platforms i should consider?

for reference:
westernblotter.blogspot.com
westernblotter.wordpress.com

I've been using Wordpress and watching it grow, since about 2005. I used Blogger somewhere in between 05' and 07' yet switched back to WP.

Wordpress is your BEST bet, if you're staying with the free status. If you start hosting your own domain using Wordpress.ORG, the limits are endless. All the biggest blogs use that, or Squarespace, although Square isn't free..

I was dropping about 10$ a month for a domain name + the space by using GoDaddy.com and it worked out well, but got broke, and switched back to WP again.

I believe I've made alright use of it..
Blog of 6-7 years (zakkforchilli.wordpress.com)
New blog started just a couple days ago (unrealbanter.wordpress.com)

Definitely take WP over Blogger, the community is better as well! More hits, etc.

Screwed up, I didn't switch BACK to WP after GoDaddy, I switched back to the FREE version. I used to .ORG WP upload-able version. It was incredible but harder to get hits coming to your blog.

Wordpress gets the community involved. (as long you use accurate tags 'a lot of em' and sell it on Twitter!)

If your goal is customising the design, you'll pay $25 for that with WordPress. You might be right that blogger is more customisable without paying.

If you get a domain, use Dynadot (not GoDaddy) and then pay WordPress.com $12 to link it. So domain + design = $47/year.

What's the purpose of your blog? Personal soap box? Build an empire?

For me the single biggest reason to recommend WordPress is the upgrade path. Start out on WordPress.com, but 1/2/5 years later you want to "upgrade", you can export 100% of the content, install WordPress on your own server, import, and then customise the hell out of it. In my opinion, that trumps all the other reasons, it's simple now and infinitely complex / powerful later.

I just switched to a VPS, but I'll advise you to choose shared hosting with Wordpress over WP.org. This because you have almost ultimate freedom, you can change almost everything and use serveral web-systems on one website. I can't compare prices, as I don't know the prices in the US (I'm Dutch).

Shared hosting with WordPress I think is WP.org.

WordPress.org is the software you can download and install on your own web hosting. WordPress.com is the version where you sign up, get a blog, and they look after all the servers, etc for you.

There's infinite power and potential complexity if you host yourself (WordPress.org), but be warned, it requires installation, maintenance, and so on. The beauty of WordPress.com is that you can sign up and forget about it. You never have to worry about backups, hacking, the slashdot effect, or otherwise. You can forget about it.

@Will Donovan: You'll get the best advice if you can share some more info on what you hope to do with the blog.

Yes, sorry, wp.org = Wordpress.com Premium

True, but I think you can't install, to say something Joomla! on wordpress.com premium? So you can't use own tools or use the the domain for other purposes. If you really only want to blog and have no intentions to use other software, you can use wordpress.com yes.

(although I think it's too expensive)

@Raymond: The cost is a matter of opinion. In my opinion, you're not paying for the servers, you're paying for the convenience. If you want to install blog software, be a sysadmin, learn WordPress, install other apps on the domain, etc, then yes, WordPress.org is the way to go.

In my experience, most people starting out want to blog. They don't want to spend time on software. For that reason, I recommend WordPress.com when people are starting out.

Without knowing more about what Will Donovan wants to do, it's impossible to give advice for their specific situation.

@Callum you're definitely right on the last point.

I use installatron or softaculous for new users, so they have the convenience of setting up the blog in one click, but have the opportunity to grow.

Have any of you used Jux? It doesn't seem that it's for hosting a blog, but you could use it for branching your WP blog for a quick, nice presentation type deal.

I've seen some big companies resort to it, it's just hard to know when to use it..

If you only want to blog then wordpress.com is fine - there is a massive user base and you can find likeminded bloggers easily. If you want more functionality you can move to self hosting. Wordpress plugins offer enormous potential.

@Callum, yeah I think you are right about the "most people starting out want to blog" kind of thing, and that definitely applies to me. i am a grad student looking to blog on the side to try to encourage more scientific discussion and engagement with non-scientists.

i want to keep it free, so self-hosting is of out of the question for now and seems a little out of my league anyway. i suppose there is the possibility in the future of taking it to the "next level" and at that point it looks like the wordpress system will let me do that easily enough from what you are saying.

thanks for all the advice!