Domain-mapping in WordPress versus TypePad

Both WordPress and TypePad allow domain-mapping, and both TypePad and WordPress give detailed host-specific or generic instructions for how to apply domain-mapping to your blog, so it’s a straight-forward process. But there are some things you need to keep in mind, though.

WordPress:

  • takes the www out of www.mydomain.com,
    so your blog will show up as http://mydomain.com
  • can map subdomains,
    so you can have something.mydomain.com mapped to one blog and somethingelse.mydomain.com mapped to a different blog
  • Each domain or subdomain mapped costs $10/yr,
    so 1 domain + 1 subdomain would be $20/yr

TypePad:

  • leaves the www in www.mydomain.com,
    so your blog will show up as www.mydomain.com,
    but since your blog resides at username.typepad.com/blogname/ your top banner will default to www.mydomain.com/blogname/
  • can map subdomains
  • domain-mapping is free,
    but only available from TypePad “Plus” account and up, $8.95/mo

At WordPress, since you can have an unlimited number of blogs in your account, there’s no limit to how many blogs you can map to a domain or subdomain, as long as you pay $10 for each mapping. I find that very useful, especially if you intend to add many subdomains for each topic you may be blogging about, or if you want to build a community with different users (=subdomains).

At TypePad, with a “Plus” account you’re limited to a maximum of three blogs and three domains (or one domain and two subdomains or two domains and one subdomain). Starting with a “Pro” account $14.95/mo you can have unlimited number of blogs, and hence an unlimited number of domains/subdomains.

So if money is what matters most, I guess that WordPress would be the obvious choice here.

As far as TypePad goes, I am a bit annoyed with the fact that TypePad maps my domain to www.mydomain.com/blogname/. I would prefer a “clean” mapping as with WordPress, without the “blog” in it. I guess the idea is to separate the blog site from the company site, but what if the blog is what I want to be my company site?

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