Having a blog hosted through a blog provider is a great solution for attorneys without the technical expertise or free time to set up and maintain a blog on their own web space. Choosing which service to use, however, can be daunting. To help you make your decision, we've put together the following chart comparing the important features (and any associated costs) for the three major blog providers: Blogger, Wordpress, and TypePad.
Features | Blogger ( www.blogger.com) | Wordpress ( www.wordpress.com) | TypePad ( www.typepad.com) |
| Base Cost | Free | Free | Free (TypePad Micro) |
| Shared URL | example.blogspot.com | example.wordpress.com | example.typepad.com |
| Custom URL (not including domain registration fee) | Free | $10/year (you bring domain) | Included with plans $8.95/month and up |
| Storage | No published limit | 3 GB included free | Unlimited total storage, monthly uploads limited by plan: |
| Bandwidth | No published limit | No published limit | No published limit |
| Number of blogs | Unlimited | Unlimited | 4 ($8.95/month plan) |
| Number of blog authors | Unlimited | Unlimited | 1 ($8.95/month plan) |
| Private blogs | Yes | Yes (30 users) Unlimited users available for $30/year | Yes |
| Post by email | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Post by mobile device | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Scheduled posting | Yes | Yes | Included with plans $8.95/month and up |
| Generate RSS feeds | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pre-designed templates | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Customize design/CSS | Yes | $15/year | Included with plans $8.95/month and up |
| Integrated Statistics | No | Yes | Yes |
| Photo Albums | Yes (via Picasa Web Albums) | Not built in, but support for Flickr widget | Yes |
| Spellcheck | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Spam protection | Yes (via moderation and word verification) | Yes | Yes |
| Integration with 3rd party services (Flickr, Facebook, etc.) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| User can add advertising | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Provider inserts advertising? | No advertising, but Blog*spot hosted blogs do have a navigation bar inserted at the top of every page. | Wordpress reserves the right to "very rarely" show text ads on free blogs. Ads can be eliminated for $30/year. | No |
| Import data from another blog? | Possible, but may require workarounds for non Blogger-to-Blogger transfers | Yes | Yes |
| Export blog data for backup/transfer? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Professional support | No, though support may be available through a community help group | Yes | Yes (priority support for $29.95/month plan) |
