A Good Blog is Hard to Find

credit: davidw on flickr

This post is being written using the hosted version of WordPress.  Writing these first words are easy, compared to the process of figuring out what blog to type them into.

In making this decision, I surveyed some of the most popular blog systems out there, considered my short term and long term needs, evaluated pricing against these needs, and after attempts to assimilate all of this information, jumped in with both feet.

So, here you have a first WordPress.com posting, hosted by Automattic using a free account.  This account won’t stay free for long, I need to add some custom CSS, and change the domain from darrenrush.wordpress.com to darrenrush.com - 2 upgrades that will cost some dough $$.

For a quick snapshot of what I considered, here is the list:

• WordPress - hosted or installed
• Typepad - hosted or installed (installed version called Movable Type)
• Typo - installed
• Blogger - hosted

At many turns I was stuck between 2 less than ideal options.  The first question I asked was whether I needed hosted or installed solution.  While I have space and the experience to install the software, hosting is easier - as long as you have the power to do what you want (or need) to do with the tool.

Hosted or Installed: Hosted

Next, I looked at pricing.  You can setup a free blog or WordPress for free.  However, customizations and hosting on your own domain run about $25 USD per year.  Typepad has a basic service level that for $4.95/month - almost $60/year - but this service level still does not allow you to map your own domain.

WordPress.com or Typepad: WordPress.com

However, now looking at real dollars (if nominal) to host a blog, I reconsidered the installed options.  Could I install one of these platforms and run it on existing servers, and avoid have a new monthly bill?  One my technical requirements for a blog is that it runs on existing database servers that are available in my environment.  In my case this is an open source DB called Postgres.  Typo and Movable Type can both be run on Postgres, however WordPress cannot.  In addition, a review of Typo left me with the sense, that while fully featured, the widget and developer ecosystem around MT and WordPress are much more mature.  A quick survey of widgets for Typepad (Moveable Type) and WordPress showed that WordPress has about 100 widgets available - about twice as many as Typepad.

Installed: Typepad

With three important criteria established, I had to make a decision.  Of course there was no clear winner, so in the end, I made a judgment call.  I decided that I can host on WordPress for now and pay the fees.  In parallel, I will begin lobbying the WordPress community to port this great software to Postgres - hopefully providing me with more deployment options in the future.

Do you think WordPress should be able to run on Postgres?  If so, please Digg this post - that will be your vote in support of this feature request.  We’ll make sure the WP team knows what the community thinks.

Coming Soon: A similar look at Forums