Blogger vs. WordPress vs. beehiiv: Which Drives Growth and Revenue?

Blogger and WordPress are blogging platforms that let you publish content online. 

However, choosing between the two to publish your own content boils down to two key criteria: how much customization you need and your goals for growth and monetization.

But here’s the thing: Traditional blogging platforms like Blogger and WordPress depend heavily on search engines to drive traffic and growth. 

And with search engine algorithms changing all the time, you’ll never know when the next update will drown your blog into oblivion and dry up your income streams.

Enter beehiiv.

beehiiv is a newsletter-first blogging platform that lets you grow your audience across multiple sources (including search) and make a sustainable income directly from your newsletter content.

In this post, we’ll break down Blogger, WordPress, and beehiiv—what they do well, how they’re different, and which one might be the best fit for publishing content and making money.

Why Trust Me?

Kawusara has 5+ years of experience running multiple WordPress websites. She’s also passionate about breaking down complex software concepts into plain, simple language and sharing them through engaging content.

Table of Contents

• TL;DR — Blogger vs. WordPress vs. beehiiv

• Blogger vs. WordPress vs. beehiiv: Overview of Platforms

• What Is Blogger?

• What Is WordPress?

• What Is beehiiv?

• Blogger vs. WordPress vs. beehiiv: Features Comparison

  • Ease of Use

  • Customization 

  • Content Publishing

  • SEO and Marketing

  • Growth Tools

  • Monetization Options

  • Analytics

  • Security

  • Integrations

  • Customer Support

• Blogger vs. WordPress vs. beehiiv: Pricing

• Blogger vs. WordPress vs. beehiiv: Pros and Cons

• Blogger vs. WordPress vs. Beehiiv: Which Is the Best Platform for Making Money?

• Blogger vs. WordPress vs. beehiiv: Frequently Asked Questions

TL;DR — Blogger vs. WordPress vs. beehiiv

If you’re short on time and just want a quick overview, read below to learn how these platforms stack up.

Blogger is best for individuals who want a free, simple way to blog about their passions and hobbies without focusing on growth or income.

WordPress (specifically WordPress.org) is ideal for businesses that need advanced customization features and SEO tools to design unique websites and bloggers looking to grow their audience through search and monetize their content.

beehiiv is perfect for digital solopreneurs who want to quickly grow their audience via search and other growth channels and turn their newsletter content into a sustainable income stream. 

Blogger vs. WordPress vs. beehiiv: Overview of Platforms

What Is Blogger?

Blogger is a free blogging platform owned by Google, and you can sign up using your Google account. It covers the basics you need to create and manage a blog, including customizable themes, a post editor, and basic analytics.

Blogger also works well with other Google products like Search Console, Analytics, and AdSense, so you can track your site’s performance and earn money from display ads

While it’s great for hobby blogs, Blogger’s limited customization and monetization may not suit you if you want to turn your blog into a reliable income source.

What Is WordPress?

WordPress (specifically WordPress.org) is a self-hosted blogging platform, meaning you’ll need to purchase a hosting plan to use it. 

While WordPress doesn’t come with many features out of the box, its real strength lies in its extensive library of themes, templates, and plugins. These tools give you complete control over how your blog looks and functions.

That said, getting started with WordPress can feel a bit overwhelming, especially if you’re new to the platform or not particularly tech-savvy. 

But if you want to create custom website designs, optimize your posts for search engines, and try out multiple ways to make money, sticking with WordPress pays off. 

What Is beehiiv?

beehiiv is primarily a newsletter platform that also lets you publish content to the web. So for every post you write, you can choose whether to share it with your email subscribers, publish it on your blog, or both.

What sets beehiiv apart from other newsletter platforms is its built-in growth and monetization tools. These tools are easy to set up and don’t require you to hit a certain subscriber count before you can start using them.

Another standout feature is beehiiv’s detailed analytics. These insights show you which channels are driving the most subscriber growth and which posts are performing best. This makes it easier to spot what works and build on that success.

These features make beehiiv perfect for creators who want to grow their audience, earn from their content, and simplify the process of managing both a newsletter and a blog.

Blogger vs. WordPress vs. beehiiv: Features Comparison

Ease of Use

Blogger is one of the easiest platforms to use, especially for beginners. You can set up a blog in just a few minutes. 

All you need is a Google account to log into Blogger.com, click the Create a Blog button, add a Title for your blog, and choose a subdomain like mywebsitename.blogger.com.

The interface is easy to navigate, with all the blogging tools arranged in the left panel. 

To complete your blog’s setup, go to the Theme tab to select your desired theme, the Pages section to add pages like About Me and Contact, and the Layout section to add these pages to your homepage. 

From there, go to the Posts section to start publishing your posts.

beehiiv also has a clean and simple layout that’s easy to navigate. 

When you sign up, it gives you a quick tour of the interface to help you get familiar with its features.  

Before publishing your first post, go to the Design tab on the left to customize the appearance of your newsletter and website. 

When you’re done customizing, head to the Posts section to start publishing your first newsletter and blog posts.

Setting up your WordPress blog can be very tedious and complicated, especially if you’re not tech-savvy. 

WordPress is a self-hosted solution, which means you'll need to purchase hosting, an SSL certificate, and a domain name upfront before you’re able to install it and have access to its features. 

At first glance, WordPress has a clean and simple interface. However, the left navigation panel contains many menus, many of which have additional pages and settings hidden within. 

Understanding how these settings work and setting them up correctly take a lot of time and effort for beginners.

Customization 

Blogger offers 55 premade themes for customizing your blog. 

While you can’t change the structure or rearrange the layout of these themes, you can make basic adjustments like updating the default background image, primary color, and text style. You can also customize the appearance of widgets such as the search button, social sharing icons, and sidebar. 

Essentially, the theme determines the overall structure of your blog, and you can only modify the appearance of individual elements within it.

Although the customization options are limited, this simplicity is helpful if you’re looking to create a simple blog and quickly get to writing and publishing posts.

beehiiv doesn’t have prebuilt themes, but its Newsletter Builder lets you customize your newsletter’s background color, header text, and body text. 

You can also customize the appearance of buttons, images, lists, and tables to match your brand. 

Once you save your changes, all future newsletters will automatically inherit this design.

With beehiiv, every post you create can be published to the web. These posts are stored on a single website page, accessible via your beehiiv subdomain (or a custom domain of your choice).

beehiiv’s Website Builder lets you customize the appearance of this website page. Similar to Blogger’s customization feature, you can’t change the structure or layout of elements, but you can still adjust each element’s appearance to align with your brand.

WordPress has over 7,000 free and paid themes to get you started on website customization. These themes define the overall design and layout of your website, such as the header, footer, navigation menu, and blog post layout. You can customize them with your brand’s colors and fonts.

For more control over individual pages, like About or Contact, you can use drag-and-drop page builders like Elementor, Divi, or Beaver. These tools let you design pages from scratch and arrange elements like text, images, and buttons however you want.

If you don’t want to build these pages from scratch, there are thousands of free and paid templates with pre-designed pages tailored to different niches. Pick one that fits your niche, install it, and tweak it with a drag-and-drop builder.

Compared to Blogger and beehiiv, customizing a WordPress site takes significantly more time before you can start publishing content.

Content Publishing

Blogger’s writing interface is super simple and feels a lot like using Google Docs. The title bar and formatting tools are at the top, and you can start typing your content right below. 

You can add hyperlinks, emojis, images, and videos, as well as embed content from Google Photos or YouTube, in just a few clicks.

The publishing settings are on the right side of the editor. Here, you can set custom permalinks, turn comments on or off, and decide whether to publish your post immediately or schedule it for later.

WordPress’s built-in Gutenberg editor lets you write blog posts in a simple interface.

You can add text, images, and videos, just like in Blogger, but WordPress lets you add more content types to your post, like audio files and documents. 

You can even embed content from platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo, Spotify, X (Formerly Twitter), TikTok, Pinterest, and Reddit.

That said, the publishing settings on the right are pretty much similar to those in Blogger as well.

beehiiv’s interface is minimal and easy to navigate, with the basic writing tools you’d expect from Blogger or WordPress. 

What sets beehiiv apart, however, is its built-in AI assistant. It helps with brainstorming ideas, generating drafts, fixing spelling and grammar errors, and even creating unique images.

It’s also great for team collaboration. You can work with team members, leave comments using @mentions, and notify collaborators via email to review and edit specific sections. This makes it handy if you’re working with a team of writers, editors, and designers on content pieces.

When it’s time to publish, beehiiv lets you choose whether to share your content via email, on the web, or both. 

If you’ve enabled paid subscriptions (more on this in the monetization section), you can control who sees the content—whether it’s all subscribers, paid ones, or those in specific tiers. 

SEO and Marketing

Blogger provides essential SEO tools that work well for hobbyists or those creating simple blogs. 

By default, it includes an SSL certificate, supports custom domains, and automatically generates robots.txt and sitemap.xml files to help search engines crawl and index your site.

You can also optimize each post by editing the blog title, permalink, and meta description to improve its visibility in search results. 

Plus, Blogger includes built-in social sharing icons on each post, making it easy for readers to share your content on Facebook, Pinterest, X (Formerly Twitter), and via email. 

beehiiv covers the SEO functions and social sharing features in Blogger. However, it takes it a step further with its built-in email marketing functionality. 

Every beehiiv website comes with a signup form at the top of the page where visitors can join your email list. Additionally, before publishing a blog post, you can enable email capture through two methods:

• Popup: A form appears after a visitor spends some time reading your blog post.

• Gated: Readers must subscribe to your email list before they can read your posts. 

Growing your email list makes it easy to stay connected to your audience and instantly notify them of new content releases and other updates.

WordPress is a versatile platform for implementing both basic and advanced SEO and email marketing strategies.

At its core, WordPress supports the same basic SEO features as Blogger and beehiiv. However, its plugin directory allows you to go much further. 

For instance, plugins like Yoast SEO and Rank Math provide detailed checklists to optimize your blog posts. These tools ensure that you’ve performed the following actions:

• Included your focus keyword in the title, permalink, meta description, subheadings, and alt texts

• Added internal links to your content

• Linked to relevant external sources

WordPress also integrates with popular email marketing tools like Mailchimp, HubSpot, MailerLite, Kit (formerly ConvertKit), and beehiiv. These integrations make it easy to grow your email list and send updates, newsletters, or promotional emails.

Growth Tools

Blogger and WordPress don’t have built-in tools for growing your audience. In WordPress, you might be able to work around this by using plugins or even creating a custom solution.

Meanwhile, beehiiv comes with four built-in tools to help you grow your newsletter subscribers quickly, without needing complicated setups or third-party tools:

• Referral Program: Encourage your current subscribers to bring in new readers by offering rewards like an ebook, course, or promo code.

• Recommendation Network: Connect with other beehiiv creators and cross-promote each other’s newsletters to reach new audiences.

• Magic Link: Share a one-click subscribe link with creators using other newsletter platforms, making it easy for their followers to become your subscribers.

• Boosts: Offer cash rewards to beehiiv creators who bring new subscribers to your newsletter.

Monetization Options

The only way to directly monetize your content on Blogger is through Google Ads.

Once enabled, ads are displayed to your audience, and you’ll earn between $2 to $5 per 1,000 views.  

However, to make a substantial income, you’ll need high traffic—about 50,000 monthly page views—to earn between $100 and $250.

WordPress doesn’t have built-in monetization tools, but its plugin ecosystem provides multiple ways to make money from your blog, including: 

• Ads: You can integrate Google AdSense to display ads or connect with ad networks like MediaVine, AdThrive, or Ezoic, which typically offer higher payouts.

• Memberships: Turn your blog into a membership site where users pay for premium content or exclusive resources.

• Products & Affiliates: Plugins like WooCommerce help you sell digital products, while tools like ThirstyAffiliates assist with affiliate marketing.

Unlike Blogger and WordPress, beehiiv comes with monetization features built into its platform. 

Let’s start with beehiiv Ads, which is the most common starting point for new beehiiv creators. This program connects you with brands to display ads in your newsletter posts. 

Unlike ad platforms like Google Ads, which pay based on ad impressions (the number of people who see your ads), the beehiiv Ads program pays on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis. This means you don’t need a large email list to start earning. 

For instance, with 1,000 subscribers, if 100 people click on an ad with a CPC of $2, you could earn $200 from that newsletter post alone.

beehiiv also lets you earn by promoting other beehiiv creators’ newsletters—go to beehiiv’s Boosts marketplace, find newsletters that align with your audience’s interests, and recommend them in your newsletter posts. 

For every new subscriber who joins through your recommendation, you can earn between $1.50 and $4.00.

Finally, you can monetize your newsletter by charging a subscription fee for premium content. 

You can set up multiple subscription tiers, with higher tiers offering extra perks such as access to a Discord server, one-on-one or group consultations, and exclusive resources.

Analytics

Blogger has a basic Stats page that provides insights into your blog’s performance. 

Blogger tracks daily views for your pages, posts, and overall website. You can also see top referring URLs, search keywords people are using to find your site, and a map showing where your audience is located.

If these basic stats aren’t enough, you can connect your Blogger site to tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics for more detailed insights.

While WordPress doesn't have an analytics feature,  you can choose from a variety of analytics tools in its plugin library.

The most popular and powerful option is Google Site Kit, which connects your site to Google Search Console and Google Analytics. This lets you track how your blog posts are performing in Google Search and monitor traffic to your website over time.

You can also configure Google Analytics to track conversions. Depending on your setup, conversions can include actions like visiting a specific page, downloading a file, completing a signup form, or making a purchase.

beehiiv comes with its own built-in 3D analytics feature that simplifies performance tracking for newsletter creators. This includes two main reports:

1. Subscribers Report: This shows how your subscriber base is growing over time, the top acquisition sources (such as search, social media, or beehiiv’s built-in growth tools), and the most common locations of your subscribers. These insights can be super helpful when planning subscriber growth strategies in the future.

2. Posts Report: This tracks the performance of your posts across email and web, with metrics like open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribes, and spam reports. This helps you identify what’s working, so you can focus on topics and formats that drive better engagement.

Security

Blogger and beehiiv provide strong security for accounts hosted on their platforms, including SSL certificates for the subdomains they offer.

Additionally, both platforms handle updates and maintenance automatically, so you don’t need to worry about them at all. 

With WordPress, SSL certificates are not included by default, so you’ll need to purchase one separately (and continuously renew it) to secure your website.

Unlike Blogger and beehiiv, WordPress doesn’t come with built-in security features to block spam comments or prevent unauthorized logins. However, you can install plugins like Akismet and WordFence to handle these issues.

Once your WordPress site is set up and the necessary plugins are installed, you’re responsible for keeping them updated. 

Regular updates ensure that the plugins work seamlessly with each other and with the latest version of WordPress. This reduces the risk of technical issues or security vulnerabilities.

Integrations

Blogger integrates seamlessly with Google products like AdSense, Analytics, and Search Console, which makes it easy to track your blog’s performance and monetize your content. However, that’s about as far as it goes. 

Blogger doesn’t offer direct integration with Google Workspace, meaning you can’t embed Docs, Slides, Sheets, or Calendar into your blog posts. There's also limited integration with third-party apps, including automation software like Zapier.

On the other hand, beehiiv supports 12 third-party integrations to expand your newsletter’s reach and engagement.

For instance, you can connect beehiiv with E-commerce platforms like Shopify, Webflow, Wix, and Squarespace to collect email subscribers from visitors on those platforms.

beehiiv also connects with communication and community-building platforms like Discord and Slack. This allows you to automatically share updates whenever you publish a new newsletter or blog post. 

If your preferred app isn’t part of beehiiv’s native integrations, you can use Zapier, Make, beehiiv’s API, or webhooks to make the connection. 

Then, there’s WordPress, which has over 50,000 free and paid plugins in its directory, giving you complete flexibility to customize your blog’s appearance and functionality to suit your needs.

As we’ve mentioned at different points throughout this article, these WordPress plugins allow you to do the following:

• Install themes, drag-and-drop page builders, and templates to personalize your site’s look.

• Monetize your blog with Google AdSense or other ad networks.

• Set up an E-commerce store to sell physical or digital products.

• Optimize your site for top SEO performance.

• Collect email subscribers and connect them to email marketing platforms like Mailchimp, MailerLite, or beehiiv.

• Enhance your site’s security by blocking spam comments and preventing unauthorized logins.

• Use Google Site Kit to track performance metrics like search rankings and monthly page views.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, you could do so much more!

If the available plugins still don’t meet your needs, you can hire a developer to create custom apps specifically for your WordPress blog.

Customer Support

Blogger and WordPress don’t offer dedicated customer support teams for technical issues. Instead, they provide detailed documentation and community forums where you can find answers. There are also many YouTube tutorials available to help with common problems.

beehiiv provides multiple support options. It has a well-documented knowledge base with guides covering everything from account setup to troubleshooting. If you don’t want to search through the knowledge base, you can use Buzz, beehiiv’s AI chatbot, to quickly find answers to your questions.

If you prefer video over written content, beehiiv also has a dedicated YouTube channel with step-by-step tutorials to guide you through setting up your account.

Paid beehiiv users get additional perks, including access to an exclusive Slack community where you can ask questions, network with other creators, and share experiences. 

You can also submit support tickets to beehiiv’s customer support team for help with issues you can’t resolve on your own.

Blogger vs. WordPress vs. beehiiv: Pricing

Blogger is completely free to use. All you need is a Google account to start creating and publishing content. The only optional cost is if you decide to purchase a custom domain name, which typically costs $5 to $20 per year.

WordPress is free to use; but since it’s a self-hosted platform, you’ll need to pay for hosting, a domain name, and an SSL certificate. These costs typically add up to $60–$100+ per year.

If you stick to free themes, drag-and-drop builders, and templates, these will be your only expenses. However, if you choose paid versions of these tools, your total costs can increase significantly.

beehiiv offers a free plan that lets you publish unlimited newsletters to up to 2,500 subscribers. You can also customize your beehiiv website page and publish unlimited SEO-optimized blog posts there as well. 

The Scale plan starts at $39/month for 1,000 subscribers and includes growth and monetization tools, beehiiv AI, 3D analytics, and 3 team seats for newsletter collaboration.

The Max pan, starting at $99/month for 1,000 subscribers, removes beehiiv branding, enables audio newsletters, unlocks unlimited team seats, and provides priority live support.

For unlimited subscribers, the Enterprise plan offers custom pricing along with perks like custom onboarding and a dedicated account manager.

Blogger vs. WordPress vs. beehiiv: Pros and Cons

Blogger vs. WordPress vs. beehiiv: Which Is the Best Platform for Making Money?

Ultimately, the platform you choose depends on the level of customization you need and the type of income streams you’re looking to build.

Go with Blogger if you’re looking to create a simple blog where you share your thoughts and aren’t focused on growing a big audience or making significant money. It’s free, easy to use, and perfect for hobbyists who want to blog without dealing with technical details.

Choose WordPress if you want more control to design your blog, optimize it for search engines, or add advanced features like E-commerce. With its huge library of themes and plugins, you can customize almost anything and add any feature you want. 

If your goal is to grow a newsletter-first blog and start earning with minimal technical effort, beehiiv keeps things simple but still gives you powerful tools for growth and monetization. 

beehiiv is easy to use and has built-in features like referral programs, ads, and subscriptions to help you make money. Plus, there’s customer support to back you up when needed.

beehiiv also offers a very generous free plan if you’re looking to start growing an audience and making money online.

Sign up for your beehiiv account today!

Blogger vs. WordPress vs. beehiiv: Frequently Asked Questions

Which is best for earning, Blogger or WordPress?

WordPress is best for earning via Google AdSense and other ad networks, E-commerce shops, memberships, and affiliate marketing. Meanwhile, Blogger only lets you earn via Google Ads.

Is Blogger good for making money?

Yes, Blogger is good for making money via Google AdSense. However, since AdSense pays $2-$5 per 1,000 views, you'll need a lot of traffic on your Blogger site to earn a significant income.

Which blogging platform is best for making money?

WordPress is the best blogging platform for making money. Its extensive plugin library lets you monetize your site in various ways. However, if your focus is on publishing newsletters, beehiiv is the better choice. It offers multiple monetization options, including ads, boosts, and premium subscriptions.

Should I start with Blogger or WordPress?

Choose Blogger if you want a simple website to share your hobbies and passions without focusing on growth and monetization. Go with WordPress if you’re looking to create unique website designs and want better opportunities for growth and earning money.

How to make money with a WordPress blog?

You can make money with a WordPress blog via ads, memberships, digital and physical products, and affiliate marketing.