Goodbye TypePad, Hello WordPress

I finally moved my blog from TypePad to WordPress. The decision wasn’t that hard since I wasn’t really happy with TypePad for a while. Also, the migration wasn’t bad at all since both TypePad and WordPress offer an import/export functionality that makes it easy to move from one platform to another.

To be fair, TypePad isn’t a bad platform. It just hasn’t kept time with the beat of consumer expectations since 2008. Here are some of the pain points I had with the TypePad platform:

No default mobile web layout (ridiculous!)
Stats are useless
Expensive for what it offers
iPhone app is a joke
No iPad app!

The aforementioned shortcomings didn’t really bother me 18 months ago. But as I started to use my iPhone and iPad more frequently, my blog activities suffered because I couldn’t do anything productive on the blog using those two devices. Given that I was paying $14.95 per month for this service, my expectations were really high and TypePad never measured up.

WordPress.com, on the other hand, has the following going for it:

Default iPhone and iPad layouts (HTML5 goodness!)
A bargain for what you get ($99/year to get the more advanced blogging necessities like domain mapping, …etc.)
Self-hosting option (in case I want to move my blog to my EC2 account.)
Great stats
iPhone and iPad apps
Great tools and widgets

I gotta say, I’m more engaged with my blog now that it’s on WordPress. Granted it’s been only a couple of days since the transition, but I honestly feel more engaged with it. I already have a couple of drafts waiting to be proofread. I’m super comfortable with using the Dashboard and the array of tools available within it.

As for TypePad, I think its failure to keep up with what’s considered platform “standards” is going to hurt it in the long run. With so many blogging platforms competing for our business, I would say WordPress and Tumblr are the only two worth looking into. I have had a media blog on Tumblr for a year now and I love it.

Whatever you do, skip TypePad.