MovableBlog: TypePad: A Review

Nuance 2.0

August 3, 2003

Let's start this off with a disclaimer, shall we? I have an emotional attachment to Movable Type, having used it daily since October 2001, so I'm necessarily biased towards it and its creators, Ben and Mena Trott. I also think Anil Dash is a funny guy. I'll post links to other TypePad reviews here. Feel free to Trackback this post if you have a review. First the not-so-good, then the good. I had the full-meal deal when using the TypePad Beta, so I'm unfamiliar with the experiences of those who chose the Basic or Plus versions at the outset. Looking at the features list, I'm a little surprised that some things that I take for granted in the free version of Movable Type (like per-post options and search & replace) are not in the Basic version of TypePad. Also, Anil, in the title element of his link to the TypePad features, notes that he pays more to host his site than it costs to host at TypePad.com. Well, it would cost more for me to host at TypePad with the level of service I get at Verve Hosting: $10 a month gets me the same 200 MB as TypePad Pro but with email accounts up the wazoo, CGI, addon domains, and 10 GB of bandwidth. Now, granted, I have to setup MT my damn self, or, if I wasn't sufficiently technically inclined, get someone else to do it. The whole point of TypePad is to avoid the installation and configuration hassles. So it's for the reasons that a) I currently pay less to get more, and that the free version of MT does what I need it to that I'm hesitant to move to TypePad. (Of course, there are extras in TypePad that aren't in MT, and hopefully these extras make their way into future versions of MT, pay or otherwise.) However, and this is a pretty big however, there are a ton of webloggers and potential webloggers who are not as technically inclined as myself, and TypePad is very well suited to them. Here's why: Features I didn't try:

Posted by Richard at 1:08

Comments

Hey Richard:

If I use TypePad can I use my own domain, or am I stuck with x.typepad.com?

Thanks for the review!


...Roland

Posted by: Roland Tanglao | August 3, 2003 02:13 PM

They will be offering domain mapping to the Plus and Pro versions, but evidently this feature isn't quite ready yet. According the the chart, Basic users will only have x.typepad.com.

Posted by: Richard | August 3, 2003 02:55 PM

Roland,

The domain mapping is a "Coming Soon" feature for TypePad at either the "plus" or "pro" pricing level.

Posted by: Frank Steele | August 3, 2003 02:58 PM

Also, they have a couple of different domains available, including "x.blogs.com": My beta TypePad site was " http://notd.blogs.com/tdf/ ".

Posted by: Frank | August 3, 2003 02:59 PM

I like the features that TypePad is set to offer, and I'm hoping to see some of them in MT Pro (Mena kinda hinted at this to me at one point).

Right now I'm poor. I host two domains off of my hosting account, I get the space and bandwidth TypePad is offering, I can hack most of those other features into my MT, and right now I pay $6/month for all this.

Did I want TypePad, yes, do I still want it? yes. Am I sad that it seems overpriced? Yes.

Posted by: halla | August 3, 2003 03:15 PM

I actually think TypePad is priced just about right. $5/month for basic blogging is a good deal when you compare it to Blogger, which is free, but has far, far less features. $9/month for Photo Albums is, like I said, not outrageous, but I kind of wich there was a $5 version of, say, just photo albums or photoblogging. Looking at the features list, though, it doesn't seem like an adequate compromise could have been reached. In other words, it's unclear what feature would in the Basic package would have to be taken out to make a "Basic II" that included Photo Albums.

Radio Userland is cheaper, and probably offers the same amount of (if possibly differnet) features, so, in a sense, they are TypePad's prime competitor. Does Radio Userland have something similar to TypePad's Photo Albums?

Posted by: Richard | August 3, 2003 03:33 PM

I have similar problems with the hosting. I waste 6 GB bandwith per month, of course my website isn't flash enable, it's pure and extreme css + XHTML, but i have some images and files that i upload... notes that it will be difficult for people to have an popular TypePad, even if they have a Photolog, wich is extremely bandwith consumer...

A friend of mine started a photolog and on the second month she broke her bandwith limith (5GB) in just 2 weeks! that means no website till end of month.

3 GB bandwith it's ok for weblogs wich are non so popular, I think 5 GB it will be ok.

Posted by: mini-d | August 4, 2003 05:38 AM

Thanks Richard for clarification about the domain name thing. I am part of the beta too but I didn't spot it!

Posted by: Roland Tanglao | August 5, 2003 03:11 PM

Radio Userland does not have anything similar to TypePad's Photo Albums.

Posted by: TweezerMan | August 6, 2003 04:12 AM

Type Pad is really good, and looks fine. You didn't mention their (PRO) remote entry -- you can be on some yahoo/hotmail email account, and send an email to update your blog. I quite like this option.

But it IS overpriced, relative to Blogger. I'm now using the new Google 2.0 (beta) toolbar button, which includes a nice Blog Post (orange B) button to quickly, really quickly, add a post to your blog.

I'm prolly NOT going to pay to keep using TypePad right now. (Ben & Mena seem like really great folks, too -- they were right on top of a lot of bugs in a lot of ways.)

Posted by: Tom Grey | August 8, 2003 12:55 AM

Hey Richard!

Thanks for the inclusion. There was a slight change to my blog. Here is the new link to my review:

http://lizasabater.typepad.com/burundanga/2003/08/about_typepad.html

Also, to answer one of TOM GREY's comments: You can set up a QUICKPOST button on your browser with both TP and MT. It does not only allow you to post rapidly. If you are posting about a site with trackback or pings, it will encode it on your article automatically and immediately send it when you post.

Cheers,
liza sabater
===================
http://culturekitchen.com
http://lizasabater.typepad.com


Posted by: Liza Sabater | August 10, 2003 12:14 PM